Randolph and Saline Counties’ Focus on Fatherhood Program administered through the Randolph County Caring Community partnership provides support and mentoring to dads. The program is designed to increase the involvement of fathers in child nurturing and to enhance a father’s parenting skills so they can help their children grow into healthy responsible adults. The prevention program, supported in part with funds from a Children’s Trust Fund grant, is based on the National Center for Fathering curriculum: Connecting With Your Kids and Quenching the Father Thirst. These programs target fathers who have had limited experience in interacting with their children for a variety of reasons including poverty, unemployment, legal issues or substance abuse. The program strives to give these fathers an understanding of their role and responsibility of a father, help them break through barriers that prevent them from succeeding, and enhance and increase access to services such as child support, legal issues, medical and mental health services. Additionally, fathers may be recruited to take part in a “Dadvisory Group” in which participants plan and evaluate the program, and facilitate training seminars using the two curriculums. We spoke with Brian Williams, Director of the Randolph County Caring Community Partnership, and Tim Fugate, ATR III/MMFC Director about the program and the community support that it receives.
AUDIO: Talking about community partners that enhance the program’s efforts.
AUDIO: Community involvement in the program
AUDIO: Brian Williams & Tim Fugate talk about the role CTF has played in their prevention efforts.
Listen to the Podcast on the Mid-Missouri Fatherhood Coalition
