Father Friendly Check-Up Case Studies:
Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. (Pottstown, PA)

Leadership Development

• Conducted a Father Friendly Check-Up™ of Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. (COGI)
• Completed a series of meetings with internal stakeholders (e.g. within COGI’s Abuse Intervention Services and Prison Re-Entry Program) to identify and pursue fatherhood opportunities and projects.

Organizational Development

Policies, Procedures, and Processes

• Implemented several new and revised father-friendly human resource policies that were approved by COGI’s board of directors.

Staff Development and Training

• Offered family-friendly support programs to COGI staff that were already provided to clients, such as weight management, personal finance education, stress management, CPR, and first-aid certification.
• Staff trained on abuse-prevention and fatherhood curricula including Abuse Intervention Services (AIS), 24/7 Dad™, and Doctor Dad™.

Physical Environment

• N/A

Program Development

• Incorporated abuse-prevention curriculum for expectant fathers and at-risk fathers (AIS) and fatherhood curricula (24/7 Dad™ and Doctor Dad™) into programs.
• Incorporated “It’s All About Your Child” video (created by Fill the Gap Program, a Year 1 NRFCBI sub-awardee) into the services of COGI’s Domestic Relations department. The video stresses the importance of father involvement and paying child support.
• Incorporated fatherhood resources into COGIs re-entry program.
• Decided to provide technical and resource assistance on fatherhood resources to agencies interested in providing resources to fathers.
• Pursued MOU with Schuylkill Health to provide them with resources and technical assistance to implement Doctor Dad™ for new fathers
• Created a collaborative inter-agency model (currently 5 agencies participating) offering 24/7 Dad™ in the community.
• Agencies/departments within COGI scheduled meetings with community partners (e.g. Nurse-Family Partnership and the local hospital maternity education department) to discuss father involvement.

Community Engagement

• Conducted a Father Friendly Check-Up™ with county commissioners.
• Created Schuylkill County Fatherhood Task Force. Conducted 4 meetings over 8 months including one short term Compression Planning® session.
  • At initial meeting of the Fatherhood Task Force, offered child care and foods that appealed to fathers. The 2nd meeting of the Task Force was planned during daytime hours at the request of the committee members and to be more father-friendly.
  • Member of task force attended two-day social marketing conference.
  • The task force organized a fathering event for all human, social, faith-based and other organizations was held on April 14th, attended by more than 50 people. Provided Father Friendly Check-Up™ to Fatherhood Task Force and all participants at the fathering event.
• Identified and recruited 30 leaders and members to create a Fatherhood Advisory Group in Schuylkill County.
  • Educated advisory group on 8 Pillars of Leadership in implementing fatherhood efforts (from NFI’s Father Friendly Check-Up™ workshop).
  • With the advisory group, identified the needs in the community, the quality of the existing services, and methods to correct existing gaps in resources for fathers.
• COGI joined a sub-committee of a community partner (called VISION) to integrate a fatherhood perspective into the next segment of a parenting series offered by the partner.
• A COGI employee obtained a position to participate in a statewide workgroup on fatherhood with reporting to the State Roundtable. Focus on the workgroup was on identifying and engaging fathers through the state agency that oversees services for children and youth and through other agencies.
• Secured a proclamation from county government declaring “Fathers Make a Difference Week” that was well received and distributed to media.
• Engaged the media in the following ways:
  • The NRFCBI grant received by COGI generated two newspaper articles related to the grant.
  • An additional article was submitted though a task force partner that expressed the importance of fathering and promoted the fathering event organized by the task force.
  • An independent article on fatherhood was published in local newspaper for Father’s Day.