Kiersten Beigel: Good afternoon, everybody.
This is Kiersten Beigel.
I'm with the Office of Head Start, and I would love
to welcome you this afternoon (or midday or morning,
as the case may be for some of you).
I'm going to be your moderator for this webinar,
"Father Engagement is Everybody's Business",
and I am absolutely thrilled to be able to do that.
We have a lot going on this week at the Office of Head Start,
as you know since you registered for this webinar.
This is part of a series of resources/events
that are happening the week before Father's Day,
and we're really excited to be able
to offer the field some new resources to support the work
that we do in partnering with fathers in our programs --
Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
So, before we get going I'm going to --
let's do a little tech talk here.
I wanted to remind you you can use your computer speakers
to hear the webinar.
If you can't hear the presenters you can, of course, always attempt
to turn on your computer speakers.
And if you're having problems with your speakers,
or they're not working, you can --
we've got a phone number here in the public chat that Natalie,
who's our webinar coordinator, put up for everybody.
So, you can see that in the public chat.
It's a number with a dial in that you can call
in if you're having trouble.
I also wanted to direct you to Sam.
Sam has his own tab next to the public-private tab.
There's a Sam tab.
And if you are having any trouble, any kind of technical issues,
you can do some private chatting with Sam and he'll help you out.
So, that's our tech talk.
I wanted to tell you that we have a pretty interactive session
for you today.
We're really excited.
We have a pretty laid back group of folks, who are very passionate
about their work with fathers, to say the least.
And I think they're going to keep it pretty conversational so this --
we may be doing a little webinar free styling here,
a little different than the usual style of webinar.
And they're also excited to get to know a little bit about you.
We'll be doing some polling questions, asking you to weigh in,
and they'll guide you when it's time to do that.
So, now I would like to give you a chance to hear from them.
They're going to introduce themselves, and we'll start
with David who is in the upper left hand corner here.
And if you guys could just tell us who you are and a little bit
about your connection with this work.
David Jones: Okay, thank you Kiersten.
Welcome everyone.
I'm so excited that you're all participating
with us on this webinar.
My name is David Jones.
I am the Fatherhood Specialist here in the Office of Head Start.
I co-lead all of our fatherhood efforts with Kiersten Beigel.
And I have about 15 to 20 years
of experience providing services directly, indirectly for fathers,
individual work, group work, you name it, within the context
of Early Head Start, Head Start,
and also as a consultant to other programs.
So welcome.
John Hornstein: Okay, I'm John Hornstein.
I'm on the upper right hand side, the one with the glasses up there.
I'm delighted to be working with David and Ed and Kiersten on this.
I work at the National Center for Parent, Family,
and Community Engagement and have been doing fatherhood work
for over 30 years.
And kind of backed into it when -- at a time when --
I remember very distinctly the first time I said to myself,
"I've got to do more about this," was at a conference
when the keynote speaker was asked, well,
what do you do with fathers then?
And the speaker said, "well,
nothing because they don't show up."
So, that got me not laid back,
as Kiersten said, but quite passionate.
So, I'll move onto Ed.
[Foreign Language]
Edwin Cheromiah: This is -- my name is Edwin Cheromiah,
and I just greeted you
in our Pueblo Laguna language, the Keres language.
I was just wishing everybody a good afternoon.
Also again, I've been with the Pueblo Laguna Fatherhood Program
through the Laguna Head Start for the past eight years.
Way back in 2004, these men -- a few men got together and wanted
to have fathers more engaged.
So it went through PFS first of all,
but then finally came into Head Start.
That's where I've been,
that's where I was hired for this position.
And I continue to offer services for dads, you know,
resources to different programs that we have here in Laguna,
and also offering them just the support
that sometimes fathers need to move forward.
And it's a pleasure to be with you today.
Kiersten: So how we're really --
you might have heard some of our muted voices.
We were really excited to see folks rolling in, and we have well
over 1,000 people register for this, which is very telling
about how interested people are in father engagement.
So, today what we're going to do is about an hour and a half.
And I'm going to monitoring chat.
So, as questions come up along the way, we might stop and take some
of those, or I might make some decisions
about holding those towards the end.
But, what we're going to do is reflect kind of on where we are now
and where we hope to go in building supportive partnerships
with fathers, think a little bit about sort of the movement --
of the fatherhood movement and how things have evolved in Head Start
with regards to father engagement.
And we want to renew our enthusiasm and commitment to this work.
We want to identify some ways to build father engagement
that is systemic, integrated and comprehensive,
and we'll talk more about what that means.
And we hope to share some new resources for you.
Some of the resources that are coming out this week
that you may use to improve your program practice with fathers.
So, without further ado, I turn it over to David.
David: Hi, so we're going to begin with our first polling question,
which is a two part question.
We want to get a feel for, you know, the participants
on the call today, so we'd like to ask that everyone participate.
So, Natalie can you please go ahead and launch the poll?
[ Background Noise ]
David: And the first question is, what is your role
within the Head Start program?
So, we'd like for everyone to sort of take a moment and click
on the choice that best fits the role that you have
in the program within where you work.
If - obviously, if you're not
within a Head Start program you can choose one of the other options.
We'll give you a few seconds to do that.
[ Background Noise ]
David: And Natalie, I'm not sure in terms of time,
but give them a couple more seconds
and then we can take a look at the results.
[ Background Noise ]
David: Okay, can we see results from the first question?
Wow, so it looks like about 26 percent of you are family
and community partnership staff,
11 percent are parent involvement staff, and then just sort of mix
of sort of directors, sort of leadership in the program.
We actually have some focused male involvement staff, health staff.
So, this is great and this sort of connects with the title
of this webinar, which is, you know,
"Father Engagement is Everybody's Business"
so this is really nice to see.
So, can we move now to the next polling question?
[ Background Noise ]
David: Okay, it's going to come up in a second.
[ Background Noise ]
David: So, what is your gender?
[ Background Noise ]
David: Take a few moments, make your selection.
[ Background Noise ]
David: And the one thing I want to say
about the previous polling question is, again,
irrespective of your role within the program, you know,
everyone can make a meaningful contribution to working with,
supporting and engaging fathers.
John: Uh huh.
David: That's one of the things that we really want
to underscore with today's webinar.
Okay, can we see the results please, Natalie?
[ Background Noise ]
David: It takes a couple of seconds.
>> David: Ah.
>> John: Wow.
>> John: You know that leaves a certain percentage unaccounted for.
>> David: Yeah.
>> John: But still, the proportion is pretty interesting isn't it?
>> David: It is.
It is and I mean this is really important for us
because again we want to make sure that we're being thoughtful
in terms of how we respond, how we present and what we're saying.
We have a sense that you know our programs are predominantly
populated by female staff, but we just want to make sure
that we're being thoughtful and sensitive to the entire audience.
So, thank you so much for your participation.
Natalie, you can go ahead and close that poll.
[ Background Noise ]
John: What it also says David is the majority of conversations
with fathers are between female staff and fathers.
David: That's right.
John: Yeah.
David: That's right.
And so, it speaks to and underscores the importance of,
sort of, what happens when those opportunities present themselves
in terms of what we do with them.
So, we're waiting for the next slide.
And while we're waiting, basically what we're going
to do moving forward is just going to be really reflecting
on fatherhood and Head Start and Early Head Start and sort
of talking a little bit about the historical evolution
of the fatherhood movement within Head Start.
