Father & Child Auckland has received funding from the Manurewa Community Board (Manukau City Council) towards a series of 3 seminars on what it means to be a father. These seminars will be held later in 2010.

Details will be announced shortly but if you are interested or know anyone who might be send us an email to auckland@fatherandchild.org.nz, phone us on 09 525 1690 or send us a letter to Father & Child Trust, PO Box 11931 Ellerslie, Auckland.

Dan Brown, a young father being supported by the Father & Child Trust, was interviewed on TV3 about the new “In Your Hands” DVD produced by Great Fathers.

Daniel Brown TV3 13th July 2010

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The Auckland Father & Child Trust has been granted $5,000 for a short-term project involving teen dads after having been approached by the Ministry of Youth Development. Youth Development minister Paula Bennett and local MP Peseta Sam Lotu-liga have both issued media statements about the funds (Paula Bennett here; Lotu-liga here).
Father & Child understands that the funds are part of unspent monies from the 2009 budget rather than ‘new’ funding. The money going to Father & Child appears to be the only funds from this pool tagged for teenage fathers, but some organisations working with teenage mothers in other parts of the country have also benefited.
Teenage parents have been getting a big funding boost in the 2010 budget, with government more than doubling the number of directly funded case-work positions to 19 nationwide, and special funds set aside for teen dad projects.

Teen dads are probably the first fathers to ever be mentioned in a New Zealand budget. The government set aside $750,000 over four years to re-train the service sector to better include teen fathers in existing services for teen ‘parents’.

This is part of about $15 million in funding for teen parents over the next four years, which includes an increase in directly funded ‘teen parent service coordinator’ positions.

Other social initiatives include a ring-fenced family and community services fund, and a fund to make the social sector more efficient and work together better.

A Father & Child survey of 124 dads attending the Waitakere City Toddler Day Out this year, found that a majority felt their needs as a dad are well catered for in Waitakere City.

However, only half said that they’d had face-to-face contact with a Well Child Health provider, such as Plunket. Home-based Well Child Health services are available to all babies and their parents.

More than three quarters of dads felt Waitakere supported early parenting and families well, but only 57% thought new dads were well supported. Even fewer thought the city did well for separated or solo dads.

Fathers with an only child under one felt especially frustrated with a lack of inclusion, and rated support for families much higher than support for dads. They were clearly appreciative of what is being done to keep baby healthy and put families on track, but about half of these dads appeared to have been effectively kept out of the loop by the agencies involved.

It seems that although family service providers may be more aware of fathers and their important contribution to child development, they still do not make enough effort to meet with them and engage them.

There were some signs that this had improved over recent years. A father with a child under one was almost twice as likely to report having had face-to-face contact with a Well Child Health provider than a father with a child aged three or over.

The survey highlighted the importance of that face-to-face contact. Fathers who had such contact with some of the leading agencies generally felt much better supported than their peers who had not, and seem to have generally better access to information.

Dads who engaged with Playcentres stood out as being significantly happier with their support as a dad, and 73% of them said they feel encouraged to participate in their child’s early education.

Perhaps surprisingly, separated fathers felt better supported than those living with the mother of the child. Only 30% thought they were not supported as new dads, 10% felt families are not supported, 11% thought there are not enough fun events for dads and kids and only 9% thought there is not enough information about early parenting – the lowest rates for any group analysed.

Of the partnered fathers, 44% felt unsupported as new dads, 21% felt families are not supported, 33% would like more fun events and 26% could do with more early parenting information.

Survey conducted by Father and Child Trust at Violence Free Waitakere’s Toddler Day Out, in collaboration with Geoff Bridgeman and with support from Glen Jones.

Full report here (pdf)

Auckland staff – Brendon Smith and Peter Benzie – issue an invitation to all to visit them in their new premises in the Onehunga Community Centre, 83 Church St, Onehunga anytime between 10 am and 2 pm Monday to Friday.

Feel free to drop in for a chat and a cuppa, for information, for help, to introduce your new baby to us or for whatever reason – the door is open!

The opening of this office is yet another step in the Father and Child Trust extending its services to fathers in Auckland as it seeks to support all fathers in maximising their relationships with their children.

More information on the Auckland office is available here.

Dr Fran Vertue is supervising a student’s Masters thesis at the University of Canterbury.

This study will explore the mental health and parenting practices of New Zealand parents who have separated in the past year or two.

We decided to conduct this study online, as it is convenient for most people, and helps to maintain your privacy. Read the information below, and if you’re interested, please take the link to the study.

Participate in the University of Canterbury survey and you will be entered into a draw for one of three $100 vouchers (your choice of a $100 Westfield shopping voucher or a $100 fuel voucher).

Hello, I am Kirsten Ritchie from the University of Canterbury and I am researching the psychological and parenting challenges of separated parents.

I invite you to take part in this important project if you are a parent who has separated in the past year or two. The survey I am asking you to participate in will take approximately 20 minutes to complete, and you will be asked to complete one shorter follow-up survey later in the year.

The first thing we ask is for your name and email address so that we can then send you a link into our secure server where you will find the survey. You will be asked questions about yourself, your relationship, your parenting practices, and be asked about your psychological wellbeing.

Any information you provide will be strictly confidential, and will not be disclosed to any other person or organisation.

To ensure complete confidentiality, your email address and any additional characteristics that may identify you as a participant are collected only for consent, and to send out reminders for the second survey later in the year.

This information will be available only to the Principal Researcher and will be secured on a locked computer in a locked office within the Psychology Department.

Your survey information will be assigned a code number and the only people who will have access to the matching of code numbers and the email addresses of the participants are the Principal Researcher and her supervisors.

This study has been approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the University of Canterbury.

To begin participating in the survey, please go to this website (http://psycdb.canterbury.ac.nz/limesurvey) and click on “The Mental Health and Parenting Practices of Recently Separated Parents”. Once you have registered your name and email address , you will be sent a secure link to more detailed information and the beginning of the survey.

Kirsten Ritchie
Principal Researcher in this project
University of Canterbury
telephone 03 364 2987 extension 3638
email khr19@uclive.ac.nz

The General Manager Harald Breiding-Buss today signed a lease agreement which will see the Auckland branch of the Father & Child Trust located in the Onehunga Community Centre, Te Pito ō te Iwi Whaanui 83 Church St, Onehunga as from 4 May 2010. (more…)

The government’s green paper will argue that involving fathers more in their offspring’s early years is not only good for the child, but can also help the couple’s relationship.

Every new father in Britain is to be given a “dads’ guide” that will include an explanation of breast feeding and tips on how to support their partner. (more…)

Inland Revenue is inviting submissions on a proposal by United Future on how to administer a potential Income Splitting system. Income Splitting means that a couple (only parents under the proposal) is treated as a tax unit rather than two individuals, and each parent is taxed on half of their combined income. (more…)