Kids First documenting the impact of Caring Dads Program in Australia

About Caring Dads in Australia

In Australia, there are few services helping men who have used violence that specifically focus on improving parenting practices.

Caring Dads is Australia’s first evidence-based behaviour-change program helping fathers who have used violence to improve their relationship with their children.

Caring Dads supports better parenting practices and a reduction in violence to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children. It seeks to develop fathers’ ability to engage in respectful, non-abusive parenting with the mothers of their children. The program recognises the importance  of making fathers equally accountable for their behaviour and for their children’s well being — a role that is often assigned to women as protectors of their children.

Caring Dads is part of a set of complex measures to address family violence and works collaboratively with service pathways and providers to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children. A three-year pilot program commenced in 2017, made possible through a $1m grant from Gandel Philanthropy and $4.6m investment by the Victorian State Government.

Caring Dads Delivery and Objectives

Evaluation of the Caring Dads program trial

In an evaluation of the trial conducted by the University of Melbourne, the Caring Dads program has been shown to:

• have a positive impact on fathers’ parenting and co-parenting practices

• reduce the risk of children’s further exposure to domestic and family violence

• increase fathers’ ability to identify the impact of their aggressive behaviour on their children and improve men’s responses to people more generally

A summary of the evaluation is available to download (PDF)

Full report - University of Melbourne (PDF)

Learn about the Share & Together and Caring Dads Shared Values and Common Practice

Domestic violence-informed systems need a wide range of interventions with people who choose violence. Safe father-inclusive practice helps improve outcomes for women and children, accountability for perpetrators and parents, and a move away from “failure to protect” approaches.

Developed in a university partnership, Caring Dads is a group intervention program for men who have abused, neglected, or exposed their children to domestic violence.  Many jurisdictions that adopt the Safe & Together Model have also adopted Caring Dads.   

In this webinar, David Mandel, creator of the Safe & Together Model, and Sarah Webb, Caring Dads Global Enterprise Manager, discuss how the Caring Dads model can fit into domestic violence-informed systems change.

The Webinar Takeaways

• The Caring Dads program and its implementation around the world

• The connections between domestic violence informed and father-inclusive practice

• How the interaction of the two approaches:

  1.Mutually reinforces shared values and practice

  2. Increases the positive outcomes associated with both efforts; and

  3. Strengthens collaboration between fathering programs, statutory child welfare systems and wider sectors engaging with families impacted by domestic violence

Webinar Details

Safe & Together and Caring Dads: Shared Values and Practice Webinar

North American Registration: July 28, 11:00 am EDT
UK/EU Registration: July, 28: 4 pm BST London Time
Asia Pacific registration: July, 28: 9 am Perth/11 am Melbourne

For more information about the webinar, you can also visit https://academy.safeandtogetherinstitute.com/pages/home

Hear about the Caring Dads work being done at Gorwel in North Wales, UK.

Caring Dads Team – Paul Jones & Gwyneth Williams
Together with North Wales Police and the North Wales Police Comissioner.

Since 2006 Gorwel has been providing services to women, men and children dealing with domestic abuse in Ynys Môn, North Wales, UK. Gorwel offers various services such as floating support in the community, Independent Domestic Abuse Adviser and two refuges at secret locations providing emergency accommodation for women and their children
escaping from domestic abuse.

We have been facilitating Caring Dads groups since 2013 working across four counties in
North Wales. Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire and Ynys Môn. We aim to facilitate four groups every year. The group is very popular with statutory agencies referring to us –Children Services, CAFCASS, Probation and self referrals from fathers.

Gorwel is able to provide a holistic approach to the family in providing a service to everyone in the family – the mother, the children and the father.

All our groups are facilitated bilingually through the medium of Welsh and English.

Together making positive difference in lives, families and communities

Training feedback from the families

Testimonials from Dads

“In the beginning I thought it was all a waste of my time and I didn’t see the point in going.But after a few sessions I felt that I was learning from the programme, especially in regards to the impact of the children seeing domestic abuse”.

“My little girl has altered a lot and is a very happy girl. Little tips I have gained from the programme have really helped – like the importance of playing, listening and praising her”.

“I’ve learnt so much from Caring Dads, how to show my stepchild love and to cherish her more. I’ve learnt restraint and not to fly of the handle so much and try and see it from the child’s point of view. I’m a lot calmer and more forgiving when I see her now”.

“The programme helped me to understand what I witnessed as a child (domestic violence) has impacted me and how I behave with my own family today”.

Testimonials from Moms

“He struggled at the beginning because he didn’t think he needed to be on the programme. But he seemed to relax as the sessions have gone on. He will now talk about the sessions with me and tell me what he has learnt. I don’t think he had realised the impact his behaviour had on our children and myself.”

“He is now much calmer with me. He now wants to spend more quality time with the
children. He likes taking them swimming and for days out”.

“Since has been attending the programme we argue less, he will open up more about how he
is feeling. He doesn’t seem as frustrated as before. He is now supporting me more with the children. I think he now sees why Social Services were concerned about us.

For more information about the programme, you can also visit https://www.pauljonesisw.co.uk/caring-dads-programme

or

http://www.grwpcynefin.org/en/home/