Our history
The Fatherhood Institute (registered charity 1075104) came into being on 7 January 2008, a successor organisation to Fathers Direct – which was established in 1999 with the aim of promoting good practice in public services and industry, in recognition of the aspiration of fathers to be more involved in their children’s lives and in response to the increasing body of research that demonstrates the importance of father-child and mother-father relationships to children.
Several core team members of the Fatherhood Institute were founder members of Fathers Direct. Our chief executive, Rob Williams, is a former Children’s Commissioner.
Over the years, our funders have included Department for Education and Skills – Parenting Fund, Strengthening Families, Teenage Pregnancy Unit, Offender Learning and Skills Unit; Department of Health – Section 64; BT; Lloyds TSB; Children in Wales; Children in Scotland; Tudor Trust; Barrow Cadbury Trust; Big Lottery; Venturesome; Baring Foundation.
For more details on key stages in our history, look at these documents:
Our history: The book that started it all (1997)
Our history: International Fatherhood Summit (2003)
Our history: 21st Century Dad – a key speech and poem (2004)
Our history: Fatherhood makes it onto Children’s Centre agenda (2006)