[ Background Noise ]
David: Seems -- we may be having a little technical difficulty.
John: I've -- David: Do you see the slide?
John: Yeah, but I clicked on the tab
at the top that'll put me back to father engagement.
I did -- David: Okay.
So, I just did the same thing.
So, I mean there's a lot that we can cover to address, you know,
why fatherhood evolved in the way that it has.
You know, we can sort of ask ourselves some questions
about the role the women played.
And let me say that women have been exceptional in their understanding
and support of the movement to support father engagement.
And I think were it not for their initial insight and their fortitude
and support, I'm not certain we would have evolved
to where we have today.
John: Yeah.
David: You know, they had to allow men in.
John: Right.
David: And then what about the men?
John: Yeah.
David: I think they had to dare to be different and step
out of their comfort zone, but what is important is involving fathers.
Initially, we got to a place where in the awareness stage what
that meant was that we were not only asking more from fathers,
but we were also asking more from programs and from staff.
So, that means everybody had to be a little bit different in terms
of the way that they were working and what they did.
In the second stage, the acknowledging stage, you know,
programs -- we began to believe that programs needed sort
of an adjunct or separate services for fathers in order for them
to be effective, in order for them to meaningful.
And I think at the time, John and Ed
if you agree, that was appropriate.
John: Sure.
David: Until we began to see what happened
when the father involvement staff left the organization.
You know sometimes the -- all the great effort, the great work
that had gone into producing this program sort of went
out the door with that individual.
So, we've evolved now in our thinking to not only expect
that staff build relationships with fathers and that fathers engage.
We are suggesting that fully integrating services for fathers
as a component of overall services is not only appropriate,
but it can contribute to sustainable service provision
when we make fatherhood everybody's business.
John: Uh huh.
David: And it's important to note
that initially you know some fathers were hesitant,
almost reluctant, for very valid reasons.
You know there were some cultural reasons for their distance
from educational programs as well as some of the systemic stuff
that we're all aware of.
But, in some cases we have fathers
who have received incredible support and guidance
from their own fathers, and they drew from that experience,
and it was easy to really work with them and talk to them
about what was important for them as fathers.
And then we had the other end of the spectrum with fathers
that did not have that experience that were committed
to doing something different for their children
than what they received.
John, would you like to say -- John: Yeah.
David: Anything about the connections and opportunities
for connections at the different developmental stages?
John: Yeah sure.
I mean I think this is a great kind of reflection on the history.
And I -- the other day I was wondering, you know,
what did fathers themselves have to do with this change?
And I think fathers themselves are expecting more of programs
because society as a whole has changed.
But, I think, one of the things about expectations is
that it may feel really different at different ages, what --
the kind of connection you can make with a father
when he brings an infant to a program,
or when you do a home visit, is quite different
than that father whose thinking
of their four year old as a ball player.
So, I think there is a lot of complexity to this process.
But I also think that this idea that somehow everybody --
that full engagement means really thinking about every aspect
of the program as being something that fathers are involved with
and that it's not a distinct and separate thing.
I think that's an important thing.
At the same time there may be some things that are distinctly
for fathers, and those shouldn't end necessarily.
David: That's a really good point.
>> Yeah. David: So, as we consider what we mean or, sort of,
what we're thinking about when we talk about moving from involvement
to engagement, as you can see from this slide.
You know a lot of times, in my experience sort of being
in a program, sort of leading the evolution of a program
that became more father friendly, consulting with other programs
that were beginning or attempting to start fatherhood initiatives.
Programs tend to gravitate to do what comes easy
or what satisfies program's goals
of actually having a fathers' event.
And that's not to say that these events are not meaningful
and they don't provide opportunities for connectedness,
but tying the event to a process
that facilitates ongoing opportunities for connectedness
and relationship building is the key with the goal in mind
of learning about how you know fathers think and feel
about their role as parents and what's important to them
in relationship to their child's development.
You know, we are at a place where we want staff to extend themselves
and seek opportunities to connect.
There's so many routines and complimentary supports
within Head Start that provide opportunities to connect
with fathers that can result in systemic, integrated
and comprehensive services, as shown on this slide.
You know, we encourage you to dig
into the resources that's being released this week
and begin assessing your programs' current services, the intersections
and or opportunities for connections with fathers, you know,
at times of pickup and drop off.
You know, if families transition
and then I know there's this process where a lot
of families transition into Head Start or Early Head Start initially
in home-based and they move
into a center-based option if that available.
There's a significant change in the amount of time that you have
to communicate with families when they're in home-based juxtaposed
to center-based during pickup and drop off.
So, staff have to be really crafty about seizing the moments
and taking advantage of those opportunities
to communicate with families.
John: Can you go back?
David: Sure.
John: Is it possible to go back?
David: Of course.
John: Because I want to put an X right there, alright.
David: Okay.
John: And there's some interesting research on mothers and fathers
when they drop off kids at childcare.
And one of things they've found is that after a problem, I'm sure many
of you have seen situations where the child kind
of has a hard time transitioning in and cries and both the parent
and the child have difficulty.
So, in this research they called up both mothers and fathers
like 10 minutes or so after they dropped the child off
and what they found was that when it was a problematic one,
when it was a separation issue, both mothers
and fathers were still upset.
They were still really concerned.
The difference was, was that the mothers typically had somebody
to talk to about it and the fathers didn't.
So, you know, what David said about these particular times
to make a connection, that time when the,
with the difficult drop off, that may be a great time
to build a connection with a father.
Now, you can move the slide.
David: Make a point.
John: I just wanted to use the X. David: This is yours, John.
John: Okay, yeah.
So, and this kind of gets to what I was talking about,
is these barriers to involvement and engagement are different.
So, involvement is, like, what's getting in the way as far
as just a physical thing, you know?
Is it transportation?
Is it ability to make it to the program?
It's all kinds of these almost physical kind of barriers,
whereas the barriers to true engagement, to a true partnership
with fathers is really more internal.
It's more, what am I bringing to these relationships?
What do I believe that the father believes
about the program or about child rearing?
So, it's more this internal stuff that's in the way
of fully engaging with fathers.
And so, when we get to professional development,
that's what we're going to want to think about.
So, you know, what is in the way of a father walking
across the threshold into a program or actually participating
in a meeting when there's an issue?
So, I think that we're moving to thinking in a deeper way
about how we form these partnerships.
So, yeah, so now we can move to the research.
David: Well John, before we move
to the research slide -- John: Yeah, yeah.
David: I would just like to add a little conversation
about this last bullet.
John: Okay.
Oh, you're using the star.
I see. David: Getting fancy here.
You know this is where a lot of the work really happens with staff
as it relates to professional development when we start
to think about the barriers.
John: Yeah.
David: I think it's important for us to really acknowledge
and accept the fact that it is difficult
and that it may take time and effort.
You know in the fatherhood resource that we're releasing today
on the ECLKC on page 22 there's really nice quotes
from a staff member that speaks to her beliefs about the father's role
and who she felt she should be talking to about child development.
And how with good staff training, peer support
and supervision she was able to change her belief system and begin
to look at other personal and professional biases
that were affecting her work with fathers.
John: Yeah, yeah.
That's -- David: I think that's just a really important point
to make that we know that this work there's some complex issues.
