Fatherhood
Thriving Fathers & Families
Helping to strengthen fathers’ relationships with their children, families, and communities through group and individual support.
Helping to strengthen fathers’ relationships with their children, families, and communities through group and individual support.
Our Thriving Fathers & Families (TFF) program helps to strengthen fathers’ relationships with their children, families, and communities. The program launched on May 1, 2021, and provides increased opportunities for fathers throughout the state to connect, learn and grow alongside each other. TFF is federally funded through the five-year Fatherhood FIRE initiative which originally served low-income men of color in Chicago’s Greater Englewood and North Lawndale communities and is now informing how we engage with fathers through TFF in Chicagoland as well as northern, central, and southern Illinois.
Thriving Fathers & Families uses a cohort and individual support model where Navigators facilitate group cohort sessions and provide one-on-one support to fathers, develop their identities as men, parents, and co-parents, while addressing their specific life needs and goals. Fathers participate in a 6-month cohort and receive individual support for a full year.
Research shows that non-residential fathers can play a role in ameliorating the circumstances that lead to child neglect and abuse. Their involvement in their children’s lives is associated with positive outcomes such as children leaving foster care sooner, and children being significantly less likely to re-enter foster care compared to children whose fathers are not involved.
Participating dads spent more time with their children
Participating dads improved their parenting and co-parenting skills
Participating dads improved their overall relationships with their children and co-parents
Brightpoint’s work with fathers to address their histories of trauma that have prevented them from actively participating in their children’s lives began almost five years ago with the collaborative Power of Fathers initiative.
The initiative sparked the agency’s commitment to incorporate father engagement as an integral part of our family strengthening efforts. Brightpoint now has the opportunity to reach fathers in 12 counties in Northern and Central Illinois and to guide other organizations on partnering with fathers to improve outcomes for them and their children.
Comprised of a six-month virtual curriculum, dads enrolled in TFF will have access to a variety of free activities and information, including:
McLean, Winnebago, Dewitt, Champaign, Vermillion, Tazewell, Woodford, Piatt, Ford, Logan, Stephenson, Boone
For information, contact:
This group kept me from being out on the streets, doing God knows what, you know? The mentorship, the counseling here, you can’t really put a price on that.Dad
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