The role of Dad is often one we don’t come across very much in our localities. We support children, young people and families in Hall Green and Selly Oak however it’s mostly the mum or other female main caregivers we’re in touch with. At citywide level we’ll regularly (and rightly so) hear it’s the voice of the child we need to hear more of, which is true and the child’s voice is what drives the Early Help service. But the Dads voice is heard much less, he is often not visible, assumed not engaged. We want to change that, because we know Dads play a vital role in the family, particularly their impact on their children. That’s why when we were asked, by Family Hubs Birmingham, to engage Dads around what parenting support they want, we been keen to listen.
Over the course of December we are hosting focus groups across Selly Oak and Hall Green, in schools and community spaces, to deep dive into what parenting support for Dads looks like. The focus group sessions will be informed by our survey, which we hope you can share in your personal and professional Birmingham networks. The more we can hear from Dads the better informed we’ll be, and Family Hubs Birmingham will be to make important changes and design relevant parenting programmes.
It’s important to us, in a super diverse city, to hear from all kinds of parents – Dad/ Papa/ Grandfather/ Abu/ Nana/ Vater/ Papi/ Pa/ Tata/ Daddy/ Uncle/ Mama so please promote.
The survey takes around 4 minutes to complete and closes on Thursday 21st December 2023.
Green Square Accord is the voluntary sector lead for Early Help in Hall Green and Selly Oak, if you’re working with Dads and want to connect with Early Help, get in touch with simarjeet.kaur@greensquareaccord.co.uk.
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