And moving from one place
to the next will take some time, energy and effort.
John: Yeah.
And David, so much of that stuff thus sets the beliefs
about what my role as a parent or my role in communicating
to a parent about which issues is pretty deep stuff.
We're not necessarily conscious of it.
We just do it.
David: Right.
John: It's something that's culturally formed in us.
And so, I think some of it is just acknowledging that
and bringing it to the surface.
So, yeah it's a really good point.
David: And the trust that has to be involved in terms
of the relationship with your supervisor to get to a place
where you're actually beginning to wrestle with some of those issues.
John: Exactly, yeah.
David: Okay.
John: Okay, so the research says a lot and to try to put the research
on fatherhood on one slide is very difficult.
And before I get into this, I'd like to say
that this might feel a little offensive
to some people, and that's okay.
But, part of it is that this doesn't say anything
about women really.
And when I say well, fathers make important contributions
to children's development.
Well that doesn't mean that mothers don't make the same contributions,
or that mothers in some cases make the same contributions
that fathers do, or some fathers that mothers do.
So, I think this you know it's not as like you know one --
two sided as it may seem.
So, I just want to you know make that disclaimer first
because I think this can start feeling like oh, dads do this
and mothers do this when, in fact, it gets mixed
up a lot more than we might think.
The first bullet is men are fully capable
of nurturing young children.
We know that.
We know that throughout history.
Men have nurtured young children.
In some societies men play a larger role in the nurturance.
In many societies that's changing, but men's brains respond
to a babies cry the same way women's brains do.
The same parts of the brain get activated when they hear a cry.
Society has helped them figure out what to do when they hear that cry,
but the neurological phenomenon is the same.
Men naturally raise their voices to a higher pitch
when they're talking to infants.
Of course, if you ask them whether they are they might say
"no, I'm not doing that".
But, then they go "ooh yeah, [inaudible]".
So, you know there are things that men are very capable
of nurturing young children.
Another point on this one is that men tend to look more nurturant
with young children when there aren't women there.
That when there's not, and I would attribute it to well, you know,
there's some role definition going on here and I'm going
to you know play this role.
But, we find in general that when there aren't women near,
men show more nurturance.
The second bullet, and this could go on and on and on,
and some of this material is in the guide that David referred to,
fathers make important varied contributions
to children's development, regulation and self-control.
There -- the way they play with young children causes children
to actually control their impulses a little more
or know what the limits of that are.
We -- you know there's this discussion of fathers tend
to play more roughly with their children,
and sometimes mothers get a little nervous about that,
or even Head Start staff get a little nervous about that.
And certainly we don't want that to go too far and --
but at the same time a certain amount of that is --
helps the child gain self-regulation.
Language development, well men tend to make children work harder
when they say something.
And the classic example is when the toddler goes to the refrigerator
and goes "ju", like that, the mother opens up the refrigerator,
gets a cup and pours juice whereas the father goes "what?"
And then the child goes "juice".
And the father goes "oh, you want some juice".
And so, like I said that's in general.
Some mothers are going to be more like fathers that way,
some fathers more like mothers, but in general kids
in the toddler period anyway have to work harder with their language.
Same is true for cognitive and emotional development.
Fathers have a distinct impact on that.
That active play with fathers, nurturant play,
actually supports cognitive and emotional development
and there's pretty strong research evidence to support that.
It, the -- in fact, the relationship between,
this is a different piece of research, but the relationship
between a father and a child is not necessarily measured
by whether the child goes to the father for security.
Certainly in good relationships that happens.
But, a better measure, better predictor of the relationship
between a father and a child is how they play together.
So, that's something that we want to encourage.
And then the final bullet is well,
it's good for a lot of other things too.
When fathers are involved, when other men are involved in the lives
of mother's children, then mothers can be better mothers.
They can mother more effectively and some
of that is economic, of course.
Some of it is, as with any of us when we've got the support
of another person, we can do our jobs better.
Fathers themselves report that when they're involved
with their children, when they're engaged with their children,
they feel better about themselves.
And that's almost self-explanatory and then society as a whole,
people that are engaged in fathering and men who are engaged
in fathering engage in less crime.
They're more productive members of society
and there's a number of outcomes.
So, that's a lot of the research in a nutshell and I don't think
that most people on this call need to be convinced of this in any way.
But, it's nice to have some of these ideas so that we can kind
of deepen our understanding of what the effect of fathers is
and what the effect of being involved in children's lives
and their programs is on fathers.
[ Background Noise ]
John: Oh. Yeah go ahead David, yeah.
David: So, with this particular slide what we kind of wanted
to do was to have our participants that have engaged in a little bit
of interactive exercise.
Sort of, if you can, if you're willing,
take a look at this picture and then just type into the chat sort
of what you see in this picture.
We just kind of want to get a feel for sort of is there anything
that strikes you as you're looking at this father and this child?
So, if you could take a moment to type into it.
I think we're going to use the public chat.
So, type into the chat your sort of reactions
when you see this picture.
So, we'll take a few minutes to have you do that.
[ Background Noise ]
David: John, is there anything else you wanted to say while they're --
while we're waiting for someone maybe to type a --
John: Well, the picture is so compelling.
I hate to distract people.
But, I would -- if anything I've said about the research was --
struck you as gee I don't really -- I'd like to hear more about that,
I would direct people to the guide because there's a section
of the guide that kind of summarizes the research on fathers,
in particular the contribution they make to children's development.
David: Okay, well it doesn't look like we have any brave souls.
Oh, whoa here we go.
John: Okay.
David: There is -- thank you so much Lada, a dear friend
of mine, former colleague.
Well, hopefully she still considers herself a colleague.
John: She's -- she felt sorry felt for you and had to write something.
David: I know, right.
She sees a picture of the loving father with his child.
John: Uh huh.
David: Very interesting.
Now, is there anyone else out there that sees something similar
or something different that would be willing
to share it with the group?
We need one brave soul.
Sam Gourlay: Actually this is Sam Gourlay [assumed spelling].
Unfortunately, we're having a little bit of an issue
with public chat right now.
So, there are a lot of people that are airing wonderful comments,
but they're unable to get them into the public chat area.
I apologize for this.
John: Okay.
David: Can you see them, Sam?
Can you see them?
Sam: Yeah.
I'm going to try to relate them through the private chat.
Thanking everyone for directing them to me.
I'll try to push them in.
David: Awesome, thank you.
John: Great, great.
Well maybe we can come back to that and move on with the slides.
You want to do that David or?
David: Yeah, that works.
John: Yeah.
David: So, in this slide it's going to be an opportunity for Ed,
John and myself to kind of weigh in a little bit.
John: Yeah.
David: I particularly like this slide because it is illustrative
of our expanding definition of the father's role.
We've completely moved away from men thinking of themselves
as solely financial providers.
Each of these roles have specific meanings
to fathers given their past experiences, where they are
in their current lives, where they are going
and of course their maturity level.
And I'll just start with one of them and give John
and Ed an opportunity to chime in.
Advocating, you know, to me, advocating is what should you learn
that you're an advocate for your child.
It's one of those now and forever roles, so John.
John: Yeah, you know it's funny, David, when you picked
on the advocate role because you immediately brought me back
to when my daughter was born and she was
in the neonatal intensive care unit.
And my job as a father at that time was to advocate
for the wellbeing of my child.
