The Fatherhood Project
The Fatherhood Project is dedicated to valuing the experience of fatherhood and building positive community, through enriching the lives of children, fathers and their families. Our aim is for every father to be actively and lovingly engaged in their children’s lives. It is about supporting healthy, relationships between men, women and children and creating positive outcomes for families.
How do we value fathers:-
THE FATHERHOOD FESTIVAL is a community event. It is a unique, three day festival, where we share stories, question our understanding of the role fathers and celebrate being or having a father.
The world’s first fatherhood festival was held in Bangalow, NSW on Fathers’ Day weekend, 2004 and hosted by Andrew Denton.
The festival includes, professionals seminars, contemporary music events, talks, comedy, health checks, family fitness, free kids rides and much more. There are now, annual Festivals inspired by the Bangalow model from NSW to W.A. and we envisage festivals in every state of Australia, where fathers and families can gain insight, feel renewed, have fun and create stronger community links.
FATHERHOOD MENTORING PROGRAMS: so far, we have developed programs, initially for expectant and new fathers. These are run by skilled facilitators and ‘mentors’, Dads that have recently had a new baby, come back and share their knowledge and wisdom, the training programs cover essentials including:
- Taking Care of Your Baby –Practical Tips
- Child Safety
- Finances
- Sleep
- Caring For New Mothers
- Looking After Yourself
- Teamwork in parenting
- Sex and Romance
- Balancing Work and Family
- Dads important role in Breast feeding and brain development
A new initiative is our Dads and Kids play time, this is a weekend playgroup for Dads who are busy through the week, or who have weekend custody of their children. We see these programs becoming an ever widening circle of mentoring over the next decades until we have a mentoring culture for fathers of all ages in our communities.
AWARENESS RAISING PRODUCTS, that nourish and inspire, including music CDs, Books, T-Shirts and DVDs. Products like the Fatherhood Music CD, is a doorway to open up our hearts and minds to motivate and create positive change. It is a great gift for men and women and especially expectant fathers. It is also a valuable resource for ante-natal classes and group work.
FATHERHOOD WEBSITE: Our aim for this website is to be a major portal for fathers to find out information, latest news, network with other fathers for advice and set up ongoing conversations about what fathers need most. The site will be hooked directly to the Mensline advice centre and will be a great resource for fathers and service providers for events, festivals and products.
The Fatherhood Project Inc
Unit 9, 6-8 Burringbar St, Mullumbimby NSW 2482
Ph: 02 6684 2309
Email: admin@fatherhood.com.au
