Places, Spaces & Faces
“We don’t actually know what the services are, nobody is advertising them to us.”
When speaking about local avenues for support and networking, a lot of dads told us that things such as children’s centres, baby groups and other parent and baby activities were not accessible for dads. Broadly, the reasons for this could be split into three categories:
Dads were not aware of services because the way in which they were marketed did not reach them in the places they were already in.
Services did not seem to be designed for dads and practically didn’t meet their needs.
Opportunities were missed to make dads feel welcome and included, as a result they were, by default, excluded.
This Chapter is specifically designed to support those who are looking to engage dads in more meaningful ways in their services. The Lessons in this Chapter will support you to zoom out a little and think more broadly about how dads are engaged in your service and how to practically leverage places, parameters and people to get more dads involved. You will notice that, at the end of each lesson, you are prompted to ‘Get Practical’ - this section will provide you with a list of ideas for implementing the learning from the Lesson. At the bottom of each Lesson are links to resources and worksheets you might like to use to help you - these resources have multiple uses so you can always refer to them to support your thinking in other areas.
IN THIS LESSON, WE EXPLORE:
Practically, how to design, market and run services that reach, engage and positively impact and their families. Specifically, we look at:
How to reach dads by thinking creatively about marketing and the places you interact with to reach dads.
Considerations for the practicalities of creating dad-inclusive systems and services.
How to harness the power of the spaces and faces that dads encounter to improve dads’ experiences.