Stepping Back to Move Forward: A New Approach to Designing Your Fatherhood Programming

If you work in human services, chances are you believe in the importance of dads. You understand the positive impact it has on children when dads are engaged, supported, and treated as essential parenting partners rather than afterthoughts. You hear it in team meetings and conversations about family-strengthening outcomes and whole-family approaches.

And yet, even with the best intentions, your organization might be stuck in the same place: We know that dads matter, but we’re not sure how to create a fatherhood program in a committed, strategic way.

That uncertainty is normal. 

Good Intentions Aren’t the Problem, Lack of Structure Is

Most organizations don’t struggle with why to include dads; they struggle with how:

• How do we recruit dads who don’t already trust family support systems?
• How do we engage dads beyond a single workshop or event?
• How do we align staff, leadership, and partners around the same vision for father inclusion?
• How do we build a fatherhood program that lasts beyond one champion or funding cycle?

Without a clear structure, fatherhood programs often remain fragmented and dependent on the energy and commitment of one or two staff members rather than that of the organization.

What if you had a way to create that structure?

A Day to Step Back So You Can Move Forward

National Fatherhood Initiative®’s (NFI’s) Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ addresses those questions.

The Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ is a one-day virtual experience that will help your organization pause, reflect, and design a fatherhood program that fits your unique challenges, strengths, and opportunities.

Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all workshop, NFI staff will work with your team before the Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ using nine focused design questions to ensure this experience accomplishes your fatherhood programming goals and objectives.

As a result, your team won’t come to the workshop with a blank slate. Instead, they’ll find a custom-designed framework for the planning session already in place. From there, NFI staff will guide your team through a structured process that will turn ideas into concrete decisions, covering everything from recruitment and engagement to sustainability and measurement.

The Pureform Thinking Method

One of the most valuable aspects of the Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ is its engagement of both creative and analytical thinking through the Pureform Thinking method.

Pureform Thinking uses the right side of the brain first to generate as many ideas as possible, then uses the left side of the brain to discuss the feasibility of those ideas. This approach compresses the amount of time it normally takes to unpack the complexities of creating or sustaining a fatherhood program.

As a result, your team will brainstorm solutions, decide on the most feasible ones to move forward with, and leave with shared ownership of the vision and next steps for your fatherhood programming.

You Walk Away With More Than Inspiration

At the end of the day, your staff won’t just feel motivated; they’ll leave with a customized Fatherhood Program Game Plan™, tailored to your organization’s size, readiness, and goals.

The Fatherhood Program Game Plan™ will provide:

• Clear next steps, who will be responsible for each step, and task deadlines.
• Alignment across leadership and staff.
• A practical roadmap you can return to long after the workshop ends.
• Integration of tools for successful program implementation, such as free guides, curriculum, print resources, and staff training.

The Fatherhood Program Game Plan™ is the bridge to take you from “We should do more for dads” to “Here’s what we’re doing next quarter and who’s responsible.”

For Teams Across Systems and Settings

The Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ is for organizations in any sector, including education, home visiting, child welfare, child support, healthcare, workforce development, corrections, and other community-based settings—anywhere families are served, and dads matter.

Whether you’re just starting a program or looking to strengthen an existing one, the focus is the same: helping your organization move forward with confidence instead of uncertainty.

You Don’t Have to Have It All Figured Out

You don’t need a perfect program. You don’t need all the answers. You don’t even need full agreement yet. You just need a space to think clearly, together, with guidance from NFI’s 25+ years of national experience in father-focused, strengths-based program development.

The Fatherhood Program Planning Workshop™ offers that space and a path forward.

If your team is ready to move from good intentions to intentional action, this may be the most valuable day you spend this year.

How would a shared, organization-wide plan for fatherhood programming change the way your organization moves from intention to implementation?

Interested in discussing how the FPPW can help your organization create an effective fatherhood program? Contact Erik Vecere, NFI’s Chief Partner Success Officer, at evecere@fatherhood.org.