Lessons Learned From the Supporting Father Involvement Study: A Cross-Cultural Preventive Intervention for Low-Income Families With Young Children

ABSTRACT

Despite the proliferation of fatherhood programs designed to promote paternal involvement and positive family outcomes, evaluations of these programs are scarce. The Supporting Father Involvement (SFI) study is a randomized clinical trial comprised of 289 low-income Spanish- and English-speaking families living in California. The evaluation design reflects a partnership stance that promotes empowerment of staff and social service agencies. This article examines lessons learned from the program's first 3 years (2002–2004) from the perspectives of both evaluators and program staff. The lessons cover a broad range of areas, including communication procedures, training, staffing, recruitment/retention, clinical needs, intervention content and process, and maintaining cultural sensitivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Father
• preventive intervention
• evaluation
• lessons learned

The writing of this article was supported by the Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention, Sacramento, California. The authors are grateful to Linda Hockman for comments on an earlier draft.

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding for the SFI study and support for this article provided by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention, California Department of Social Services.