About Caring Dads History of the Program There has been recognition in communities of the
need for a service such as Caring Dads. Individuals with many years
of experience and considerable expertise working with men who are
abusive recognize that there are simply no models of intervention
for fathers which appropriately address child abuse and exposure
of children to the abuse of their mother. The Caring Dads program
can be located on a continuum of service that recognizes the importance
of providing targeted, specialized services for abusive fathers. The
university-community partnership at the heart of this program, means
that Caring Dads is based on a solid foundation of both theory and
practice. The Caring Dads program was developed by Katreena
Scott, Ph.D. C. Psych. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto along with three co-developers:
Development of the Caring Dads program has been informed by feedback from the Advisory Committees in London and Toronto, which consist of representatives from child protective services, family justice services, probation services, children's mental health programs and women's advocates. The first Caring Dads groups were offered in London, Ontario and in Boston, Massachusetts during the fall of 2002. Since then, groups have been offered continuously in London and Boston. In response to requests to share the information and resources of this program, the Caring Dads program has been offered in additional locations including Thunder Bay, Brantford, and Toronto. Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value Their Children
is a group intervention program for fathers. To learn more about
the goals and unique characteristics of the program, review the
Caring Dads poster. The Caring Dads program focuses on helping men recognize attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours that support healthy and unhealthy father-child relationships, develop skills for interacting with children in healthy ways, and appreciate the impact on children of controlling, intimidating, abusive and neglectful actions including witnessing domestic violence. During Caring Dads, fathers will develop skills
to cope in healthy ways with frustrating situations, including:
A typical Caring Dads group usually runs for 2 hours, one night a week, for 17 weeks. There are about 8 to 12 men are registered in each group. Men's children and partners do not attend. Groups are co-led by male and female facilitators with knowledge and experience with challenging issues around various aspects of fathering. The Caring Dads program is supported through the generous funding of:
Research on efficacy supported by:
The Caring Dads program has had its greatest implementation success at Changing Ways London, Inc. in London, Ontario. For more information about Changing Ways please visit www.changingways.on.ca Lead Pilot Agency - United States In October 2002, Emerge launched Caring Dads thanks to funding from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Founded in 1977, Emerge was the first abuser education program in the US. Since its creation, Emerge has been a national leader in working to end violence in intimate relationships. Contact David Adams for details at 617-547-9879, e-mail at emergedv@aol.com. Caring Dads is the result of a collaborative effort of representatives from two universities, child protective services, batterer intervention programs, children's mental health agencies, women's advocates, centres for children and families involved in the justice system, family resource agencies and probation and parole services. The lead developers of the program are: Dr. Katreena Scott Katreena Scott, Ph.D. is the lead developer and Principle Investigator on the Caring Dads program. Katreena is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology. She has been a clinical service provider and researcher in the anti-violence field for over 10 years. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the development of violent relationships, the efficacy of service to male batterers, the effect of abuse and trauma on children and on empirically and ethically sound practices for working with abusive fathers. Dr. Scott is also a trained clinical psychologist and has worked with child, adolescent and adult victims and perpetrators of abuse and violence. Dr. Claire Crooks Claire Crooks, Ph.D. is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program. Claire is a Clinical Research Scientist at the Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children of the University of Western Ontario. She has expertise in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs to prevent and address child abuse and family violence. Claire is also a clinical psychologist, and her professional work currently includes conducting high conflict custody and access assessments, child welfare assessments and victim impact assessments, and co-facilitating groups for divorcing families. Claire frequently publishes articles and chapters on various aspects of violence prevention and intervention. Tim Kelly Tim Kelly is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program and is the Executive Director of Changing Ways, London, Inc., the lead pilot agency for the Caring Dads program. As the lead pilot agency, Changing Ways co-ordinates implementation of the Caring Dads program in London, develops policies for the involvement of other agency partners, provides training to potential group facilitators and hosts meetings of the Caring Dads Advisory Committee. Changing Ways has a history of work with abusive and at-risk men around ending violence that goes back over 20 years. Karen Francis Karen is a co-developer of the Caring Dads program. She is also taking a lead role on researching the utility of self-report and interview measures in assessing maltreating fathers. She is currently in the fourth year of her PhD. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, researching the psychophysiological and cognitive characteristics of abusive as compared to nonabusive fathers.
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