Father & Child Trust has cleared the first hurdle of obtaining funds for a research project involving solo fathers with full custody of children under 8 years of age. The new Lottery Community Research Fund has invited the Trust to submit a full research proposal after accepting the idea.
The Trust hopes to get a better idea of the support needs of this group of families, including whether any patterns emerge about the needs of their children. Solo fathers appear underrepresented in mainstream family health and social services, and the study aims to find some of the barriers preventing solo father families from being better supported.
We’d like to hear from any solo dads with young children, living in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland. Please email if you think you can help.

The Plunket Society is trialing a new parenting course for fathers called ‘Dads4Dads’, with an eye to rolling it out nationwide through Plunket. Project leader Claire Rumble says that in principle she prefers courses where both parents can participate jointly, but some of their solo fathers have indicated that having a specific course for dads would be more useful.

Initial facilitators for the course trial include stay-home dad Scott Lancaster, who manages the DIYFather web site www.diyfather.com.

Most respondents to the Families Commission’s internet-based ‘Couch Poll’ on fathers said ‘better attitudes towards fathers from society’ was the single most important thing that could be done to support fathers. Of the 142 predominantly male respondents, 46% agreed with this, followed by flexible working hours, paid paternity leave and father-specific parenting courses with 30-35% each.
Partners (71%) and friends (65%) easily topped the list of people fathers turn to for support and information, while health professionals and social service organisations scored under 10%.

Click here for the report .