Fathers are, of course, not all the same. That doesn't really need to be said. But as with any social category, sometimes people slip into talking as if fathers necessarily have interests and experiences in common. There are lots of different kinds of diversity to keep in mind when planning services, including family forms, class backgrounds and ethnic and cultural differences. As well as what suits individual fathers' personal style. Some will respond well to conventional men's interests, such as football, but not all will, and pretty much any approach we can think of will suit some fathers better than others.
One example of where an organisation has tried to respond to social diversity is the Family Links Islamic Values course. This is an adaptation of an existing programme whose origins are in the United States, in the work of Stephen Bavolek. It was already up and running in many parts of England and Wales, when a family support worker called Arifa Naeem, a Muslim woman who had run the programme and believed in its potential to help parents, decided to adapt it for Muslim parents. I carried out a small-scale process evaluation of the course for fathers, just to describe the approach and what the fathers thought about it. They were very positive indeed about it. The next step will be to get some evidence on outcomes for parents and children.
It's an interesting example, because most attempts at 'cultural adaptation' only consider ethnicity and language, whereas this is a version of the programme specifically for a (multi-ethnic) religious group. It's not the only attempt to develop an Islamically-appropriate parenting programme. Approachable parenting was developed specifically for Muslim parents, rather than being an adaptation of an existing secular programme as with Family Links.
One example of where an organisation has tried to respond to social diversity is the Family Links Islamic Values course. This is an adaptation of an existing programme whose origins are in the United States, in the work of Stephen Bavolek. It was already up and running in many parts of England and Wales, when a family support worker called Arifa Naeem, a Muslim woman who had run the programme and believed in its potential to help parents, decided to adapt it for Muslim parents. I carried out a small-scale process evaluation of the course for fathers, just to describe the approach and what the fathers thought about it. They were very positive indeed about it. The next step will be to get some evidence on outcomes for parents and children.
It's an interesting example, because most attempts at 'cultural adaptation' only consider ethnicity and language, whereas this is a version of the programme specifically for a (multi-ethnic) religious group. It's not the only attempt to develop an Islamically-appropriate parenting programme. Approachable parenting was developed specifically for Muslim parents, rather than being an adaptation of an existing secular programme as with Family Links.