You know it was to deal with this healthcare system
that I didn't understand and was really angry at.
And so, you know there's that, there was the nurturer part
of that, the protector part of that, but there was also,
like I had to advocate for my child.
I had to know something, and so I appreciate you starting
with that one.
The one that I pick up on is this friend-playmate
because that's a very complex one.
You know we tell fathers "well,
if you want to be the disciplinarian you can't be your
child's friend.
You got to be the father.
You got to be the discipline, the person that provides discipline."
At the same time, you know, there's a slash playmate and we know
that in the relationships between fathers
and their children is often a very playful relationship
in that the child, as early childhood people we know,
the child learns through the process of play.
So, I think that that one is, that one's got a lot of complexity
to it, but it's one that we know kind of fathers connect with.
So, that's my two cents on that one.
David: Awesome, Ed.
Edwin: Yeah I'm here.
I would -- we had just talked about this earlier,
and I was just talking to one of the fathers here that,
or actually a grandfather, about some of these things.
And we -- you know, a lot of it has to deal with for us,
from a native side, is our core values.
You know, again, you know, building strength on the --
where we incorporate culture, ceremony, traditions and healing
and of course humor is a big part of you know native men
and of course all men in general.
And that -- we are hoping that was going --
some of the teaching that we do through spiritual guidance is
that it help us, you know, increase and strengthen family preservation.
And that's what we're all kind of looking for is offering
that family preservation and for our children to continue
to offer those teachings as they become parents later on,
role modeling some of those things especially.
Again, you know a lot of it is creating a safe place
for men you know to come and talk about these types of things.
And a lot of it sometimes doesn't always take place
in a [Inaudible] setting, but a lot of it also takes part
at our fatherhood program here at Laguna.
Again, it's again all about strengthening, you know,
family relationships, family involvement
and just being a responsible father
that again goes back to the preservation.
David: Okay.
Edwin: You know those are just some of the things that we had talked
about earlier, so -- John: Yeah.
The other day, Ed, you also said something about how in Laguna
that the -- that men transmit certain things culturally
to the kids as the educator in a sense.
Edwin: Right, right and that's -- a lot of the cultural teachings come
in from the [inaudible] side.
It also includes planting because the planting doesn't only include
just planting of a seed in the ground, but it also --
there's a cultural teaching behind
that where you're planting other knowledge into a child
and you know planting those important roles
that they will be facing as they become adults.
So, those are some of the things that growing and nurturing
of those particular things.
John: Wow, right.
David: You know, and John I was thinking a little bit too
about what you said you know with your daughter.
And I think one of the things that we don't always acknowledge
or allow ourselves to sort of appreciate
in men is they are afraid, that they're scared.
They're scared of embracing the fatherhood role.
John: Yeah.
David: Embracing sort of the expanding definition of their role,
and also afraid of negotiating systems.
I can't even imagine what it must be, feel like to have a daughter
in a neonatal intensive care unit and have
to negotiate you know all these professionals.
And we, you know, as humans we tend to rely on professionals
to make important decisions that impact our lives for us
because we trust that they have a particular expertise.
So, I think that as we continue to expand our understanding
of how we need to be thinking about working with fathers it's okay,
it's important for us to realize rather that they do become afraid.
They are challenged by fulfilling all the multiple roles
that we're asking them to fulfill and that these fears are very real
for them, and they have to acknowledged and supported.
John: Yeah that's great David.
I mean you're right on.
And I think that of course when you're talking about fear in men
and society you know we don't like to show it.
David: Right.
John: Right, we don't necessarily like to show our fears,
but probably if you ask most men who happen
to be fathers too what their greatest fear is they're not going
to say their own safety.
They're going to say fear for their child.
David: Right.
John: Which is probably very in common with women.
But, its -- and, but do men actually reveal their fears
in the same way?
Do they talk about them?
And I think that's real [Inaudible] when you --
when a father actually will say, you know, that I'm afraid
that my child isn't going to succeed in school,
or my child isn't going to be accepted by peers,
or whatever the issue is, then you're dealing with a passion
that makes him a father.
Then you're nurturing the nurturer when you can listen
to that and support that man.
But, if you're at the place where a father is sharing some
of those fears with you in a way that's comfortable then I think
you've made real progress in your relationship
with that father, for sure.
David: That is a really important point.
Alright, so I think we had a few comments.
We're going to move back really quickly -- John: Okay.
David: To the previous slide.
And I just want to share what's interesting --
Lada sort of kicked this off and she's obviously female.
But, then we had three men comment and the comments were:
wanting to stay connected; a father wanting to stay connected
to his child; the importance of the skin to skin contact between father
and child; and a man showing gentle love and care.
John: Yeah.
David: All very positive, which is great.
John: Yeah.
David: So, I think we've done a good job of sort
of getting people excited and getting them
to celebrate what we're doing
and having them feel really positively about fatherhood.
When Kiersten and I recently showed this slide and sort of used it
as part of our presentation
in the Leadership Institute there was some different perceptions
that came from a predominately female audience,
which was really interesting.
For the most part participants were supportive and they were able
to actually look at the strength in the picture.
But, then some of the participants seemed like the father looked
like he was uncomfortable.
He didn't really know what he was doing.
The baby's face looks like it's a little crunched
up in between his shoulder.
The baby looked uncomfortable.
I mean they took it to some really interesting places
and it was almost as if they wanted to take the baby out of
that father's hands, which was really interesting to us.
And a question for -- from us to the group would be,
how would you help this father build upon what we see
in the photo that is a strength?
And if there are some things that now that you're looking at it
from a different lens that you would want to sort of change
or provide some support and guidance around.
What might be the first thing that you would say to this guy?
That's rhetorical.
I'm not expecting you to answer.
But, John you want to weigh in?
John: Yeah, I think -- I mean any picture of a man
or a woman holding a child evokes a pretty strong kind
of just below the surface responses.
And I mean you see a baby and you want to hold the baby.
I see babies in supermarkets, and I try to steal them all the time.
I mean it's like it's -- there is a response.
There's a very -- and I guess if you had a response
and you didn't even put it down on paper, or the computer I guess now,
is oh -- I would try to understand
that response before doing anything, you know,
or as you're doing something.
But, certainly I like, David, what you're saying,
so yea there's plenty that you can see in this picture to work from.
And yeah, I -- actually I immediately go
to what you're asking.
It's like well, how would you start making a relationship
with his father based on what you see right here?
>> Uh huh.
>> Yeah. David: And, you know,
I mean it's like just really simple basic questions that's going
to give you some insight into where this father is at.
What's important to him?
How he might be thinking in that moment?
You know, how does this feel for you?
What are you thinking when you hold your child so close in this way?
Is there a particular reason why you hold him that way
because it could be cultural?
But, those are points, questions that will then begin
to generate some really significant conversations with that father.
John: Yeah, yeah, great.
David: So, we're going to move and John
as you -- John: Oh, look at this.
Look at this.
That's good.
I've seen this before.
This is the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework,
and I assume that many of you
on the webinar have seen this very colorful graphic.
I think it's -- I actually really like this Framework.
I think it puts together exactly what it says that parent
and family engagement, and you could --
instead of parent and family, you could put father
in there, not without family.
Not without the parent, but you could put father
and it would all still apply.
So, when father engagements are systematic and integrated
across program foundations and impact areas,
family outcomes are achieved.
