Request for Applications: InsideOut Dad® Expansion Project

National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) seeks applications from organizations that want to start or expand the evidence-based InsideOut Dad® program with incarcerated fathers in the community or communities they serve. NFI seeks applications from organizations that:

• Have in place an established relationship with one or more corrections-related facilities to continue or start operating the InsideOut Dad® program, including the appropriate clearance from one or more facilities to run the program.
• Provide services to inmates in one or more corrections-related facilities.
• Have a designated staff or volunteer and a backup in place to implement the InsideOut Dad® program.
• Do not currently use the InsideOut Dad® program and want to implement it for the first time or currently use the InsideOut Dad® program and want to expand the number of dads served with it.

Read on for project background, eligibility, and how to apply. The deadline for application submissions is Sunday, October 9, 2022, at Midnight EDT.

Background

NFI’s mission is to increase father involvement by equipping communities and human service organizations with the father-engagement training, programs, and resources they need to be father-inclusive. In pursuit of its mission, NFI builds the capacity of human service organizations that seek to begin or enhance fatherhood programs to improve the well-being of their communities. A vital aspect of this capacity-building effort has been the expansion of NFI’s evidence-based InsideOut Dad® program, which has become the most widely used program in the country for incarcerated fathers.

Three assets are critical to increasing a father’s involvement in the lives of his children:

• Increased awareness and knowledge of how to be a good father
• Development of self-efficacy in the skills that mark a good father
• A high-quality relationship with the mother of his children (i.e., a good co-parenting relationship)

A fourth asset is particularly vital for incarcerated fathers—the ability, while still incarcerated, to build and maintain relationships with their children and families. Research shows that those familial ties help formerly-incarcerated individuals avoid returning to prison after release (e.g., to avoid recidivating).

Independent third-party evaluations have shown that the InsideOut Dad® program increases those four assets in diverse racial and geographic populations.

As a result of the InsideOut Dad® program’s popularity and effectiveness, NFI has acquired funding to expand the use of the program.

The Opportunity for Organizations

NFI will equip 25 human service organizations throughout the country to start or expand the use of the InsideOut Dad® program. The organizations must meet the four criteria identified in the Introduction section of this RFA.

NFI will train 50 facilitators (staff or volunteer plus one “backup” facilitator), two from each organization, to facilitate the program. NFI will provide the organizations with free training and material resources to effectively run the program (i.e., curriculum kits, fathering handbooks, additional web-based training, and technical support). NFI will not provide funds to hire staff, pay stipends to volunteers, or for use in acquiring or using other resources to run the program (e.g., a facility in which to facilitate groups).

To equip the selected organizations to run the program, NFI will:

• Conduct a live InsideOut Dad® training institute delivered via webinar on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, from 11 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. EST. NFI will train one person as the primary facilitator and one person as a backup facilitator per organization.
• Provide each organization with one InsideOut Dad® Complete Program Kit. (Each kit contains all the curriculum components needed to run the program, such as one Facilitator’s Manual, Reentry Manual, flash drive with supporting resources, and 10 Fathering Handbooks.)
• Provide each organization with 20 extra Fathering Handbooks.
• Require each primary facilitator to complete the online, on-demand training called the Effective Facilitation Certificate™. Acquiring this certificate will increase the ability of the facilitator to implement the program effectively.
• Provide each primary facilitator (and backup facilitator should they step into the primary facilitator role) with free, ongoing, customized technical assistance via phone and email as they implement the program.