National Fatherhood Initiative
January 6, 2021
Founded in 1994, the National Fatherhood Initiative is the biggest fatherhood organization in the country and provides a treasure trove of information and tools for those of us who are committed to building greater father family involvement. While we have to continue to forge ahead with building allies and sources in this worthy cause, it is important to keep in mind long standing partners such as the NFI.
They offer a wide array of free resources in addition to well regarded, established professional training and evaluations. According to fatherhood.org, the NFI has distributed 9,494,621 Skill-Building Resources, trained 35,510 individuals and 6,808 community organizations.
24:7 Dad and InsideOut Dad are long standing evidence based curriculums that help in working directly with fathers. Both have been utilized in over 400 organizations and institutions in over 47 different states. Fathering in 15 is an online tool that helps dads become better dads via interactive, engaging topics used by 213 organizations in 45 states.
To stay abreast of the latest developments you can sign up for “The Father Factor” blog updates, and sign up to join their online Father Engagement Learning Community. They have online and in person certificate trainings and are able to tailor custom trainings.
Their Father Friendly Check Up tool helps you assess how your organization encourages (or doesn’t encourage) father involvement in the activities and programs offered by your organization. The NFI can do a more comprehensive Father-Readiness Network Assessment that can evaluate your network at micro and macro levels to better engage fathers across sites/offices.
To help you illustrate the importance of fathers you can download and use their Father Facts Infographics. There are just some of the quality resources they provide.