So, and then hence you're working on child outcomes.
But, this progression is interesting.
And I almost like to think of this as,
so the program foundations they're like the nervous system.
They're the brain.
They're the thing that sends messages to the whole body, right?
So, the program leadership is like yes, we believe in it.
My brain believes in father engagement.
I actually reflect on my own relationship with my father,
and I want to make it a priority for this program
and these are the ways I'm going to support everybody.
And that -- part of the point here is that everybody
in the system is engaging with fathers,
the same for continuous improvement and professional development.
They're kind of like -- these are the things,
these are the foundations.
These are what makes a whole system work.
Kind of see the program environment that --
the impact areas as kind of the muscles
and the organs of the organism, right?
You know, these are things that get things done.
The partnerships with families, with fathers are
where we get things done.
The teaching and learning, the partnerships with other agencies
and certainly creating a welcoming environment
for fathers is a large piece of what we need
to do to send that message.
But, if you notice along the top, the arrow, positive
and goal oriented relationships.
Well, I see that as the blood in the system.
That's the circulatory system.
That's what keeps everything refreshed and going.
Maybe the metaphor doesn't work that well.
I don't know.
But, the -- I don't want to neglect that arrow at the top
because for all these pieces to work together, for this body
to work together, we've got to reflect on our relationships
with men who have their children in our program.
That we have to keep that blood flowing
by constantly giving it oxygen, by refreshing it,
and that is through our relationships
with these fathers whether it's at the drop off,
whether it's in -- at a picnic.
Whether it's sending a document home or calling home.
Whether -- you know in so many ways --
Ed did you want to say something?
Was that -- I just heard somebody's voice.
Okay, so-- Edwin: No John I was muted there, sorry.
John: Okay.
So, in any case, I think in every one of these elements
and the outcomes you can see specific kind of things
that we can do with fathers, family wellbeing as an outcome area.
Well, one of the things that I think I've seen in programs
that do very well with fathers is that they acknowledge
that these men also need to feel good as men in our society
if they're going to do a good job as fathers.
So, and we talked about this the other day when we were planning
that this is an important piece too.
It doesn't just mean that we scrutinize fathers and expect them
to be nurturant and play with their children.
But, we also want them to be supported
in who they are themselves and how they feel about themselves
as competent human beings in this society.
So -- Edwin: So -- John: Yeah, go ahead Ed, yeah.
Edwin: Yeah, again just talking about the program leadership,
the continuous program improve --
all the things that you have up there.
I think that's where we're at right now with supporting the fathers
in those things because, you know, again, the more you're --
again it goes back into our core values of what we just talked
about the strengths, to build upon those strengths too
for family preservation.
Right now within our process, again,
since we've had this fatherhood initiative,
but we've had some challenges, but still yet we're --
I think the most important thing is to try to make sure
that we encourage fathers to come in and be a part of their --
the whole cycle for the educational piece, school readiness.
John: Uh huh.
Edwin: You know, again, we do that through --
we have a lot of dads now that are coming to program,
I don't know what they have to do with the fatherhood program,
but I think it's just making more making the men feel more
comfortable and setting -- by setting goals that they're able
to you know come up with the family priority goal worksheet
screening tools.
And again, very involved in ISSP or IEPs, you know?
Involving parents in those things make them comfortable
and help them engage, I guess,
more so in their child's readiness for school.
So, I just wanted to interject that.
John: Yeah, that's great Ed.
When I was out in Laguna this last year we were looking
at the transition to school and you --
there was an event in which the kindergarten teachers came
to the program and each was in a different classroom
because there's a number of elementary schools.
And what was -- one of the things that was really striking
about that was I think there were just as many men there as women.
I could be wrong.
You know, I could be primed to look for that,
but I felt that there were a lot of men engaged, just as engaged,
having just as many conversations with these kindergarten teachers.
And it was great to see, but it was --
I mean you didn't have to look for it.
It was there.
It seemed very equitable.
David: Okay.
So, John we need to move on to the -- John: Okay, sorry, yeah, yeah.
David: That's okay.
John: So, a polling question.
David: Uh huh.
John: Okay.
I need to see it.
Let's see.
David Jones: And yeah, Natalie's going to load it.
John: Okay.
[ Background Noise ]
John: Right.
When thinking about -- David: Hey John --
John: Do you want me to read it?
David: Yes, yes.
John: Yeah, yeah.
When thinking about father engagement that is systemic,
integrated and comprehensive I would say our program is beginning,
progressing, thriving and innovating, or stuck.
And go ahead and answer the question.
[ Background Noise ]
David: So, can we see the results?
John: Oh, there they are just as you asked.
Isn't that interesting?
David: Um hmm hmm.
John: What's that mean David, that umm hmm hmm?
But, 29 percent progressing, that's great.
David: That is really great.
John: Yeah, yeah.
David: And we have five percent that are thriving and innovating.
John: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
David: What's going to be really important post this webinar is
that any of you out there who feel
that you are stuck please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
If there's any way that we're going to be able to provide some support
and guidance for you that is one
of the main reasons why we're doing this webinar.
For those of you that are beginning, kudos.
We hope that you're moving forward in a really nice way and, you know,
you move onto a place where you're progressing
and you're thriving and innovating.
But again, for all of you at any stage of your evolution,
if there's some way in which we can be supportive once you've looked
in at the resources that we're launching this week
and you have questions about them please reach out to us.
That's why we're here.
Natalie, thank you.
John. John: Yeah, I actually mentioned some
of these things earlier that the foundations are essential here,
and I think the question that we just looked at is basically
about continuous improvement.
So, where are you in relation to engaging fathers?
I mentioned that there's a lot that can be done in the leadership
of a program to support.
I mean, if we go back to the framework, we're thinking
of a systemic and integrated thing.
Well, that whole idea of a dynamic system, an organization
as a system, the leadership within the system needs to be fully behind
that and engage with that.
So, that's an important component of it.
My experience with this is that often the programs
that are thriving in relation to this -- well first of all,
they almost always say --
the leadership almost always says we still have a ways to go.
But then, I also find that there really is a personal commitment
on the part of the director or the manager toward work with fathers.
And I'm not saying everybody has to make that their sole
and primary mission, but I think that when --
what I found is that there's often for the programs
that are thriving a real passion in the leadership for this.
The continuous improvement, going back to that, is --
this is part of this whole idea of having a framework
and having a webinar like this and having the guide is
that we can be intentional about what we do.
We may feel that we're doing very good work with fathers,
but when you're doing it in a systemic way and an integrated
and comprehensive way that means you're doing it intentionally
as well.
And so, that's when -- so yeah, where were we five years ago?
Where are we now?
And where are we going?
What steps do we need to take to get there?
David: Awesome.
John: Yeah.
David: So, this next slide sort of builds upon
and expands upon the last part of that previous slide,
the sort of professional development piece.
Not to negate, sort of, the men in the audience or in the rooms,
but I want to speak sort of directly to the women in the room.
And then, before I continue, remember I was the one
who said how instrumental women have been in contributing
to the success of the fatherhood movement.
So, now you know I'm getting ready to be a little --
John: Yeah, but --
David: Professional development is so tricky.
I can't tell you.
I've spent so much time, energy and effort as a director,
supporting directors, supporting programs around getting
to this piece of, if you're really going to do this work
in a way that's systemic, integrated and comprehensive,
it begins with the leadership understanding that there has
to be this continuous improvement process.
