Try This Creative Solution for Work with Incarcerated Dads

I never cease to be amazed at the creative solutions developed by partners of National Fatherhood Initiative^®(NFI).

One such solution is that of Corey Pack who works with incarcerated fathers in the Talbot County Detention Center in Easton, MD. Corey runs Responsible Fathers an independent organization that since 2019 has contracted with the Talbot County Department of Social Services to facilitate NFI’s evidence-based InsideOut Dad^® program at the detention center.

One of the things I appreciate the most about Corey is how he keeps NFI updated on developments with his work with dads in the detention center. He emailed me recently about how he’s integrated another of NFI’s resources for incarcerated dads with InsideOut Dad^®. Earlier this year, Corey started to combine the InsideOut Dad^® Guide to Family Ties (IOD GFT) with the InsideOut Dad^® program.

What’s IOD GFT?

It’s a comprehensive self-paced guide that provides information, tips, and exercises on topics that help incarcerated dads learn the importance of getting in touch—and staying in touch—with their families. It helps incarcerated dads create strong ties with their children and with the mothers or primary caregivers of their children.

We designed the guide for organizations and correctional facilities to use when, for whatever reason, they don’t want to use or can’t use InsideOut Dad^®. We also designed it as a supplement to InsideOut Dad^®. Organizations and facilities can, for example, provide it to dads on waiting lists to get into InsideOut Dad^® or as a gift for graduating from the program.

As we’ve talked through the years with users of both IOD GFT and InsideOut Dad^®, we’ve learned that facilitators of InsideOut Dad^® have sometimes pulled content from the former to supplement and enhance the content in the latter. It’s a great complement to the program because IOD GFT contains different content, with just a few exceptions.

But as I communicated with Corey, I soon realized that he took the use of the two resources to another level. He designed entire group-based sessions from the content in IOD GFT and uses them with dads who are graduates of InsideOut Dad^®. He considers the content in the guide to be an ideal tool to build upon what dads learned in the program and to focus on topics in the program that the dads would most benefit from based on what he learned about them while they went through the program. I told him that I was sure that other facilitators of InsideOut Dad^® would love to learn about how he used the IOD GFT content to create the follow-up sessions.

Corey was, as always, willing to share whatever he could to help others who work with incarcerated dads. He shared it in such detail—too much detail to include in this post—that we decided to create a free three-page guide on how to use Corey’s creative solution to enhance your work with incarcerated dads.

Click here to download the three-page guide. While you can use these sessions with dads who have graduated from InsideOut Dad^®, you could certainly use them with dads who are currently in the program (e.g. insert one or more sessions amongst the InsideOut Dad^® sessions) and with dads who haven’t participated in the program.

To learn more about IOD GFT and to purchase it, click here. Please note that we provide it in packs of 25 at a significant discount compared to purchasing the guide individually.

Are you looking for ways to enhance your work with incarcerated dads?

Are you a facilitator of InsideOut Dad^® who wants to take your program to the next level?