Good Dads is a Missouri-based program that teaches men how to be better fathers and role models to children. Ava Summers and Mary Holloway with Good Dads spoke about a new program they've launched in Fulton called Forge.
For the month of May we’re focusing on the health of those living in Fulton and Callaway County.
Mary Holloway: We know that dads, especially at-risk dads, need help. Dads make better communities. They make better partners. They make safer communities. They go out and get better jobs because they want to take care of their kids. Once they have those skills, they willingly pay their child support.
So, these programs teach them a lot of things – they teach them anger management, they teach them economic stability, they teach them how to be a more engaged father.
Again, we know that engaged fathers make engaged children, right? You are what you've lived, so if you didn't have a good childhood experience, how are you going to pass that on?
So, we want these dads to be the best dads they can be, so that they raise kids who will also be the best dads they can be.
Good Dads 2.0 was a 26-week program, and that was one that was for at-risk fathers, and there were income restrictions. Well, that program was very lengthy and sometimes hard to get dads into it.
So, this new program – that Fulton is the beginning of – is called Forge, and that is a fatherhood grant from the federal government.
That is a 13-week program, which is like good Dads 2.0 but a lighter version, and there are no income restrictions. Anybody can join as long as you're 18 or over and you have a child that's 24 or under.
Ava Summers: It's for any dad.
Mary Holloway: Any dad. Any dad, and it doesn't have to be a biological dad. It can be a stepdad. It can be a caregiver,
Ava Summers: Yeah.
Mary Holloway: It can be anybody that is helping with the family.
"It teaches them how to better communicate with anybody, like with the mother of their children or their spouse or their kids or their employer or their friends."Ava Summers, Good Dads
Ava Summers: The point is that we're trying to, you know – we want to improve the lives of children.
Mary Holloway: Yeah.
Ava Summers: So anybody that's interacting with those children – grandpa, uncle, stepfather. If they're [in] a father role, they're welcome.
I always say – the very first day after I had my first child, that did not necessarily make me a good mom, just because I had a baby.
So, there's a lot of good education in this new 13-week Forge fatherhood program that could be beneficial to all dads.
The Forge program, like Mary said, it's 13 weeks. It's seven weeks of the condensed 2.0, which is fatherhood skills, and then it's five weeks of Within My Reach, which is our relationship class.
Which, that's where – it teaches them how to better communicate with anybody, like with the mother of their children or their spouse or their kids or their employer or their friends.
And so, these classes just, it opens the eyes to childhood milestones. What you can expect from a child?
It talks about, you know, I think there's some discipline and ways to have fun that doesn't cost a lot of money, or listening to your kid, communicating with them.
It's just, I mean, I just feel like it could be something that's beneficial to all dads
Mary Holloway: In Fulton, our goal, of course, is to get more programs started, to get more classes going, and get rid of the stigma that dads don't do that – that they're not involved. So, the goal would be in Fulton would be to teach the dads that they need to be involved.