But it is grounded and it begins with professional development.
So, this can be a really hard conversation to have in programs
because I've never met a successful fatherhood program that had a one
and done staff development that prepared the staff
to adequately work with fathers.
John: Yeah.
David: In my experience when staff have been trained and are
on board it is synonymous with being involved
in the process of supporting fathers.
Very basic, show up and we can dance.
But, when they are on board or willing to grow to do
that self-assessment and wrestle with some
of their own more deep seeded issues and/or challenges,
they are now engaged in the process of engaging fathers.
You know, just like we have to help men get to a place
where they were healthy enough to confront their challenges,
we have to also help female staff be healthy enough to know
when they require additional supports.
And this slide sort of speaks to my belief based upon my experience,
there's no research connected to this, that when staff have sort
of said, "okay we're on board with working with expanding services
for fathers and supporting and engaging fathers,"
that they will engage in conversations with them
that takes them a little bit outside of their comfort zone.
Those conversations are going to be extremely child-focused.
They'll be very specific.
They're going to be so self-aware of how they're communicating
and what they're communicating.
So they're clinging to those boundaries at an optimal distance.
Those anchors are really, really important, but once they move
to a place where they're a little bit more engaged and again,
they're doing the self-assessment, they're wrestling with some
of their own deep seeded issues and supervision or in therapy
if necessary, whatever the case may be,
then they're a lot more comfortable in terms of how they sort
of approach these conversations with fathers.
John. John: Okay.
David: Was that you who put the X?
John: You bet.
David: Oh, okay.
John: But, I'll wait till the elephant slide comes up.
David: Okay.
John: So, let's -- do you want to move to?
-- yeah David: Yeah.
John: So we've got a polling question.
David: We have another polling question for you, because we want
to try to keep this interactive.
And I know that once we do something that's a little bit
provocative we might get more responses.
So, Natalie, please launch the first question.
I'll go ahead and read it as she -- oh there it is.
How comfortable are you in building partnerships with fathers?
I am very comfortable.
I am mostly comfortable.
I am somewhat comfortable.
I am uncomfortable.
I am very uncomfortable.
So, this is sort of a way that you can sort of privately weigh in
and chime in now on where you're at with respect to this question.
We'll give you a couple seconds for you to do that.
[ Background Noise ]
John: Somebody's whispering.
[ Background Noise ]
David: We have a lot of people, so we're going
to give you guys a little bit more time.
John: Ah, there it is.
David: Thank you so much for calling in.
We have results?
John: Yeah.
David: So, it's taking my system a little bit longer for them to show.
John, can you speak to them?
John: Yeah, yeah.
23 percent of the people
on the call are saying they're very comfortable,
20 percent I am mostly comfortable, 10 percent somewhat,
1 percent I am uncomfortable, and zero said I'm very uncomfortable.
So, what this is that people seem to be in a pretty good place
with building partnerships with fathers for the most part.
I think that, yeah, really the large majority are going I am
mostly comfortable or above.
And I think that's great.
That's great.
Now, being comfortable and engaging --
certainly the comfort level is important to genuine engagement.
But, as I said before, it's not just comfort,
its intentional things that we do to do that.
But -- David: Exactly.
And so, let's move to the second part of that polling question,
which actually speaks to competence and the way you get to a place --
I think increasing competence goes back to professional development.
So, this question says, have you received professional development
around building supportive partnerships with fathers?
So again, we ask you to please weigh in.
Give you a few minutes to do that.
I have received extensive training.
I have received some training.
I have received a little training.
I have received no training.
[ Background Noise ]
David: Okay, Natalie can you do the honors please.
Oh, I think you're right on time.
Wow, so look at this John.
John: Yeah.
David: A little bit different.
John: Yeah, yeah.
No, like eight percent - so, of the respondents says this isn't --
this doesn't add up to 100 percent.
So, if this were 100 percent of the people
on the call these numbers would actually be higher.
So, if you -- like so 16, so 24 percent are saying "received little
or no training" and that actually probably would need to be increased
if we were looking at 100 percent because we're only talking
about maybe less than 50 percent here.
So, that's a pretty large portion that haven't had specific training.
David: And again, what that could result in is,
once we have a better understanding about what some
of the limitations are for programs around getting
that professional development,
is ways in which we may be instrumental
in providing some support and guidance around that.
That sounds like we should be getting some inquiries
and some questions around how programs might be able
to build their capacity to do this.
John: Yeah, I think that both parts of this question,
it's also a reflection of who called in.
David: Yes, oh go ahead.
John: So, we've got people on the webinar that have an interest
and perhaps even a comfort with working with fathers.
And not surprising that they would want or expect a little bit more
in professional development.
David: Exactly.
John: Yeah.
David: Okay, so the social worker in me,
or I would not actually be true to the social worker
within me -- John: Yeah.
David: If I didn't ask you to dig a little bit deeper
with a few rhetorical questions.
And they're up on the screen.
So, when we talk about what does it mean to really connect
with fathers, some questions that come to mind is,
what are the potential benefits?
What, if any, are the costs?
What might be some unintended consequences?
And are there any other potential concerns?
John: Uh huh.
David: So, for me, just to prompt some discussion,
I think benefits are -- you have the opportunity
to receive another parent's perspective on child development
and what's important to them as it relates to their child.
You have opportunities to increase staff competency and capacity
to communicate with and support fathers.
And then you're also increasing fathers comfort being
in the program environment.
The more comfortable they are in the environment,
the more willing they are to engage
in the various activities that are offered.
What are some of the costs?
Well again, we sometimes push and encourage staff
to work outside of their comfort zone.
We want them to be intentionally different,
which is not necessarily always easy to do.
We want them to be okay with the time that it takes
for programs to transition.
And we don't talk enough about this.
You know, you go from starting to progressing to innovating.
Those are sort of three different points of intersection,
but there could huge chasms between what it means to go from starting
to progressing, from progressing to innovating.
And few programs I've seen are at that innovative place.
And some aspects of what they do may be innovating,
but not as an entire program.
Ed, you had talked as we were preparing for this
about some unintended consequences.
You want to speak to that a little bit?
Edwin: The intended consequences, oh God.
I can't remember where I was at with that.
We were just sitting there talking about different things.
But, I think -- David: You were -- I can just prompt you a little bit.
You were talking about some of the reaction of some of the mothers
and -- Edwin: Oh yeah, exactly.
You know, I know that when I first came
into the program there was really nothing geared to fathers,
and that was the whole initiative behind this.
But, now that the strength of the fathers has started to come in,
I think the women were feeling a little bit left out and again,
that's where the consequences were.
Again, you know it's hard to just, you know, really, you know,
to focus on just 100 percent of either or.
So, you know, that was kind of a challenge that we're facing.
And so, the women started their group up again, and again,
you know, it's good and it's all well and good.
We all work together as a team, but again, you know, it was like --
I think the women were feeling a little left out of the loop
because more dads -- we were actually having a lot more dads
coming into program and, you know, before when it used to be kind
of pretty much women-based.
And even going on further out of the Head Start program, you know,
we see a lot more fathers now at WIC, Child Find, all those things.
And, I don't -- I'm not going to say it's entirely
because of our fatherhood program,
but I think that men are feeling more comfortable and in coming
into these types of environments.
