The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare
The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare

This document was printed from the website of the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC), which you can access at http://www.cebc4cw.org/

Supporting Father Involvement - Implementation Information

Scientific Rating: 2
"Supported by Research Evidence"

Pre-implementation Assessments to be given to organizations or providers in order to measure organizational or individual readiness:

The Supporting Father Involvement (SFI) organization uses an Organizational Self-Assessment Scale that they adapted from the original version by The National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership (NPCL), in partnership with the National Head Start Association (NHSA), the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Region V, and the Illinois Department of Public Aid, Division of Child Support Enforcement. For more information about the original version, contact Nigel Vann, NPCL's Director of Partnership Development, at 202-822-6725 or JoAnn Nelson-Hooks, NHSA's Fatherhood Coordinator, at 703-739-7560. SFI's Modification is available online for agencies participating at SFI level 2. For access to the scale offline, please contact SFI Project Manager, Sam Braus, MSW, via email at sbraus@icfs.org or via phone at 805-485-6114 ext. 679.

Implementation Tools for the program (e.g., implementation guides or manuals):

There are two manuals for Group Leaders, one for the 16-week fathers group program and one for the 16-week couples group program. Each curriculum contains a week-by-week outline of topics to be discussed, and suggested exercises to elicit discussion. The curricula can be obtained by family agency directors, clinical directors, or the equivalent, but not by private practitioners or individual clinicians within agencies. The curriculum is also available to researchers. To get the curricula, please contact Philip A. Cowan via email at pcowan@berkeley.edu.

Fidelity measures:

SFI's organization does not have measures of fidelity, but the program does have three procedures in place to ensure model fidelity. First, see the link on the bottom of the page for a set of principles that define the essential ingredients of the intervention model. Second, the group leaders at the site implementing SFI fill out group logs each week that describe the topics discussed. This helps to assure that the leaders are following the curriculum. Third, one of the core Principal Investigators of the project conducts a bi-monthly hour-long telephone consultation conference call with all of the group leaders from the 5 sites of the project. This call helps leaders from multiple sites to problem solve in ways that maintains the fidelity of the curriculum across sites. New single-site implementations with some ongoing technical support may be arranged by contacting Strategies.

Supporting Father Involvement's Ten Central Dimensions of Model Fidelity

1. Curriculum and group sessions

  • Philosophy that follows the Supporting Father Involvement comprehensive interactive approach to conducting groups
  • Content involves more than couple relationship or parenting skills (5 aspects of family life)
  • Male-female group leader teams
  • Initial interview by group leaders of each participating couple (co-parents)
  • Structure of sessions (open-ended + structure)
  • Enrollment set at the beginning, no rolling enrollment or "drop ins"
  • Group size 8-10 couples max
  • Number of sessions (hours) 32 hour minimum

2. Target population

  • SFI sites screen potential clients and refer out participants with some high risk characteristics (e.g. severe mental illness, substance abuse, recent or ongoing violence)

3. Training of Group Leaders

  • Clinical training or equivalent, group experience necessary
  • MFT students with group experience and ongoing supervision is an alternative to fully licensed leaders
  • Interns paired with more experienced (license eligible) group leaders is also an alternative

4. Supervision of group leaders

  • Especially at the beginning of the project, ongoing TA and clinical supervision must be available for the group leaders

5. Case Managers

  • In the SFI project, Case Managers have three major tasks: (1) assessment interviews at baseline and follow-ups; (2) maintaining involvement of clients; and (3) brief clinical contact and referral for other services

6. Institutional atmosphere

  • Focus on father friendliness within agency

7. Evaluation Component

  • Gathering of systematic information is a requirement of participation in the project.

8. Child care (personnel, space)

  • Having childcare for parents attending meetings provides benefits for children, each parent, and the couple

9. Food during meetings

  • Depending on the meeting time, this may be essential

10. Characteristics of agencies necessary to mount successful program

  • Commitment to the project at all levels from Director to line staff
  • Open and effective communication among staff members
  • A collaborative spirit in the staff
  • Willingness to think outside the box to develop new strategies to support a new, preventive intervention