The Supporting Father Involvement (SFI) intervention is in its 8th year of implementation. From its inception, SFI has been a collaborative effort in funding and implementation representing a strong private-public partnership. The project is funded primarily by the CA Department of Social Services (DSS), Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP). Its partners have included the University of California at Berkeley, Yale University, and Smith College School for Social Work. The state social services provided the impetus for SFI through its need and vision, funding, and administrative oversight. The college and universities have provided faculty leadership for design, implementation, and evaluation of the intervention research.
The project has been implemented by five Family Resource Centers in Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Tulare (Lindsay), and Yuba counties. Strategies, the technical assistance arm of OCAP, is leading dissemination of the program to organizations throughout California. Additional funding for dissemination came from the Stuart Foundation.
Given the widespread significance of the indications of SFI program success in terms of father-engagement and family well-being for California's families and the agencies that serve them, SFI is actively disseminating the rationale and results of the study. Dissemination is underway in four regions of Alberta Province in Canada; at the Village for Children in Hartford, CT; and is under planning in Massachusetts, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
We are open to public-private partnerships aimed at dissemination or publicizing of the compelling results of these evidence-based best practices. Our goal is to increase awareness of service providers, practitioners, and policy makers of this successful intervention for engaging fathers and families from diverse backgrounds, with the concurrent goal of fostering substantive organizational change within public and private organizations to view fathers as a resource for and caretakers of California's and the world's children.
If you are interested in supporting this California endeavor, contact Lee Ann Kelly, OCAP's Acting Chief at (916) 651-6400. To learn more about dissemination of SFI within California, contact Danny Molina, SFI Project Manager at Strategies at (805) 485-6114 ext. 679, dmolina@icfs.org.
If you are interested in implementing or supporting a project like SFI in your home state or country, contact Dr. Kyle Pruett (413) 584-3200, or Dr. Marsha Pruett at (413) 585-7997 in Massachusetts, or Drs. Phil or Carolyn Cowan at (510) 526-2586 in California. Also please follow this link to learn more about program and training costs. SFI Dissemination Curriculum Brochure