John: Yeah, it's -- yeah I think that it's a challenge
because it takes some skill on the part of a staff person
when both the parents are there.
Who do you talk to?
And if you're talking to the father --
I actually know a mother who told me this is --
why are you talking to him?
I know the answers to your questions.
He doesn't.
And so, you get into those kind of gate keeping kind
of issues around the child.
So, it's harder to talk to two people at once then to one.
So, I think the consequences are kind
of professional development consequences
and skill consequences on top of it, yeah.
David: Any other potential concerns, John, that you would --
John: Well, it may actually, and that brings up the next slide.
You know, in dealing with men who are nurturing young children,
there may be some elephants in the room.
And, maybe I just stop for a moment and --
this is an awful cute elephant though David.
It's -- David: It is.
Edwin: It is Dave.
John: But, this, you know, what is the elephant in the room?
What is there between women who care for young children and men,
who come into the program, who are the fathers of those children,
or the men in the mothers of those children's lives?
And the larger kind of elephant in the room, in my opinion,
in having done a lot of this work over the years, is that all of us,
men and women, have, kind of,
previous relationships with men in our lives.
You know, whether it's our fathers, or whether it's that game
that so many people play from early adolescence on, and in high school
about relations between the sexes, in that those dynamics
of how you talk to men period can enter into a conversation about --
that have kind of under the surface when you're talking
about the care of a child.
And so, I think it's raising that elephant in the room, kind of,
as David has portrayed it, as not necessarily operating all the time
or preventing good communications from happening.
But, I think we do have to acknowledge that the game,
the various kind of communications that go on between men and women
in our society often involve the --
you know, other things than caring for young children.
And again, to bring that to awareness is probably an important
part of a professional development program.
David: It really is.
And just I think really a few other important things to add
to it you've already said.
You know this brings up sort of implications
for how you support families, particularly fathers,
around substance abuse issues and domestic violence issues
and even just fear issues of what it means to connect
and build a relationship given the sexual tension
that takes place between men and women.
John: Yeah.
Edwin: David.
David: Yes.
Edwin: This is Ed.
Again, just talking about the elephant,
I think from the native perspective also again, a lot of it has to do
with our historical traumas.
You know again, you're looking back at what men versus women,
what their -- what we're -- what is culturally appropriate
at that time.
David: Right.
Edwin: That's some of the major impacts
of some of our programs here.
You know [inaudible] that you know the elephant is right there
on your back, you know.
Again, that's where we're --
you know, we have a lot of these social emotional issues.
And, all the economic health and wellbeing of our children are kind
of compromised because of sometimes those cultural -- I'm not --
in a sense inadequacies, or I don't know if that's the right term,
but that's something that sometimes we kind
of have to face here in Laguna.
>> Oh.
>> Yeah. David: Okay, thank you.
So, we will move along.
John, this is you.
John: Yeah, yeah.
I think that this area -- and I love these pictures by the way.
The -- look at the engagement.
Look at like the man, the woman
and the kids all paying attention to the same thing.
So much learning is happening when you see that.
And I just love the picture down below.
You can see how the kids just --
this child that's on the carpet is just
like loving looking up at this guy.
I don't know what he's saying, but it's --
he certainly has engagement from the children right there.
The program environment, I think, you might ask the fathers what it's
like to walk into your program.
The experience of a father walking into a program
with young children that's designed by women,
and I've got numerous slides of program environments,
and I can put them up there and say, you know, "is this comfortable
for most men to walk into".
The step across the threshold
into the program may feel very different -- David: Yeah.
John: -- for a man.
So, I think it's very valuable to think
about you know is this a welcoming environment for a man?
That doesn't mean you have to have like deer heads
on the wall or anything.
What it means is you know having pictures of men,
having the size seats somewhere that they can fit in.
And really, I think, you can probably go to men
and have them walk in and see.
But, it's almost less a physical environment than it's the, kind of,
interpersonal environment.
And, that goes back
to the relationships on the framework slide.
Is -- is it a welcoming place when a man walks
into the door with a child.
Since most of you said you were comfortable you probably have those
places, but it's something again to be -- to think intentionally about.
I -- the other one that's circled here is teaching and learning
and I already addressed the pictures.
But, when men come into volunteer the classroom,
their interactions may look a little different
than you would expect when a mother comes in.
The instruction may not be quite as direct.
It might a little bit wilder.
That's not to say that some women won't come in and be quite loud
when they come into the classroom.
I certainly have seen that.
But, the frame is different.
The interactions may look a little different and they,
as I pointed out in the research slide,
those kind of interactions have benefits for kids as well.
David: Awesome.
And so now we have the distinct pleasure of having Edwin Cheromiah,
Sr. talk specifically about what all this looks
like within the context of a program.
So, Ed I'm going to turn it over to you.
Edwin Cheromiah, Sr.: Alright, thank you very much,
and thank you for having me.
I do appreciate it.
Again, this is just, kind of, a picture of, you know,
really good feelings at the Head Start with the rainbow showing,
depicting you know that children are very important,
sacred in our lives here at the Head Start program.
I just have a few slides here just too kind
of depict some of those things.
[inaudible] okay.
We were talking about all the things that we have just talked
about coming from the beginning of the slides.
Here are things that we're attempting to do here
at the program is to make sure that we ensure
that we support fathers in every way.
And, a lot of that has to deal with, you know,
making them feel comfortable.
The picture on the upper left hand corner there is a picture
of just some dads who were helping with an activity,
and I believe it was our Easter activity.
And, you know, the dads are coming in doing that more because,
I think, the teachers are more engaging with their fathers
as they're coming and they're making them feel comfortable,
knowing that they are important part
of their child's upbringing and wellbeing.
Again, we always encourage parents, dads, to come in
and show their talents and that was just a picture they had taken of me
as I was talking to the kids about music.
And there's other things that we do in the culturally --
the cultural way of things, you know,
our cultural traditional dances.
We encourage dads to come in and sing songs for their parents.
I'm sorry, sing songs for their kids.
They are helping making the --
our traditional costumes for the dances.
They're making -- the teachers are absolutely making them,
you know, feel comfortable here.
And, of course we always have the challenges all the time still yet,
but I think that's also helping them
with helping the men set goals, set priorities.
And also again, you know if a child comes in with an IEP
or [inaudible] you know the dads are more comfortable knowing
that they can do these things for their kids.
Like I said, we include fathers in classroom activities.
We have literacy programs to --
where dads are coming in and reading to the children.
There's also programs to where we're teaching Keres language
to the kids and we have actually in our program one, two -
two teachers that actually speak -- teach the Keres language.
And we also have two custodians and a male cook.
So we're starting to get more male involvement
because of just the comfort level that they feel right now.
And again, all of it is just to ensure that the kids are ready
for the next level of education.
Again, on the -- we --
I also coordinate a monthly fatherhood night.
And that's what we call them, just simply as that, fatherhood nights.
And I have a grandparent here, if you don't mind, I'd like for him
to kind of give an idea of you know is perspective
on our fatherhood nights.
Wilbur Lockwood: Yeah, I'm Wilbur Lockwood, and I'm a grandparent
to the fatherhood organization here in Laguna.
And they been very instrumental to spelling out different things
that need to be possibly addressed, not only traditionally wise,
but how we can go ahead and be a better parent, I guess,
is what it is, you know.
