Father Engagement in Child Welfare: Lessons for Fatherhood Programs

Fatherhood programs that want to better serve their fathers can use strategies for improved father engagement presented in this brief. These strategies are based on the experiences of five child welfare agencies in the FCL project. The strategies can be helpful for programs seeking to strengthen community and service partnerships, sustain their programs by solidifying buy-in, prioritize racial equity initiatives, integrate fathers’ voices into the broader system of services, and document their programs’ engagement efforts.

Drawing on the experiences of the child welfare agencies participating in the FCL project, five key lessons on fatherhood engagement that may be transferable to fatherhood programs are highlighted.

• Building partnerships can expand fatherhood programs’ referrals, reach, and influence without spreading resources too thin. Partnerships between fatherhood programs and other programs or systems can be mutually beneficial. Fatherhood programs can provide specific father-focused support, and partners can provide needed support and services for fathers beyond the capacity of fatherhood programs. Child welfare agencies can be a particularly important partners as they can help fatherhood programs build a more integrated and holistic system of services for fathers.
• Buy-in and standardization of father engagement practices from leaders can solidify the importance of father engagement within organizations and communities. Fatherhood programs embedded in larger child and family serving organizations can use this strategy to institutionalize father-inclusive strategies across their organization. Leaders of fatherhood programs can use similar intentional standardization techniques to ensure their organization maintains changes in practice in the case of staff or leadership turnover  They can do so through avenues such as supervision conversations, all-staff meetings, newsletters, and formal processes such as internal policy documents. Leaders can also integrate father engagement into professional development or other required staff trainings.   
• By working to elevate fathers’ voices, programs can demonstrate fathers’ value and identify areas for improvement. Programs can leverage fathers’ voices both internally and externally. Internally, programs can provide opportunities for feedback from fathers through surveys, focus groups, or other information-gathering efforts. They should follow up on that feedback to build trust with fathers. Programs can also share fathers’ perspectives with community partners through trainings, videos, or other mediums.
• Racial equity work helps make father engagement a priority, by both elevating it as a larger community issue and by reducing disparities. Fatherhood programs should prioritize racial equity as an organizational value.  They can do so in several ways, including creating intentionality for the work through leadership and providing staff training specifically focused on promoting racial equity.
• Capturing data related to father engagement promotes continued efforts and addresses needed strategy changes. These data can be used in continuous quality improvement (CQI) work, supporting efforts to secure funding, or point to necessary program improvements. Data collection is improved by engaging staff with varied vantage points and by engaging outside partners or formal researchers when possible.

The brief draws on data from the FCL pilot study and interviews with site team members conducted during the evaluation phase.

Campbell, S., J. Bellamy, R. Bess, S. Cavallo, B. Hollie, and M. Stagner. “Father Engagement in Child Welfare: Lessons for Fatherhood Programs.” OPRE Report #2023-193. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023.