Race Equality Foundation - Development

Supporting black and minority ethnic fathers in their parenting role

Background

This project continues our work on good practice in parenting and family support. It is a collaborative project between REU, Working With Men, the Boys2Men project of Coram Family and the Children's Society, funded through the Strengthening Families Grant from the Department for Education and Skills.

An REU/Fathers Direct seminar held in 2003 highlighted the need for a wider discussion of issues concerning black and minority fathers in their parenting role. At the same time, there is continual evidence of limited provision and under-use of support services by this group of fathers.

Aims

The aim of this project is the development of effective support for black and minority ethnic fathers in their parenting role. This will involve:

developing a guide to best practice by collecting and collating national and international examples of best practice in working with black and minority ethnic fathers;
establishing a network of organisations to share and promote best practice;
disseminating best practice, by producing and distributing a best practice guide and a regular newsletter, as well as presenting what works and why in conferences and network meetings.

How and when will this be achieved?

The project began in July 2005 and in this first year we will focus on a mapping exercise and establishing a network of organisations.

We are likely to be working in all the major urban areas where the majority of black and minority ethnic communities continue to live. This will include Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Mapping

We are undertaking a mapping exercise to collect and collate information of materials supporting black and minority ethnic fathers. The mapping exercise will seek information from groups and organisations working with black and minority ethnic fathers. Given the wide range of organisations involved in parenting work we will only include organisations, projects and materials that work predominately with or provide a specific service for black and minority ethnic fathers.

These materials can include: projects, programmes, activities or organisations that exist to help black and minority ethnic fathers personally and to engage with their children.

A National network

We intend to establish a network of organisations providing parenting support to black and minority ethnic father.

We are organising networking conferences to enable organisations to share information on how they are working to support black and minority ethnic fathers and to facilitate the establishment of a Network of organisations. The first event took place in London on 6 December 2005. The second event is arranged for 20 February 2006 in Leeds. These events are free.

The aims of the networking conference are:

To provide an aopportunity for organisations to discuss issues facing Asian African and Caribbean fathers;
To share information on successful ways of working with this group of fathers, and
To facilitate a discussion to establish a Network of organisations supporting black and minority ethnic fathers.

Click here to see information about the conferences and to download presentations.

Abu newsletter

Abu is the project newsletter. This publication provides an update on progress in our work, information on funding, policy and other issues that affect father. The newsletter also features articles from father work organisation providing an opportunity for them to share their practice.

Outcomes

A resource of what materials exist and evidence of what works and why in supporting black and minority ethnic fathers, and
The development of a forum for networking and sharing good practice

For further information on the project contact Tracey Bignall at REU on 020 7619 6225 or email tracey@racefound.org.uk.

Useful Race Equality Foundation publications

Family Centred by Jabeer Butt and Leandra Box
Discussion paper 3: Supporting fathers as parents by Tracey Bignall and Jabeer Butt
Discussion paper 4: Parenting by Tracey Bignall and Jabeer Butt
Discussion paper 8: Parenting and family support - government initiatives 2003 by Tracey Bignall
Discussion paper 8 revision: Parenting and family support - update on government initiatives 2005 by Tracey Bignall

Click here to see all Race Equality Foundation publications.