Transcript Principles & Protocols for Research About First Nations

Supporting Indigenous
Fathers’ Involvement
Jessica Ball
Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships
University of Victoria
School of Child and Youth Care
Indigenous Fathers Involvement:
Inaugural Study
What are characteristics of Indigenous fathers,
their roles, needs & goals?
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2003-2008
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Indigenous community-based research team
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73 First Nations fathers
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7 Metis fathers
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2 hour taped interview conducted at home
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Questionnaires about family roles & utilization of
community programs & services
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Community-University Partnerships
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2 First Nations & 3 urban Aboriginal groups
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All in BC
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Part of a nationally networked study of fatherhood aimed
at increasing awareness of the various contributions to
families made by diverse populations of fathers in
Canada. Fathers Involvement Research Alliance:
www.fira.ca/
Why now?
Recognition that Indigenous men are the most socially
excluded population in Canada
Highest rates of:
• Placement in government care
• Early school leaving
• Unemployment
• Geographic mobility
• Suicide
• Criminal convictions & incarceration
• Domestic violence
• Hard-core poverty
 Vulnerable men, and unstable fathers
Services are asking for help
Family violence programs – support men to promote
domestic harmony, provide support for men after
partners and children are gone
Correctional institutions – support men to understand
how their own experience of fatherhood has
affected them and how they are affecting their
children.
Schools – “Where are these kids’ dads? We want to
involve them in their kids’ education!”
Early childhood programs – Holistic approaches such
as AHS aim to strengthen family support including
fathers.
“Fathers may very well be the greatest untapped
resource in the lives of Indigenous children. If we could
support them to get involved and stay connected with
their children, that would be a big protective factor for
these youngsters as they grow up.”
Grand Chief Ed John, BC First Nations Summit
Who are Indigenous fathers?
As fathers, what do they need and want?
Heartbreak
Fact: About half of Indigenous children and
youth in Canada are growing up in lone
mother headed households.
What does the research say?
While children can thrive without a father’s
involvement, 30 years of research has shown that
positive fathers involvement contributes to:
• positive child development outcomes,
• fathers’ mental health, sense of purpose, rate of
injuries.
Sudden discontinuity in fathers involvement
(eg., through divorce, incarceration, death, or a
father’s personal inability to stay involved) is
particularly disruptive for child development and
subsequent adjustment.
How fathers can make a difference
in their child’s life
How father involvement can make a
different in fathers lives
How father absence can make a
difference in a child’s life
“My father left us just about when I was supposed
to start going to school. Even though he was really
mean to us, I thought it was my fault that he left
and that’s why I wanted to stay home and help out
my mother as best I could instead of going to
school. Then I heard he died, and it was like there
was no hope for our family. We had no money and
not much of anything, and nothing much to hope
for … I felt pretty bad about myself, about all of it,
including why he left us, left me, with nothing to
hope for. I didn’t do anything to better myself for
years, and haven’t finished much of my schooling.
But now I want to pick myself up and try to make it
better for my children so they know the joys and
rewards of having both parents in their lives.”
Colonial Interventions
Heartbreak
Fact: Colonial interventions have disrupted
families and circles of care within
communities.
Many fathers raising children and
youth today did not experience caring
from the men in their lives or what it
means to live in a family.
What does the research say?
The best predictor of the degree to which
a parent engages in positive and
sustained parenting behaviour is the
experience that this parent had with being
parented themselves.
“Back then, when my first children were born, I
didn’t have any communication skills like normal
fathers had. The affection of a loving father-child
relationship, like kissing your younger children. I
only learned years later that that was what it takes
to love a child. Over the years I have learned to
love myself. Then I’ll be able to learn to love my
child. There was nothing like that when I was
growing up in a residential school. Because I was
in residential school until I was 18 years old, so I
really didn’t learn anything. No love and no hugs
from the priests or nuns. I just came out cold.”
Fathers’ involvement matters!
Hope
Fatherhood as a healing journey
“Being a father to her is part of a healing journey –
for me, for my extended family, for us as a people,
reconnecting us to our ancestors and the care they
showed to children. It’s part of who we are, and
becoming a father re-awakens that spirit.”
Hope
Overcoming the odds: How?
The birth of one’s child: “all at once my life had a
purpose.”
Playing with children: “healed my heart.”
Being in a relationship with a child: “I feel like a loved
man.”
Taking responsibility for children: “helped me to
become a man.”
Sustaining a stable partnership: “taught me to
manage my anger.”
Reaching out for help from family: “brought me closer
to my relatives and community.”
Sustaining a stable lifestyle: “I do it all for him, and for
me, because I want to be around when he
becomes a dad, so I can help him with what he’ll
have to know to be a good father.”
“The turn around generation”
Multi-sectoral policy & program strategies
Education, health, social development, child
welfare and early learning sectors are
increasingly seeking help to:
 Orient boys to the prospects of
fatherhood
 Prepare young men for fatherhood
 Support Indigenous fathers’ positive
involvement in their children’s lives
 Sustain connections between fathers and
children across changing circumstances
But they don’t know what to do and have
few or no resources to do anything!
Develop Indigenous capacity to
reach out to youth and to fathers
Train Indigenous fathers to lead workshops
in schools & community settings for:
1. Indigenous boys in middle & high school
to postpone fatherhood, develop
relationship skills, anticipate becoming
fathers, learn about prenatal & child
care.
2. Indigenous fathers to learn more about
fathering, child health & development,
communication.
3. Indigenous fathers whose connection
with children is disrupted.
4. Community program staff to increase
knowledge & skills to secure fathers’
involvement in:
prenatal programs, child wellness clinics, early
learning, education, supervised visitation, recreation.
Fund positions for father
involvement workers
In community-based programs, such as:
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Infant development
Child care
Early learning programs (e.g., AHS)
Friendship Centres
Recreation
In institutions, such as:
• Correctional institutions (e.g., “Healing our spirit”
could introduce a fathering component)
• Schools
• Maternity care
Resource Development
Create a range of print materials & DVDs:
• educating boys about what to anticipate about
fatherhood
• encouraging registration of paternity
• promoting fathers involvement
• presenting positive images of Indigenous men with
children
Produce ‘Fathers Day’ materials that reinforce positive
fathers roles (ball caps, children’s books featuring
dads).
Research
Fill the vacuum of knowledge about Indigenous youths’
expectations & experiences of fatherhood.
Statistics Canada: We have no way to count fathers or mothers in
Canada.
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Introduce a fertility question for men (never asked) & women
(dropped in 2001, was only ever asked of ever-married
females over 14 yrs). Ask all over 12 yrs (married or not)
number of children ever born.
Priorities for a program of research:
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Explore how Indigenous youth view their fathers &
fatherhood.
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Investigate practical, psychological, and policy issues
surrounding paternity registration.
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Describe experiences of Inuit, Metis and Indigenous youth
becoming fathers: challenges, needs, successes.
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Document promising practices in innovative programs
reaching out to Indigenous boys & fathers.
All together now!
Committed Partners
Fathers Involvement Research Alliance of Canada
(FIRA)
Fathers Involvement Initiative: Ontario Network
(FII-ON)
Fathers Involvement Network: B.C. (FIN-BC)
Early Childhood Development Intercultural
Partnerships Program, U.Victoria
Find out more….
www.ecdip.org/fathers