Supporting Indigenous Fathers’ Involvement

Jessica BallEarly Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships

University of Victoria

School of Child and Youth Care

Indigenous Fathers Involvement:Inaugural Study

What are characteristics of Indigenous fathers, their roles, needs & goals?

• 2003-2008

• Indigenous community-based research team

• 73 First Nations fathers

• 7 Metis fathers

• 2 hour taped interview conducted at home

• Questionnaires about family roles & utilization of community programs & services

• Community-University Partnerships

• 2 First Nations & 3 urban Aboriginal groups

• All in BC

• Part of a nationally networked study of fatherhood aimed at increasing awareness of the various contributions to families made by diverse populations of fathers in Canada. Fathers Involvement Research Alliance:

www.fira.ca/

Why now?

Recognition that Indigenous men are the most socially excluded population in Canada

Highest rates of:• Placement in government care• Early school leaving• Unemployment• Geographic mobility• Suicide• Criminal convictions & incarceration• Domestic violence• Hard-core poverty

Vulnerable men, and unstable fathers

Services are asking for help

Family violence programs – support men to promote domestic harmony, provide support for men after partners and children are gone

Correctional institutions – support men to understand how their own experience of fatherhood has affected them and how they are affecting their children.

Schools – “Where are these kids’ dads? We want to involve them in their kids’ education!”

Early childhood programs – Holistic approaches such as AHS aim to strengthen family support including fathers.

“Fathers may very well be the greatest untapped resource in the lives of Indigenous children. If we could support them to get involved and stay connected with their children, that would be a big protective factor for these youngsters as they grow up.”

Grand Chief Ed John, BC First Nations Summit

Who are Indigenous fathers?As fathers, what do they need and want?

Heartbreak

Fact: About half of Indigenous children and youth in Canada are growing up in lone mother headed households.

What does the research say?

While children can thrive without a father’s involvement, 30 years of research has shown that positive fathers involvement contributes to:

• positive child development outcomes, • fathers’ mental health, sense of purpose, rate of

injuries.

Sudden discontinuity in fathers involvement

(eg., through divorce, incarceration, death, or a father’s personal inability to stay involved) is particularly disruptive for child development and subsequent adjustment.

How fathers can make a difference in their child’s life

How father involvement can make a different in fathers lives

How father absence can make a difference in a child’s life

“My father left us just about when I was supposed

to start going to school. Even though he was really

mean to us, I thought it was my fault that he left

and that’s why I wanted to stay home and help out

my mother as best I could instead of going to

school. Then I heard he died, and it was like there

was no hope for our family. We had no money and

not much of anything, and nothing much to hope

for … I felt pretty bad about myself, about all of it,

including why he left us, left me, with nothing to

hope for. I didn’t do anything to better myself for

years, and haven’t finished much of my schooling.

But now I want to pick myself up and try to make it

better for my children so they know the joys and

rewards of having both parents in their lives.”

Colonial Interventions

Heartbreak

Fact: Colonial interventions have disrupted families and circles of care within

communities. Many fathers raising children and youth today did not experience

caring from the men in their lives or what it means to live in a family.

What does the research say?The best predictor of the degree to which a parent engages in positive and sustained parenting behaviour is the experience that this parent had with being parented themselves.

“Back then, when my first children were born, I

didn’t have any communication skills like normal

fathers had. The affection of a loving father-child

relationship, like kissing your younger children. I

only learned years later that that was what it takes

to love a child. Over the years I have learned to

love myself. Then I’ll be able to learn to love my

child. There was nothing like that when I was

growing up in a residential school. Because I was

in residential school until I was 18 years old, so I

really didn’t learn anything. No love and no hugs

from the priests or nuns. I just came out cold.”

Fathers’ involvement matters!

HopeFatherhood as a healing journey

“Being a father to her is part of a healing journey – for me, for my extended family, for us as a people, reconnecting us to our ancestors and the care they showed to children. It’s part of who we are, and becoming a father re-awakens that spirit.”

HopeOvercoming the odds: How?

The birth of one’s child: “all at once my life had a purpose.”

Playing with children: “healed my heart.”

Being in a relationship with a child: “I feel like a loved man.”

Taking responsibility for children: “helped me to become a man.”

Sustaining a stable partnership: “taught me to manage my anger.”

Reaching out for help from family: “brought me closer to my relatives and community.”

Sustaining a stable lifestyle: “I do it all for him, and for me, because I want to be around when he becomes a dad, so I can help him with what he’ll have to know to be a good father.”

“The turn around generation”

Multi-sectoral policy & program strategies

Education, health, social development, child welfare and early learning sectors are increasingly seeking help to:

Orient boys to the prospects of fatherhood

Prepare young men for fatherhood

Support Indigenous fathers’ positive involvement in their children’s lives

Sustain connections between fathers and children across changing circumstances

But they don’t know what to do and have few or no resources to do anything!

Develop Indigenous capacity to reach out to youth and to fathers

Train Indigenous fathers to lead workshops in schools & community settings for:

1. Indigenous boys in middle & high school to postpone fatherhood, develop relationship skills, anticipate becoming fathers, learn about prenatal & child care.

2. Indigenous fathers to learn more about fathering, child health & development, communication.

3. Indigenous fathers whose connection with children is disrupted.

4. Community program staff to increase knowledge & skills to secure fathers’ involvement in:prenatal programs, child wellness clinics, early learning, education, supervised visitation, recreation.

Fund positions for father involvement workers

In community-based programs, such as:• Infant development• Child care• Early learning programs (e.g., AHS)• Friendship Centres• Recreation

In institutions, such as:• Correctional institutions (e.g., “Healing our spirit”

could introduce a fathering component)• Schools• Maternity care

Resource Development

Create a range of print materials & DVDs:• educating boys about what to anticipate about

fatherhood• encouraging registration of paternity• promoting fathers involvement• presenting positive images of Indigenous men with

children

Produce ‘Fathers Day’ materials that reinforce positive fathers roles (ball caps, children’s books featuring dads).

Research

Fill the vacuum of knowledge about Indigenous youths’ expectations & experiences of fatherhood.

Statistics Canada: We have no way to count fathers or mothers in Canada.

Introduce a fertility question for men (never asked) & women (dropped in 2001, was only ever asked of ever-married females over 14 yrs). Ask all over 12 yrs (married or not) number of children ever born.

Priorities for a program of research: Explore how Indigenous youth view their fathers &

fatherhood.

Investigate practical, psychological, and policy issues surrounding paternity registration.

Describe experiences of Inuit, Metis and Indigenous youth becoming fathers: challenges, needs, successes.

Document promising practices in innovative programs reaching out to Indigenous boys & fathers.

All together now!

Committed Partners

Fathers Involvement Research Alliance of Canada (FIRA)

Fathers Involvement Initiative: Ontario Network

(FII-ON)

Fathers Involvement Network: B.C. (FIN-BC)

Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships Program, U.Victoria

Find out more….

www.ecdip.org/fathers