Government funding comes and Government funding goes! But back in 2003 there
was a funding scheme called the Parenting Fund. and a consortium of agencies
from Health, Education, Parenting Groups and Faith Groups got together to
see if we could deliver some fathering work in Gloucestershire. The bid was
unsuccessful but from the collaboration grew FiG.
FiG was formed as an umbrella network for all the work around fathers in Gloucestershire.
It has members from the statutory sectors, health, education, youth services
and even interest from local district councils and members from the community,
voluntary and faith communities. It works with fathers in all circumstances,
regular fathers and fathers who live at a distance, young and teenage fathers,
fathers who are experiencing parenting or relationship or emotional difficulties
and marginalized fathers. It also wants to celebrate fatherhood and promote
the value of fathers in bringing up children in a variety of different family
circumstances. On the last day of the recent FLAME conference Archbishop Rowan
said that the unique role of a father was that of choosing the child, and
that a child who had been chosen had a greater sense of self esteem and balance,
and seemed to reflect this idea of celebration that we want FiG to do.
How do we do this? We work through the various networks to develop resources,
get funding and do the work. We have been involved in a health promotion package
called ‘Bring your Dad for free’ where local leisure facilities
have offered a free swim for Dad if the children come. We are currently beginning
to promote a ‘Kick Start’ scheme where teams of dads are asked
to enter a football competition. But, extra points will be given to teams
who read with their children, go on health checks etc. We have positive endorsement
from the local MPs, and the local newspaper is offering to print the score
table each week under the FiG logo.
We also encourage ‘Saturday Breakfast Clubs’; no healthy living
here but bacon buttys or the fry-up with newspapers and the children. Here
men can play with their children read
the newspaper and network. Yes, it does work, the numbers are small and the
method of recruitment is by word of mouth. The trick is not to worry about
size and leave it as unstructured as possible.
The image is all important and one of FiG’s aims is to promote positive
images of fathers. We have done this by not only a series of posters with
fathers and their children but by the recently published ‘You’ve
Scored’ booklet for dads and dads to be. This booklet is based around
a football programme and contains within it many images of dads and children.
A much more masculine image to engage with men from the start.
FiG also hopes to develop education and training packages in the future so
that we can alert health and other professionals to the need to be able to
work with fathers as carers and sometimes the main carers for their children
and not ignore them. We then hope to then extend this to offer training to
HR departments of local businesses to discuss with them how they can be more
sensitive to the needs of their male work force that are dads.
One of the latest ideas is to develop a poster entitled ‘Proud to be
a Dad!’ This poster would have the positive qualities of what it is
to be a dad and will be displayed in churches, youth clubs, doctors’
surgeries etc. Again the idea is that it will encourage people to value and
celebrate the role of fatherhood within their local community.
FiG’s logo is, as you see, a fig leaf. Last month we launched the ‘You’ve
Scored’ book at one of the recently established children’s centres.
Here we planted a fig tree in the garden, and it is growing well! We hope
to plant fig trees in all our children centres to remind people that fathers
are very important in the life of their children and that fathers offer a
unique gift to their children, that of being chosen.
If you want further information or copies of the booklet or posters visit
the FiG website at
www.figlos.org.uk
Francesa Tolond