Support
We’ve created a list of UK organisations who support young fathers that we are aware of should you need any advice or support as a young dad or dad-to-be.
Some services offer online, digital services and information, while others are only accessible to young fathers if you live nearby.
We are keen to grow this list. If you work for an organisation that supports fathers and would like to be added, please contact us.
AADAPT study
The AADAPT study, run by the Universities of Oxford and Exeter, is trying to find out whether a new way to support parents aged 16-24 years who are experiencing low mood and stress is helpful. AADAPT is a short series of sessions to help parents understand the TRAPs that keep us stuck feeling low. AADAPT gives practical ideas about small changes we can make to feel better.
BBC Tiny Happy People
An online resource, BBC Tiny Happy People produces short videos which give useful tips and advice for parents, ranging from pregnancy and birth related questions, child development, and how parents can improve their mental health and wellbeing. They also have a wide range of videos specifically aimed at fathers.
Coram Family and Child Care
Coram Family and Child Care focus on childcare and the early years to make a difference to families’ lives now and in the long term. They work to make sure that every child has access to high quality childcare and every parent is better off working once they have paid for childcare. Families who face disadvantage, social exclusion and poverty are at the heart of our work.
Dad Matters
A Manchester based organisation, Dad Matters help dads have successful relationships with their families, and support them with their mental health.
The organisation works directly with services that support dads, families and babies to help them to increase their engagement and knowledge.
Dads Rock
Based in Edinburgh, Dads Rock aim to improve outcomes for children in Scotland to ensure the best start in life by providing support to dads and families.
DigiDAD
We work in partnership with the North East Young Dads and Lads to support them to co-create content for their DigiDAD e-learning platform with and for young fathers. Full of father friendly content, dads can register for accredited courses, browse videos about parenting and key issues young dads experience, and listen to podcasts.
Dope Black Dads
Dope Black Dads is a digital safe space for fathers who wish to discuss their experiences of being black, a parent and masculinity in the modern world.
Their aim is to celebrate, heal, inspire and educate black fathers for better outcomes for black families.
Fatherli app
fatherli is a new app designed with dads, for dads to connect and make friends, get support, and access expert advice for all things parenting, wellbeing, and relationships. A new community just for dads, it offers a space to share tips & dad jokes and memes. Dads can get support from other dads and access evidence based information and trained experts. The dadhub is a space to join groups with dads in your area or find those with shared passions and hobbies.
Whatever you are going through, fatherli is there to support you to love life as a dad.
Download the app on Google Play or the Apple App Store
Fathers Network Scotland
Fathers Network Scotland is a young, dynamic and award-winning charity with a passion for dads – because the family and society as a whole benefit when fathers are involved in the life of their children.
Future Men
London-based Future Men are a multi-award-winning specialist charity that support boys and men along the path to becoming dynamic future men, whilst addressing the stereotypes around masculinity and engaging in the wider conversation of what it means to be a man. They are also the current chair for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood.
Gingerbread
Gingerbread provides advice and information for single parents and for professionals who support them. We have a large amount of online information on our website, covering a wide range of issues which commonly affect single parents.
You can find out more about Gingerbread’s free services for single parents on our website.
Grimsby Dads Collective
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 co-create and establish the Grimsby Dads Collective.
North East Young Dads and Lads
The North East Young Dads and Lads, based in Gateshead, were announced as our new partners in June 2020. With lead parter, CEO Kevin Stoodley, the charity agreed to collaborate with the study so that we could research the impacts of COVID-19 on a wider national cohort of young dads and with a national organisation that is passionately committed to tackling negative societal views of young fathers.
Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange
The first national source of expert knowledge and advice on all aspects of teenage pregnancy.
The Fatherhood Institute
As a national organisation, The Fatherhood Institute is one of the most respected fatherhood organisations in the world. A registered UK charity, their work focuses on policy, research and practice
Together for Childhood
Together for Childhood is a long-term project delivered by NSPCC that works with local communities to make them safer for children. Local partners and families come together to prevent abuse and tackle the problems that cause it, head-on. Grimsby is one of four UK locations to deliver the project.
