The involvement of a Dad or ‘Father Figure’ is significant in helping children achieve better results at school, grow up healthy and safe and form better relationships in life as they grow and become parents themselves.
Traditionally, parenting and maternity services and schools and learning have struggled to engage effectively with fathers and men, but in County Durham the tide is beginning to turn.
County Durham Sure Start has teamed up with Children North East Fathers Plus to make possible workforce reform and activities to include fathers and men across County Durham.
Over the course of 2007/08 a number of exciting initiatives will be taking place across the County. These include:
• Celebration 2007: Fatherhood Past and Present to be held at the National Railway Museum in Shildon, Sat October 13th, 2007. (The UK's largest celebration of fatherhood returns to County Durham) • Fun Summer/Autumn programme of activities for dads and family men in schools and children's centres across all the cluster areas • Support and training for Children’s Centre Cluster Managers • Training sessions on including men for all Children's Centre staff • Support for the Durham Including Men practitioner network and website • New Durham specific practitioner resources • Publicity campaign across the county - 'Every Dad Matters in County Durham'
To find out more about how your work can benefit from this funded programme of training, support and activities contact your local Children’s Centre Cluster Manager or visit www.IncludingMen.com/durham
Children North East has been actively working to improve the lives of children and young people in the North East region since 1891. The Fathers Plus project has over ten years experience of working to include fathers and men in a range of settings.
Innovative partnership work in Durham has achieved national recognition. In 2005, the Minister for Children Young People and Families visited fathers from Ferryhill and Wear Valley to find how their families were benefiting from inclusion in Sure Start local programmes. In 2006 the work of the partnerships was cited as an example of good practice in the national Sure Start Children’s Centre Practice Guidance DfES (2006).
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