Waitakere City is holding a ’Focus on Fathering Week’ again, building on last year’s events. This year’s celebration, coordinated by Promoting Great Parenting, Violence Free Waitakere and the Waitakere City Council includes free mall displays, seminars and Health Checks, all ending with the Fathers Day picnic, from 9—2.30 at the Tui Glen Reserve.

The opening dinner, to be hosted by Mayor Bob Harvey, will include  singers, entertainers and guest speakers Pio Terei, Cindy Kiro, and Alfred Ngaro. Telephone 837 4849 for $15.00 tickets, be quick as seats are limited.

An overnight ‘Journey To The Falls’ retreat, for fathers with their ‘tramping aged’ sons, sets off at 2pm on Saturday 6th, plus midweek evening forums are planned for Pacific fathers and disabled Dads.

Further Fathering Week fun will include a photographic display in the West City Mall and evening seminars at the Kelston Community Centre on Tuesday 2nd plus, any men can check out a Health Bus in Railside Ave for free tests.

Please note – at the Father’s Day picnic, be prepared to help as this is a combined day with Project Twin Streams.

Further details on www.waitakere.govt.nz – see fathers!

Newly formed Canterbury Mens Centre has organised a series of events to celebrate Men’s Health Week (9 – 15 June) and raise awareness for Men’s Health in general, (more…)

A draft strategy produced by the National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee for the Director-General of Health makes no mention of fathers. (more…)

After printing and distributing flyers and posters, plus advising the local papers, we had around twelve people attend our initial meeting, including several keen committee members.

Between my introduction and Harald’s explanation of the Trust’s background, we answered many questions and felt confident of a need for our services in Auckland.

We attended the Toddler’s Day Out, March 2nd Waitakere City, we met many people, we were very busy, sharing our flyers, magazines and booklets, always running out!

At one stage, we were visited by the Prime Minister Hon. Helen Clark, a lady from Poland who runs the Child Connection Trust, Plunket, Parents Centre and other west Auckland representatives from Barnardos, Porse and many Kindergartens.

We also attended the Teddy Bear’s Picnic at the Domain, thanks to Paul Catton, and it was noted that with so many punters, we should be there next year as well.

We recently attended the Onehunga Fair, Sat 5th April, meeting more important contacts and potential new members, plus we heard the Mayor John Banks say what a great day it was as he stood within 8m of a where a new motorway runs,

We also attended the Onehunga Community Services Group meeting, spoke briefly and outlined our intentions, met several new contacts and shared flyers.

Our next meeting was at Onehunga Community Center, next to the library and a very new, well presented building. We had four new members including two from the previous meeting, including Eva the Child Connect lady. We enjoyed her outline and agreed to write an article on her program.

The demand for flyers has seen our limited supply run out completely, our next batch of 200 expected this week will almost certainly be exhausted right away.

I have heard from a West Health nurse met with the intention of setting up a teenage dad support program. He has had several questions answered by Harald and is holding a meeting in Early May. I also met a west Auckland Plunket lady who is trying to encourage a few young dads in Glen Eden.

From the start of next school term, ie Mon 5th May, we will invite solo or young dads to a Jingle and Jive song and dance event for toddlers. For $5 they can come along, participate and have tea afterwards.

There are similar sessions in the library on Thursdays so we expect a bit of cross-over promotion but we need to advertise and promote it too. I see this as a great way to involve local fathers and potential helpers.

We have set 5th May for our next meeting and expect a few new members.

While the next visit from Harald will be later in May and should allow us to have a New Babies magazine launch in Auckland, there may not be time to arrange a Dads and Babies Talk, as being held in Palmerton North, but I hope Harald can meet the Parents Center people and agree on a date.

As you may have heard, we were awarded approx $8k from Lotteries for event, salary and office costs.

Father & Child and Waipuna Trusts in Christchurch are trialing a couples version of ante-natal and early parenting classes for teen parents.
Teen parents are notoriously missing from the otherwise well-attended and free birth preparation classes run by hospitals and other providers such as Parents Centres. Waipuna has received feedback from young mums that they feel uncomfortable amongst the older parents.
Waipuna is setting up some antenatal classes for teen mums, but is also keen to explore an approach that encourages cooperation between young mums and dads. Teenage dads are not targeted by any teenage ‘parent’ service provider in New Zealand despite research showing their keenness to be involved.
A trial group has been run in March, attended by both expecting couples and couples with a young baby.
Both Waipuna and Father & Child acknowledge that teenage relationships are volatile, however separation should not lead to permanent exclusion of the father from the baby’s life.

UK agency ‘Fathers Direct’ has re-launched itself as the ‘Fatherhood Institute’ to better reflect their work with agencies ,researchers and policy makers rather than directly with fathers.
The Fatherhood Institute is one of very few fathers agencies in the world getting significant funding from their government, and have become one of the most important resources about fatherhood and working with fathers in the world.
Fathers Direct was set up after the success of UK author Adrienne Burgess’s book ‘Fatherhood Reclaimed’ in 1997. Burgess was instrumental in starting the agency and obtaining government support.
In 2003 Fathers Direct hosted the International Fatherhood Summit, an intense working week of 50 hand-picked ‘experts’ in the field and funded by the Bernard-van-Leer Foundation, a Holland-based international funder of Early Childhood Development projects. Father & Child Trust was one of the invitees.

