Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

     The families that I came in contact with for this assignment were two families that I have become very close too. I have become close to these two families because of the fact that I am their child’s primary caregiver and have noticed that they are very involved. During this whole quarter I have been hinting to the families that I was on a journey to try and get more fathers/males involved at this center and that I may need some of their participation as well as support in the coming weeks. I mentioned that I was going to do some research on my advocacy efforts to inform the families of this center the importance of father/male participation.

     Needless to say, my parents were very eager to assist me in any way they could. Both of the parents that I interacted with on this subject immediately told me that I was the only male teacher that they had seen in a long time at this center other than the family support specialist Mr. Chi Li.

     My conversations on this effort with the two families in my classroom and others in the agency has given me that extra adrenaline rush that I need to come up with some strategies/ideas to get this movement going. I have made a promise to myself that I would do whatever I could to get this movement started by implementing something at the agency for the upcoming spring/summer.

     The interaction’s with some of these parents has made it clear to me that parents would be willing to participate if something would be put in place at the agency regarding fathers/males.  

Observing and Interacting with Program Director(s) and other Staff

I had the opportunity to meet with the director in the program and talked about what was their plan(s) to get more men involved in the program. I found out that alot of the responsibility fell on the male parent support specialist.  She mentioned that fathers are always welcome to the parent cafe's, which is a parent meeting that discusses topics of interest or concerns. The problem is that no male involvement is ever present. The majority of attendees are the mother's. I then mentioned to her that we needed to come up with some ideas as an agency, and not just from the male family support specialist to figure out a way to get fathers/males involved. I reminded her again that I am going to do my best to see if we could come up with some ideas to get fathers/males involved. I gave her an example like:

•  When we inform parents to discuss the progress of  their child do we ask to talk to the father
• If the mother is the custodial parent do we also mail materials regarding the child to the father (If approved and legally appropriate)
• Are there workshops/trainings provided for fathers only
• Is the environment father/male friendly 

The director that I spoke to is a very hardworking individual and she said that she would assist me anyway she could to make this a success. I then said to her that this effort to get fathers/males involved in the program is it not going to happen over night, but we need to start advocating on this issue together as an agency.
Advocacy is just like playing the lottery, you can't win if you don't make an effort to play!! So I say, we all need to play.

Harmon Clayton Killebrew Father's Quote