Objective: When it comes to parenting, dads and male caregivers play a critical and often overlooked role in promoting and creating a complete child, preventing abuse and neglect, and fostering strong family connections. So often, home visiting programs, parenting classes, and family support initiatives tend to focus on mothers, not out of neglect, but because of tradition or unintended bias leaving dads and male caregivers under-engaged and under-supported. But the reality is that when fathers and male caregivers feel seen, heard, and valued, families thrive. This session will explore the importance of intentionally engaging, including and empowering dads and male caregivers in home visits, and recognizing our unique strengths, challenges, and perspectives. Participants will learn, practice and apply practical strategies for fostering dad and male caregiver-friendly environments, building trust, and ensuring that dads and male caregivers feel and know we are safe, secure, seen, heard, and valued. Together, we can work toward creating a more inclusive and holistic approach to parenting support — because engaging the other half of parenting is essential for strong families and safer children. 

Introduction and Overview

This section provides an outline of key concepts and activities designed to support fathers, soon-to-be fathers, and male caregivers in building meaningful relationships and fostering emotional intelligence. The approach emphasizes a relationship-based model inspired by hospitality, ensuring a supportive and engaging experience.

Key components include:

• Hospitality: A Relationship-Based Model – Creating a welcoming and supportive environment.
• Therapeutic and Trauma Informed • Parallel Process – Encouraging learning through shared experiences and mutual support.
• Engaging Activities – Interactive exercises such as journaling, vision boards, Mindful-Self Regulation (MSR), and icebreakers like "Life in Movies, Shows, or Books."
• Emotional Intelligence and Vulnerability – Understanding alexithymia (difficulty identifying and expressing emotions) and developing emotional awareness.
• Gender Differences – Exploring differences between males and females.
• The Benefits of Father/Male Caregiver Presence – Discussing the positive impact of involved fatherhood on children, families, and communities. 20 minutes PPT with open discussion and dialogue such as Explore and Wonder ways to genuinely engage through creating safe, secure healing environments such as: Daddy Dialogue is a safe, secure, and healing platform for the community to build a system of care for fathers, soon-to-be fathers, and male caregivers through a family system approach to achieve the ultimate goal of creating complete children and adults. The goal of creating complete children and adults is done through exchanging information, learning, and educating, diminishing chronic abuse and neglect within homes, schools, and communities, stopping the absentee father tradition, and providing support to fathers, soon-to-be fathers, male caregivers, and families.
• Provide examples of topics such as The Importance of Dads and Male Caregivers, Reduce Abuse and Neglect, Fathers Rights, Transition from Boyhood to Manhood, Child Development, Planning for Your Baby, Health and Wellness, Financial Literacy and others. 5 minutes Activity "The Book of Burdens" Activity

Objective: Demonstrate the difference between helping others and taking on their burdens and walking alongside

How it Works:

1. Label books with different "problems" (e.g., stress, finances).

2. A volunteer holds the books as others hand them over, showing how burdens pile up.

3. When overwhelmed, another person assists—not by taking the books away, but by offering support or solutions.

Key Takeaway: We can help others by supporting them without carrying their burdens for them, demonstrating walking alongside, empowering, moving from dependent to independent and our role 

Conclusion: Testimonial video, takeaways, reflection and dialogue