Needs to Be Addressed: The U.S. Census reports that San Bernardino County is made-up of 473,703 family households, of which 68% are married couples and 32% are single parent households. The vast majority of single parent households are led by single-parent mothers (68% compared to 32% led by single-parent fathers). Many of these families were raising children under the age of 6 and significant percentages of families (14.5%) were living in poverty. Compounding these needs is the fact that 1 in 5 San Bernardino county residents have less than a high school diploma. These social and economic issues lead to significant challenges for low-income fathers to be engaged with and support their children. Research has shown that a critical role of fathers is to provide important financial and emotional support to their children; yet, low-income non-custodial fathers with low wages and low educational attainment, face many barriers from public and political systems.

Proposed Services: Through a Comprehensive Fatherhood Program, PSD aims to increase child and family well-being through a series of evidenced-based practices that address healthy relationships, improve parenting skills, and increase economic stability. Services will be provided through targeted recruitment practices of Head Start fathers; risk and needs assessments; goal-setting with measurable activities and milestones; intensive case management services with at least eight individual contacts per year; supportive services through referrals to community partners; availability of a Successful Pathways Apprenticeship Program and certified high school education program; and participation in The Nurturing Fathers Program curriculum workshop over a period of 13 weeks for a total of 32.5 hours of education. These curriculum workshops will be provided through learning cohorts of between 8 and 15 fathers, which create peer mentoring and coaching opportunities for the fathers.