Current DadsFirst Programs
Our Programs utilize expert curriculum and proven methodologies
We believe that our society must support the capacity of fathers to raise their children and to stay actively engaged with them. We dedicate ourselves to equipping fathers to become loving models of commitment who help develop and support their children socially, mentally and spiritually throughout their children’s lives and who will continually seek to build up their children’s sense of self-esteem, worth and value.
We are committed to programs that will improve a father’s parenting, financial and social skills, including those that help fathers become a strong, spiritual servant leader for the family, navigate governmental child-support systems and maintain healthy marriages and interactions with moms.
We provide programs to help fathers raise their children and to stay actively engaged with them. We equip fathers to become loving models of commitment to help develop and support their children socially, mentally and spiritually throughout their children’s lives.
We are committed to programs that will:
· improve a father’s parenting and social skills at all ages,
· help fathers become strong, spiritual servant leaders for the family,
· direct fathers to navigate governmental child-support systems
· maintain healthy marriages and interactions with their child’s mother
Please scroll down to look over our programs, classes and ways to partner with us both in your community and around the world.
Our curriculum focuses on these 4 key areas:
Reconciling with their own father
Ending transference of blame to others
Identifying the source of their own anger
Ending the hatred or contempt of women, especially their mothers and wives
Our current DadsFirst Programs are:
Prison Ministry
Re- Entry and Recovery Ministry
First-time Dads
Urban Fathering
The most important thing I learned at this workshop about fathering was that my two children are growing up without a positive influence from me. This course provides a plan that I can use to be an involved father.”
– Darrell, age 37
Prison Ministry
Inmates at Lino Lakes, a Minnesota Correctional Facility, elect to participate in a DadsFirst fathering program. During the first 3 months of an 18-month rehabilitation program, they are challenged to write a letter to their fathers.
“If they are willing to write it and send it, the implications for reconciliation and healing can be huge,” says Chuck Aycock, DadsFirst president and founder. “For example, three weeks after one prisoner sent a letter to his dad, the father came to visit him after an eight year absence.”
Many inmates write to fathers who they’ve never known or to fathers who are now dead. Some, like Oscar, age 42, write to fathers who they wish they’d had.
“Dad with Father Qualities Wanted,” writes Oscar. “Someone between the ages 66 to 86, …willing to talk at the most unexpected times, willing to accept a son with emotions and genuine feelings, the ability to show compassion … with a [desire] to give encouragement and confidence to a son.”
Men who have never had a strong male role model in their life struggle with the emotional pain that this void causes them, no matter what their age, says Aycock. Recognizing this hurt is where healing starts, he adds.
“Over the years, DadsFirst has written its own curriculum for inmates,” points out Tim Olson, DadsFirst staff member and life coach, “so it’s customized and designed specifically for the inmates and their families.”
DadsFirst would like to expand its curriculum to other prisons adding new ones regularly. While the opportunities are great, so are the needs.
There is always a need for men to go with our volunteer teams to the prisons. Contact us if you have a heart for this ministry.
Re- Entry and Recovery Ministry
Re-entry: DadsFirst provides a court approved option for men who have left prison and are trying to adjust to life back out on the streets. This is an emotionally difficult and at-risk time of transition. Renewing relationships is often a major barrier. Men may elect our fathering program of 10 weekly lessons for dealing with this stage of their transition.
Recovery: Men of various ages who are involved in substance abuse rehabilitation may also participate in the DadsFirst 10-week sequence. This fathering program focuses on many of the very issues that led these men to addiction in the first place and includes topics that are not typically covered at the institutions themselves (see 4 curriculum points above). (Link the words in parenthesis to the location above.)
Currently, DadsFirst serves these men at Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge in Minneapolis, Life Rebuilders (formerly Midwest Challenge), and at Freedom Works. Both Life Rebuilders and Freedom Works are institutions that help participants re-enter society.
"Men who have never had a strong father role model in their life struggle with the emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain that this void causes them, no matter what their age", says Chuck Aycock, DadsFirst president and founder. "Recognizing this hurt is where healing starts," he adds.
This is another wonderful area for volunteers to be trained to lead and teach the DadsFirst material. Contact us.
First-time dads
Working as an elective supplement to hospital neo-natal programs, DadsFirst material is offered as a 6 week program to the first time expectant fathers. This is a fun, light-hearted group to work with as the men are open and excited to learn all they can – even though it’s often their wives that sign them up!
The hospital covers the matter-of-fact essentials such as feeding and changing diapers while we cover commitment, consistency, presence, and other areas of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual relationships of fatherhood.
We currently partner with Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. The only barrier to expanding this work to other hospitals is manpower. Please volunteer.
Urban Fathering
Richard Green, a former Minneapolis school superintendent, once said, “Chuck, if the students come to kindergarten without an involved father or grandfather, they are already lost to us.” As a result, DadsFirst established this program to focus on fathers in the inner city (Near North Neighborhood) who have pre-school children. Leaders are chosen from that neighborhood who are known and can relate to those men.
If you see a similar need in your neighborhood and have a desire to have such a program start, contact us.
