Useful organisations

The Fatherhood Institute
The Fatherhood Institute provides general and specialist training in engaging with fathers, including 1, 2 & 3 day (accredited) courses in working with young fathers. Hit the Ground Crawling – the UK version of a groundbreaking American ante-natal peer support programme for dads-to-be – has been found to be very effective with young fathers. As well as Invisible Fathers, we produce a Poster Pack to help make settings visibly more father-inclusive, and a Fatherhood Photo Pack, which can be used as a discussion tool with young and other dads, mums, children and also for staff training. We also publish case studies of projects working with fathers and ‘mainstreaming’ a father-inclusive approach to work with families: click here.

Young People in Focus
Formerly the Trust for the Study of Adolescence, Young People in Focus exists to help those who work with young people and families to provide better services. Its Supporting Young Fathers microsite aims to spread the word about good practice and innovative approaches to work with young dads in England. Through the site, based on Dr Nigel Sherriff’s 2007 publication, Supporting Young Fathers – Examples of Promising Practice but including more recent updates, you can access case studies, tips and ideas on all aspects of working with young fathers. There is also a Supporting Young Fathers Network Forum.

Working with Men
Working with Men offers a wide variety of resources relevant to work with young dads, and young men who are not yet dads. These include courses for expectant fathers, an Expectant Fathers Training Pack to enable you to run such courses yourselves, and an Expectant Fathers DVD; a booklet ‘Young father? Or about to become one?’, which you can download from the website or buy in batches of 500 including inserts relevant to your local area; a set of Young Dads posters; and a range of board games designed for use with young men and women, including ‘The Fatherhood Game’ and ‘The Relationship Game’.

The BabyFather Initiative
Barnardo’s BabyFather Initiative engages directly with ethnic minority fathers, many of them young, offering a range of parenting and other community based activities and services; and also supplying relevant training and consultancy services direct to professionals.

Young Fathers Initiative
This initiative, set up by Working with Men, runs the Baby Father Accused Campaign – aimed at young men accused of being a father when they believe they are not, and the women doing the accusing. The campaign emphasises to young men the importance of using condoms in order to avoid such disputes, and provides information for both parties on how to handle themselves and arrange for DNA tests. Resources are available from the website.

Young Fathers Network
The Young Fathers Network, based in Devon, is a free online network through which young dads and their workers can access advice, pass on information and check out what services are available near them.

Fathers Plus at Children North East, Fathers Resource Centre
A website with a supporting organisation based in the North East that provides information and training to organisations hoping to include men, and young men, in their services.

Practitioner Resources

Children North East Fathers Plus ‘It’s A Young Dad’s Life’ calendar http://www.fathersplus.org/catalog/dads-and-kids-calendar-its-young-dads-life

Children North East Fathers Plus Dad’s Guide To…’ cards http://www.fathersplus.org/catalog/dads-guide-cards

ContinYou ‘I’m A Better Dad Now’ report about setting up two young dads pilot projects

Dad Cards – credit card-sized, foldout information cards for you to hand out to dads. Maternity cards and Early Years cards are available from Dad Info; cards for a range of black and minority ethnic dads (African-Caribbean, Muslim (English-language), West African (French-language), Somali, Bengali) are available from the Fatherhood Institute.

DNA Mix Young Fathers Project – London-based project offering young dads skills training in music, film and radio, and showcasing some of the results on its website.

Every Child Matters Teenage Pregnancy website including latest teenage pregnancy statistics and strategy documents.

Hello Dad – an Australian DVD about infant communication. A great resource to help young dads understand how their babies communicate long before they can talk.

Relate for Parents virtual support for parental relationships – online chat service and texting service.

Supporting Young Fathers: examples of promising practice by Nigel Sherriff

Teachers TV ‘School Matters – Teenage Fathers’ 30 minute film featuring three teenage dads from Sunderland.

UK Youth curriculum toolkit ‘Young Men Understanding Fatherhood’ for running a fatherhood programme with young men aged 13 – 19.