Cocreating with young fathers and the professionals who support them
Research suggests that high quality support from services can made a big difference to young fathers, their children and the mothers of their children, supporting them both in the present and in achieving their future aspirations (Neale et al. 2015). However, fathers tend to perceive that support services are targeted towards mothers, meaning they often feel excluded (Barnardo’s, 2012). Professionals also tend to perceive young fathers as ‘hard to reach’ but have limited resource and time to address how services might instead be ‘difficult to access’ (Davies and Neale, 2015).
Underpinned by methods of coproduction and cocreation, a major objective of ‘Following Young Fathers Further’ is to address the marginalisation of young fathers in support contexts, working directly with them and the professionals who support them, to promote and implement a practice and policy environment that recognises the importance of involved fathers both for (young) fathers, mothers, children and society as a whole. The establishment of the Grimsby Dads Collective is central to the development of this work.
Since January 2020, we have been working in close partnership with young fathers in Grimsby, national childcare charity Coram Family and Childcare, and Grimsby based charities Together for Childhood (NSPCC) and YMCA Humber, to cocreate and establish the Grimsby Dads Collective. Cocreation is a participatory method that involves the promotion and use of creative, inclusive and democratic approaches to collaboration, with the aim of empowering communities by valuing lived experience, challenging power dynamics, and addressing social injustices. Premised on a successful participatory and evidence-based model called the Young Dads Collective (established by Coram Family and Childcare), the aim of our work is too train select young fathers as ‘experts by experience’ who advocate on behalf of themselves and others. Professionals from mainstream and specialist services are the main audience and are encouraged to reflect on, and make positive changes to their practices, influenced by the voices and experiences of dads.
So far, the model has been successfully rolled out in London and in Leeds. The FYFF team, and Dr Laura Way in particular, are therefore researching and capturing the implementation process (including what works and what doesn’t work) and is generating data to address the generalisability of this approach.
The project is still recruiting young fathers. If you are a young father in the Grimsby area who would like to be involved or if you know a young father who might benefit from participating, please get in touch with Debbie Taylor on 07593 586262 or by e-mail debbie.taylor@ymca-humber.com
Introducing the Grimsby Dads Collective to the locality
On 20th October 2020, we held a webinar with ten representatives from local support services, the statutory and voluntary sectors and local government in Grimsby and the North East Lincolnshire region to promote the Grimsby Dads Collective and explain the key aims and ambitions of the project.
The objectives of the webinar were three-fold;
- To introduce the project, the Young Dads Collective model and its main aims and goals in order to raise awareness of the work for local professionals,
- To establish the project as a community led and supported initiative in line with the ethos of co-production that underpins the work,
- To gain feedback and insights from local professionals about how the YDC might support them in their work and enhance the existing local offer, not just for young dads, but for families and young people more generally.
To meet these varied objectives, the webinar comprised key presentations from relevant team members, as well as two interactive breakout rooms that were structured around key questions to facilitate reflection, discussion and feedback. In line with the approach upon which the Young Dads Collective model is premised, we were also honoured to be joined by a previous YDC member, Ruben Vemba, who shared his experiences of being involved with the YDC and responded to questions from the participants.
Please click the links to access the webinar report.