Nowadays we've got a lot of young parents out there with kids that,
really, they don't know how to run or raise as a family.
And, in order to do that then we, you know, we all sit down together
and offer suggestions of what we need to do, maybe possibly
to better each other in raising our kids or grandfathering,
grandmothering our kids and also
that they can have a productive life when --
whether they leave the reservation or not, and go out into the world,
which is like when Ed mentioned about seed planting.
You know, that's one of the things that we try to stress that life is
like a seed, you put it in the ground
and it grows and spreads out.
Well, that's basically how our life is, is you know we put ourselves
on the pedestal and let our parents teach us different things.
And not necessarily we try to avoid all the bad stuff, but still
yet you know somehow, somewhere they get in there and all.
But, we try to tell the fathers, you know, try to live as an example
for your own kids and love your kids.
You know it's not, not to a point to where you --
it's embarrassing when you go up to your child and hug them
or give them a kiss on the cheek or whatever
and say, you know, "I love you".
And all the sudden we see that on the reservation
because that's not part of us really and all.
But, you know Ed has gone out of his way, I think anyway,
to really try to stress that to us fathers out there;
his nightly meetings that he has every month and all.
If we could get more fathers in there,
I think basically we can have a better working relationship among
each other and among their own families
out there in the community.
Edwin Cheromiah, Sr.: Right, just some of the things
that we've been doing along them with our father program.
And again, the expected outcomes, of course,
is to overcome some of the barriers.
And this, kind of, picture depicts some of those things,
overcoming barriers to improve positive involvement
in our children.
This is something just called a jackrabbit shuffle that, you know,
that was created by Dr. Clayton Small in the Road
of Life curriculum, which we also use here.
And also it's culturally appropriate.
It's educational, especially, you know, again, it helps.
You know, it helps, especially if it's --
and that's the parent coming in for the first time seeing these things,
how important it is to drop some of those barriers.
So again, that's all to increase, you know,
just fatherhood involvement.
We are also developing fathers and cultural fathers
and children's cultural development.
This particular slide here is a father.
This father is teaching these children our annual --
it's called a -- it's called the Corn Dance.
And it's, again, going back into preservation of our livelihood
and hoping and praying for rain so that we can plant --
the seed has been planted will continue to grow
and also flourishes back into the children.
So, those are some of the things that we've been really working
at here at the Laguna Head Start Program.
And again, this is just a group picture of some of the guys
that have been here throughout the years.
This guy in the center holding the ribbon has been a very
instrumental part.
He no longer has children here at Head Start
but continues to come back.
And he was one of the guys back in '04 that started the whole program.
And the guy off to the left-hand side behind him
on the back row there with the cap,
the big guy with the big cheesy smile, he's also.
And the guy also, kind of, with his hand over his shoulder is a --
oh wow, what's happening?
Did something there.
How I'd get out of that?
David: That's alright just go ahead.
Edwin Cheromiah, Sr.: He's one of the guys --
those are the men that have really pushed this program along before he
came to Head Start.
It was first done under the, the -- what was it called now?
The oh, PFS, Partners For Success Program,
and they eventually came here to Laguna.
But right now this -- our mission statement kind of says that all --
summarizes everything that we're trying
to do here at Laguna Head Start.
And our mission is just this,
the mission at Laguna Fatherhood Group is
to support fathers interested in contributing their skills
and resources for the development of their children at home,
in the community and school settings, all the things
that we've been just, kind of,
talking about all throughout the whole slides.
So, again that's kind of what we do here at Laguna.
And if there's any, you know --
I would encourage anyone to give us a call
and we can always talk a little bit more about this.
So again, that's kind of my presentation there.
Thank you.
David: Yep, one more.
>> Okay, oh this is the Father Engagement Resources?
Kiersten: Yep.
I think -- this is Kiersten, and I know we're wrapping up.
We're probably going to go a couple minutes over for those of us --
for those of you who want to stick around for another five minutes.
We -- I want to just let you know a little bit about the resources
that we keep referring to.
The Head Start Father Engagement Birth
to Five Programming Guide just came out today
with an information memorandum to all programs.
Las Manos de Apรก is a set of resources for programs for working
with Latino fathers around supporting their relationships
with their young children, particularly around literacy.
There's support group curriculum and training material.
We also have a couple of videos that we're sharing.
The Best Practices Series that the National Center is doing.
This is the first in the series that we're putting
out called Engaging Fathers
and Engaging Young Fathers Through Support Groups.
These are basically -- they'll be some facilitation guides
to support training conversations and group interactions
with staff around, kind of, what your takeaways from the videos are.
So, these are, kind of --
can function like exercises in your program for thinking
about father engagement.
There was a -- I'm sorry that our public chat wasn't working so well.
I appreciated some of the comments.
Janus McBride had talked about, you know,
just really reiterating the point that you really need staff buy-in
in terms of, you know, getting father engagement,
involvement going.
Otherwise, it's a real struggle.
And there was a question about the PowerPoint.
This PowerPoint won't be shared, but the resources --
there are a lot of training material in the resources
that we've talked about.
And you can contact us for specific things that you're looking
for from the PowerPoint if you're wanting
to support a particular exercise, that kind of thing.
We'd be happy to share it.
So, David, I think, if you want to take us
out with some summarizing points
about what we've talked about today.
David: Sure, so our last slide just really underscores everything
that we discussed, basically saying that fathers are important
to their children, which all of you know,
their families and their communities.
You know, the relationship building with fathers is key,
looking at the program leadership,
the continuous improvement processes,
professional development, all of those things that we discussed.
Utilize these resources that we're providing to you
to really assess your family and your father engagement.
Hold thoughtful conversations,
even some of the challenging conversations
that you may need to have.
When we say let's have a real conversation
and you know what that means.
You know, conduct some real program planning on how to do this.
Make this integrated throughout your entire program.
Engage in staff development.
Implement and evaluate and review.
And, celebrate fathers and families.
This is our time to not only do it just because it's June
and it's Father's Day approaching, but fathers are so instrumental
to their families and their communities and we want
to make sure that you're thinking about that throughout the year.
I want to take this time to really thank first
and foremost Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, our fearless leader,
the Director of the Office of Head Start, for just supporting
such important work; Edwin and John for co-facilitating;
Kiersten Biegel, who is an absolute gem,
and without whom I'm not sure we would have been able
to pull all of this off this week.
Thank you so much.
The National Center on Parent, Family and Community Engagement,
our technical support team at I-Link, Natalie and Sam and all
of the participants who joined us for this webinar.
It is extremely important to note that we are aware
of the great work that's taking place in programs
across the country and through some collaborative partnerships
that you've established.
Our only goal is to provide tangible resources
that can increase the likelihood
that your father engagement efforts are not tied to an individual
or external consultant, but are connected to an integrated system
of meaningful services with fathers, children
and families, and we thank you.
Kiersten. Kiersten: Thanks everybody.
John: That was awesome, David.
David: That was a wonderful job all the way around guys.
Thank you so, so much.
Thank you all the participants.
I think people are starting to sign out.
So, we don't have time for questions
but I guess people will email us.
>> Okay, that sounds great.
>> Alright, thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks everyone.
>> Thank you.
>> Goodbye we'll see you all.
>> We'll talk to you soon.
>> Very soon.