Program delivery and objectives

Caring Dads is a voluntary program, delivered by highly skilled practitioners. 

Kids First is the lead agency for Caring Dads and has partnerships in place to deliver the program across Victoria:

• North East Melbourne - Kids First in partnership with Uniting
• Inner Gippsland and Western Melbourne - Anglicare

The Caring Dads program comprises:

• a 17-session, empirically-based group-parenting intervention for fathers
• systematic outreach to mothers to ensure their safety and freedom from coercion
• ongoing, collaborative case management of fathers with existing service providers and other professionals involved with fathers’ families.

Program principles:

• enhance fathers’ motivation to change their behaviours
• promote child-centred fathering
• address fathers’ ability to engage in respectful, non-abusive parenting with the mothers of their children
• recognise that children’s experience of trauma will impact their development
• work collaboratively with other service providers to ensure that children benefit (and are not unintentionally harmed) because of their father’s participation in the program.

Program goals:

• To develop sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering
• To increase fathers’ awareness and application of child-centred fathering
• To increase fathers’ awareness of, and responsibility for, abusive and neglectful fathering and the impact of this on their children
• To rebuild trust with children and plan for the future.