Guest Editorial: Community-Based Programs Serving Fathers

Abstract

Community-based programs have been an important vehicle for the promotion of father involvement in the lives of children over the past decade. There is little available research, however, on the effectiveness of these programs in promoting involvement, or on the experiences of men and staff in building such programs. Despite the emergence of a new generation of federally-funded, state-funded, and locally-funded programs for fathers and families, a lack of available research means researchers and practitioners run the risk of losing valuable insight to inform better practices for fathering. Devoting a special issue of Fathering to these efforts is our attempt to make already existing programs more visible, to enhance dialogue between researchers and practitioners on evaluation and curriculum issues, and to celebrate the efforts of many "on the ground" who continue to seek ways to improve their efforts with a diverse population of fathers and father figures. The development of community-based programs and services targeting men in family life has significantly outpaced the available research literature on such programs. Such programs have emerged as a response to concerns about poor fathering and its contribution to social problems, as well as due to a desire to assist men in meeting the significant challenges of contemporary parenting. Fagan and Hawkins (2001) commented on the need for "improved clinical and educational strategies to better support and promote fatherhood" and also encouraged "collaborative relationships between practitioners, researchers, and policymakers on behalf of fathers and families" (p. 15). This collection of articles presents a portrait of the diverse programs targeting fathers across different contexts and the lessons they provide for furthering the linkages between supportive policies, programmatic interventions, and well-designed research and evaluation efforts. In the issue that follows, we are pleased to present six papers dealing with different aspects of community services for fathers and father figures in regions throughout the United States and Canada. These include papers which address what really works in fathering programs based on the most rigorous randomized design evaluations, an evaluation of the impact of a fathering newsletter as a cost-effective education tool, a critical assessment of men's mental health concerns in responsible fathering programs, and a qualitative exploration of the social service organizations that offer assistance tailored to young fathers' needs or those responsible for child and youth protection. We also present a case study that explores the creation of collaborative community partnerships in Milwaukee, and a clinically informed case model focused on increasing outreach, connection, and services to low-income non-custodial fathers in Connecticut. Bronte-Tinkew, Burkhauser, and Metz review key findings from random assignment design fatherhood programs to answer questions about "what works." We emphasize that while correlational research can suggest possibilities for increasing father involvement, investments in rigorous experimental research of programmatic interventions are needed. The gold standard for evaluation research is classical experimental design, which requires randomized assignment to a control group and at least one comparison treatment group. This gold standard is challenging and expensive to achieve, but to get answers strong enough to push policy forward and inform program development we need to invest in randomized control trials. This review of promising practices emerging from the most rigorous of the evaluations of fatherhood programs ought to improve the quality of our efforts. In their article, Brotherson, Holmes, and Bouwhuis evaluate the effectiveness of the Father Times newsletter for fathers and father figures of kindergarten children, and present preliminary results suggesting that regardless of father/father figure age, socio-economic status, or number of children, fathers perceive changes in their parenting attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors (including father-child relationship quality) as a result of reading the newsletter. …