| Purpose : |
Catholic Community Services of York Region (CCSYR) has been serving the York Region community for twenty-five years. From 2000 - 2003, CCSYR received support from the National Crime Prevention Centre to develop and implement a training program for new fathers from a wide variety of ethnocultural communities. This program, entitled Focus on Fathers, secured core funding from the Region of York, and continues to successfully deliver fathering courses in English, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Gujarati, Spanish, Farsi, Korean, Tamil and Russian.
In January 2006, CCSYR was approached by the Children's Aid Society of York Region (CAS) who requested that CCSYR deliver its father-based curriculum to a group of men who had been identified by CAS due to a variety of aggressive and unhealthy behaviours they had exhibited. While the experience with this group of men appeared to indicate that a positive impact was achieved on the fathers in attendance, it was agreed by all parties that a more rigorous approach to curriculum design and evaluation was required in order to secure strong results that could speak to the value of the initiative.
A 2005 study conducted by the Laidlaw Foundation clearly demonstrated that youth who have been wards-of-the-Crown are at significant risk of criminality and incarceration, as well as a host of other negative outcomes closely related to crime and victimization including: addiction to substances; homelessness; poor academic achievement; unemployment; and a wide range of mental health and emotional problems.
While much of this research points to the need for continued support for youth who have been wards-of-the-Crown, it is worth considering that preventing their involvement with the child welfare system may also lower their risk of criminality. This link to crime prevention is especially underscored by the fact that many of the scenarios that lead to children and youth entering the protection of the Crown, are also examples of significant risk factors for future criminality (e.g. abusive relationships with caregivers, parental drug addiction/substance abuse, poor parental attachment). In Ontario in 2004, there were 19,105 children in the care of Ontario's child welfare system, which is a 65% increase since 1998; this increase mirrors national trends that have seen increases in children entering the child welfare system for the past fifteen years.
This project will re-develop CCSYR's existing Focus on Fathers curriculum so that it more specifically caters to the needs of men who have been identified by the CAS as being at high-risk of negative involvement with their children. Anticipated changes to the curriculum include greater emphasis placed on anger/stress management, conflict resolution skills, and the negative impacts of aggressive parenting on young children. Other topics that will be covered include: the role of fathers in child development; parenting styles and approaches; the importance of play and learning in child development; and other community resources to support parents. Once the curriculum is redeveloped, it will be offered three times annually to groups of 10-15 men who are referred to the project by the CAS, resulting in over 100 participants by the conclusion of this project.
This entire project will be overseen by an advisory committee composed of staff from the sponsoring organization, representatives of the Children's Aid Society and other project partners, as well as participants from the January 2006 module referred to above.
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