Back Row (L to R): Catherine Thomas (NNPS Key Contact), Aldonis Grimes, Constance Walker.
Front Row (L to R): Billie Osborne-Fears (Executive Director, Starting Point), Rebekah Dorman (Director, Invest in Children).
Strengthen Leadership for Partnerships: Father-Friendly Environments
Getting more fathers and father figures involved in their young children’s education was the focus of the Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) initiative in 24 pre-kindergarten sites in Cuyahoga County. The project, under the direction of Starting Point, moved quickly from a list of tips for creating a father-friendly environment to the development of a resource manual and a November workshop on the topic. When the manual, Creating a Father-Friendly Environment in the Early Childhood Setting, was completed and distributed, the program’s coordinator for partnerships urged the action teams in the two dozen UPK school sites to assess their situations and host events to encourage the men in children’s lives to get involved at the school and in their children’s education. The teams brainstormed creative ways to increase involvement, and conducted Donuts with Dudes, Bring Your Dad to School Day, and Read To Me, Daddy, and other activities.
In addition to activities conducted by individual schools in this project, the Children’s Museum of Cleveland promoted father-friendly programs for all pre-kindergarten programs. The museum hosted two Dads Night Out events for dads, granddads, uncles, male siblings, and other father figures with their children for dinner, exhibits, and other good times. The Children’s Museum also visited 11 pre-kindergarten programs to conduct special sessions in science and literacy for dads and others. As a result, the UPK sites documented over 300 males involved, representing large increases over prior years. The activities helped dads and others see what students were learning in these young grades and how to interact in positive ways with their children about growing and learning. The Pre-K programs also seized the moment to recruit volunteers with information about roles for those who wanted to stay actively involved. The schools reported much more involvement by fathers and others at these “father-friendly” sites.
Encourage Districts and Schools to Improve their Partnership Programs: Facilitating ATPs
The UPK coordinator worked to ensure that all 24 sites were implementing the NNPS model, with ATPs, action plans, and good goal-linked activities. This was done with workshops, trainings, technical assistance, and communications via telephone, e-mail, and meetings. In the first year of the UPK project, the basics were put in place. In the second year, we selected the theme of Involving Fathers in Partnerships (see above) to advance our work. Some of the school teams were concerned that there would not be many fathers interested, but with creative planning, the ATPs were able to create father-friendly sites. At the end of the year, schools came together to share their work. Each school created a poster that featured an activity conducted during the year. 16 of the 24 schools featured father-friendly activities and the others were working toward that goal with plans for the next school year.
See the Starting Point Promising Partnership Practice on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories.Visit the organization at http://www.startingpoint.org.