Fatherhood Support Programme

This course runs from September 2021 – December 2021

The Problem

Many men, for many different reasons, have grown up without enough healthy support and guidance from their fathers and/or society. Unsupported men often find being an effective father extremely difficult, and so the pattern continues.

Our Solution

It is possible to learn to give and receive the support that we didn’t have growing up and build on the support we did have. We create a safe, supportive and confidential environment, where we can discuss what it means to be a father. We learn ways of becoming grounded, bringing attention to awareness to what is going on for us, expressing and supporting each other, developing ourselves from wherever our starting point is.

The Programme

Children do not attend, it is for the fathers only. We start with 1:1 sessions. This is important as the idea of joining a group of strangers can be intimidating and put people off. Then we move into our group sessions and meet once a week for 9 weeks, finishing with a couple of days out in a local private woodland, learning some practical skills of bushcraft with nature connection. We teach you how to light fires, we cook and eat together and we celebrate our journey.

During the sessions we learn how to receive and give support with other fathers. We explore our core emotions, and how they play out, or how we avoid them and the impact this has. Through our own internal inquiry we find meaning in it all and explore why our children behave in different ways. We look at why and how we react and respond, who we truly want to be, continually deepening the connection we have to ourselves and our children, all in a way that is non-judgmental and without giving advice.

We repeat this Programme and invite back men who have completed it in the past. This gives them the opportunity to develop themselves further and offer support to the newer men through peer support. We have progression routes to other organisations which can enrich further the journey each man takes, and gives them a chance to train to be mentors.