On June 14-18, 2004 in Dallas Texas, The National Head Start Institute on Father Involvement will mark the first time that the Head Start Bureau (HSB) has brought together leaders of every Head Start and Early Head Start program in the nation to focus on enhancing father involvement. Through the Institute and other related activities, the Head Start Bureau will ensure that local Head Start program leadership, staff, and parents have the knowledge and skills needed to strengthen families and support the ongoing involvement of fathers in Head Start, and in the lives of their children. This, in turn, will contribute to the healthy development of and improved outcomes for children.
The goals of the Institute are to:
Participants include program leaders and father involvement or parent involvement specialists, as well as parents. These individuals play a key role in creating or enhancing effective father involvement plans in their local programs and bringing about system change which may be necessary to achieve that end.
The Institute program is organized around Five Building Blocks for Father Involvement:
To ensure that this national Institute is both informational and inspirational, the Head Start Bureau is committed to featuring the best speakers, teachers, researchers, and practitioners the fatherhood field has to offer.
Registration for the National Head Start Institute on Father Involvement begins at Noon on Monday, June 14. The Opening Session begins at 4:00 p.m. on that day, followed by a Welcoming Reception. On Tuesday through Thursday, June 15-17, sessions will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Each day will begin with a plenary session, followed by three 1.5 hour workshops. Optional evening networking activities are being planned for 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday through Thursday. Friday morning will be devoted to Regional Planning Sessions, followed by a keynote presentation and a Closing Luncheon. The Institute will end at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.
It is important that a commitment be made to participate for the entire five-day event, since each day’s work builds on the content and experiences of the previous day and also leads to the next day’s learning. Therefore, please make your travel arrangements for arrival no later than noon on Monday, June 14, and for departure after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 18.
For more detailed information, review the Head Start Bureau’s Information Memorandum on the National Head Start Institute on Father Involvement.
The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project has launched research relating to the role low-income fathers play in the lives of their infants and toddlers, in their families, and in the Early Head Start programs in which they participate. The father research is being conducted within an overall study of Early Head Start impacts and program implementation. The Early Head Start Father Studies are among the first to investigate involvement of low-income fathers in children’s lives, together with mother involvement, in the context of both an intervention program for infants and toddlers and a longitudinal study. The Early Head Start Father Studies focus on biological fathers as well as father figures (sometimes referred to as “social fathers”). The EHS Fathers Studies Project is funded by the Administration for Children and Families, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and the Ford Foundation.
Getting Off the Ground:
Implementation Findings about Child Support Enforcement, Head Start, and
Child Care Collaboration Demonstrations. 1999
This report provides early findings on the implementation of state inititiated
collaboration demonstrations among child support, Head Start, and child care
programs. The collaboration sites were in Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois,
Maryland, and Minnesota. The three broad goals of the collaboration were
to enhance understanding and trust among program staff, to increase access
to child support services, and to increase understanding about the importance
of fathers’ non-financial contribution to children’s lives. In
addition to the findings, the report contains examples of the outreach and
educational materials developed by the projects. Prepared by the American
Institutes for Research.
Head Start and the Fatherhood Initiative [in pdf format only, 145K]
Head Start Bulletin on Family Involvement [in pdf format only, 993K]
The Departments of Health and Human Servies and Education have been working together to provide to provide ideas, strategies, and tools for teachers, school principals, child care providers, and others to successfully involve fathers in children’s learning, including readiness to learn at school, at home, and in the community. Available from this collaboration are several products:
[ HHS’ Fatherhood Initiative Home Page ]
[ What’s New | Overview | Improving Opportunities for Low-Income Fathers | Caring for Young Children | Fathers & Children’s Health | Toolkit for Fatherhood | Around the Regions | Federal Interagency Forum on Child & Family Statistics | Research | Program Evaluations ]
[ ASPE Home Page | HHS Home Page ]
Last updated March 17, 2004
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