Web site:
www.fatherhoodinstitute.org

Forget about advice booklets on how to be a good dad. For the first time NZ dads celebrating the birth of a new baby will be greeted and acknowledged at the hospital by a resource produced by other fathers.
Father & Child brings you the New Babies Edition, free of charge, through the Bounty Birth Pack in hospitals in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington!
The mag is in typical Father & Child style: a mix of factual articles and first-hand stories, although the latter provide the bulk for this special edition. What’s it like to be a new dad? To add a new baby to the family? Or to start a second family? Are dads still expected to be main providers? Fathers talk about these unique experiences and describe that unique mix of joy, wonder and worries.
The design is sponsored by Christchurch-based Strategy Advertising and Design, an award-winning firm considered to be a leader in the design market. This first issue was made possible by donations from the Canterbury Community Trust, ASB Community Trust and the Lion Foundation.
This first issue has a print run of 15,000 copies, which is expected to last 6 months at current birth rates. The Trust aims to make this publication ongoing and nationwide. For this, advertising support will be needed.

by Brendon Smith

On the 2nd of March, 2008 Father and Child Trust Auckland, ‘came out’ in public. The event was the Toddler Day Out at Waitakere’s Trust Stadium. We were convinced that it was a better networking event than the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. In the end, we were lucky that another Trust helper attended Auckland’s usually more popular, domain based fun day.
After meeting and being given a handy sand-pit, by Annie Gordon of Barnardos, one of the organisers, we knew our visitors would be able to chat, while the toddlers built castles. With a giant bouncy Castle and busy dance and activity stage, the fun was everywhere, and we struggled to keep up with the visitors. Among the Dads and mums were other stand representatives who had noticed us. We got a lot of ‘finally’ and ‘thank-goodness’.
At one stage, we were visited by the Prime Minister Hon. Helen Clark, who asked. ‘And who are these people?’ to which I replied ‘We are the Father and Child Trust, we aim to educate and encourage all Dads. The PM replied quickly ‘Well, you encourage them to take up their paternal leave, now, if they want it.’ and I said ‘Yes, thanks.’
Then, her assistant noticed my buddy Ian, recently returned from Australia, mainly to live here while he brings up his children, with his baby asleep on his shoulder, beside me. They had to take the opportunity, three fast grins were assumed and the flash went pop!
We were glad to be noticed, but I was not sure if I wanted to be seen in that photograph. In fact, we met so many good contacts it needed to be a special person to stand out. Then, when I came across massage therapist Eva Scherer I was sold. She had me happily being photographed outside her pink drop tent and then smiling, sitting right inside!
There I had been, feeling reluctant in a photo–op. with a VIP, yet happy to be pink…

Want to be involved with Auckland Father & Child? Contact Brendon at:
brendon@fatherandchild.org.nz
Or ph 525 1690

About a dozen fathers responded to Father & Child’s Auckland Regional Coordinator Brendon Smith’s call to form an Auckland committee. The Trust plans to build a viable local branch eventually providing services similar to those available in Christchurch and has received some support from funders for the initiative.

The meeting, which was held at Onehunga Community Centre, aimed to be the first step in a strategy that sets goals for the Trust in Auckland over the next year.

On the 2nd of March, 2008 Father and Child Trust Auckland, ‘came out’ in public. The event was the Toddler Day Out at Waitakere’s Trust Stadium. We were convinced that it was a better networking event than the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. In the end, we were lucky that another Trust helper attended Auckland’s usually more popular, domain based fun day.

After meeting and being given a handy sand-pit, by Annie Gordon of Barnardos, one of the organisers, we knew our visitors would be able to chat, while the toddlers built castles. With a giant bouncy Castle and busy dance and activity stage, the fun was everywhere, and we struggled to keep up with the visitors. Among the Dads and mums were other stand representatives who had noticed us. We got a lot of ‘finally’ and ‘thank-goodness’.

At one stage, we were visited by the Prime Minister Hon. Helen Clark, who asked. ‘And who are these people?’ to which I replied ‘We are the Father and Child Trust, we aim to educate and encourage all Dads. The PM replied quickly ‘Well, you encourage them to take up their paternal leave, now, if they want it.’ and I said ‘Yes, thanks.’

Then, her assistant noticed my buddy Ian, recently returned from Australia, mainly to live here while he brings up his children, with his baby asleep on his shoulder, beside me. They had to take the opportunity, three fast grins were assumed and the flash went pop!

We were glad to be noticed, but I was not sure if I wanted to be seen in that photograph. In fact, we met so many good contacts it needed to be a special person to stand out. Then, when Eva Scherer first met me, within a few minutes, she had me happily being photographed outside her pink drop tent and then smiling, sitting right inside!

There I had been, feeling reluctant in a photo–opp. with a VIP, yet happy to be pink?