Responding to fathers in a different way: Developing policy and practice with young fathers
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded funding by the Leeds Social Sciences Institute to continue our work with young fathers.
The overall aim of the “Responding to Young Fathers” (RYD) project is to build on findings emerging from the ESRC funded Following Young Fathers (FYF) study, and related findings and analysis of the FYF data from the affiliated Men, Poverty and Lifetimes of Care (MPLC) study. Dr Anna Tarrant, will lead the project in collaboration with local and national policy and practice partners between May 2016 and May 2017.
The project consists of three interrelated work packages that broadly seek to extend and improve policy and practice with young fathers nationally; to increase recognition of the multiple challenges faced by young fathers; and to provide them with increasing opportunities to engage in advocacy and collective support.
In the first package, the work of the London based Young Dads Collective (YDC) will be rolled out to the north of England in collaboration with the Family and Child Care Trust and Leeds City Council.
The second package will improve continuity of support for vulnerable young offender fathers when they are released from custody, back into the community. Part of the focus will be to improve inter-agency collaboration between those working within and beyond the secure estate.
The final package will review existing training provision, initially in the North of England, to see where there may be gaps. It will also develop and pilot a one-day training module for practitioners working with young fathers. Once the training has been piloted there will be an opportunity to roll it out nationally via the existing FYF networks, with the support of key organisations such as Working With Men and the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange.