YMCA Humber
YMCA Humber are the host organisation for the Grimsby Dads Collective. YMCA Humber has a long history in Grimsby and as well as their housing projects, they also engage with young people and families.
From our partners and young dads
“[daughter]'s almost two-year-old. She came up the house and she actually really liked it. Preferably my house is the best place for her to, for the contact to be, if I’m honest, 'cause we just buy toys for her all the time. We’ve got a lovely garden that she can play in, lovely, big, and we’ve got a sandpit in there. We’ve been buying loads of things for her to play with to keep her occupied.”
“[Speaking about support of young fathers] We’ve done a lot of kind of advocation and representing them, a lot of the time there’s involvement with statutory services. They don’t have the care of the young person, the care’s provided by the state or the mother, so we’ve attended lots of meetings with the young person to offer additional support and facilitated contact where necessary and offered just general emotional wellbeing, support, improving robustness and resilience, encouraging them to have as amicable relationship as possible.”
“And I suppose it goes back to what we were saying before about behaviours, maybe the education side of stuff and the fact that men aren’t involved in those early conversations, you know, whether it is, I know they’re invited to come along to bumps to babies but I don’t know whether we go into the detail around some of that brain development side of stuff and things like that. Maybe that is the thing that really would change things. You know, if you were given all of that information about what happens to a child as they grow, in a scientific way, as easy to understand as possible, could be the thing that impacted on behaviour in the home.”
“If your child’s with the mother, like your relationship with her depends on your relationship with the child, innit. That’s what I realised a lot, like you can try and be bitter, you can try and be this, be that, but it’s just gonna push you further away from your child, innit.”
“I wanna fight for more stuff for dads. Like I do wanna have that extra support for new dads or even existing dads that we don’t get now 'cause we’re still important too although obviously the mum does need the majority a’ the care because obviously of the after care and the birth. But like the dads take it extremely hard as well. And obviously with having no support I think it increases the rise of mental health.”
“I think both a mother and father combined, it’s communicating and both being on the same page of what’s best for your child or children, and for both, it’s just being there 100% for them and not, like, putting yourself first, it’s, you know, putting the child’s interests first... ”
“We need to be including, we need to not [just] be focusing on mum and child […] That’s a great focus but dad … dad’s not invisible, dad needs to be in the picture as well because there’s research that shows you the effect it has on children and families as a whole when dad isn’t in the picture, so services need to be changing the way in which they work so it’s more inclusive.”
“Cause I think a lot of the time, some of young people who end up having children have been through the care system or support systems and they can feel quite judged or labelled by organisations and it’s breaking the cycle and breaking them out of that to feel empowered to be able to take stuff back, that’s the real interest to me. So, it’s about getting support right, as in being there and giving advice and guidance and all them things that we can do, but also making sure that we are doing with people as opposed to people.”
“One of the most successful projects we ever did was an informal dads’ group, and it used to be on Saturdays […] they did what they wanted, they used to do things like breakfast, and they would have breakfast together and talk about dad stuff and where they were taking their kids. And that group was always really well attended because there was never an agenda. They were never judged. They were just there together.”
“...the whole stay at home dad thing is not something to be ashamed of, you know, if you’re a dad and you wanna take your daughter out for the day, or you wanna take your kid out for the day on your own, well why is that frowned upon, why can’t you take your child out for the day ”
“Oh…patience…compassion…tolerance, a whole boatload a’ that! Honestly, I like a whole lot of life. Sacrifice…compromise, yeah I think, yeah I think they, they would be the, the big, the five, I feel, I think that was five, they would be the main. ”
“We’re currently in touch with social services for two [dads] because they don’t understand why they can’t see their children because they haven’t been informed by social services, their partner. So there’s a massive communication breakdown with those young men, so that’s the main focus of what we’re dealing with at the minute.”
“it’s still…the…sense of judgement I get from other people when they find out that I have a child.And they say, ‘oh how old is she’.I say, ‘oh she’s ten’. And they say, ‘oh how old are you?’. Like you don’t need to know that....I know exactly where that thought process is going, you know. It’s like, ‘oh you look really young and you’ve had a kid’. It’s like, ‘yeah I know, I was there!’”
Partners
