Father/Male Involvement in Early Childhood

Father engagement is a vital and integrated aspect of parent, family, and community engagement work. Head Start staff engage fathers as advocates, lifelong educators, and first teachers of their children. Male family members and father figures serve key roles in the healthy development of their children and families, and have much to add to their Head Start communities. Explore these resources to learn ways to enhance your program’s father engagement efforts.

This article offers ways to better involve fathers, uncles, stepdads, granddads, and everybody else in early childhood programs. Effective supports for men who take an active part in the lives of young children are listed.

Early intervention services for children with disabilities or developmental delays are focused on being family centered and are ideally conducted in the home setting. Even so, fathers—custodial or noncustodial—are often left out of the process. This article provides some ideas of better involving fathers in early intervention services. 

This podcast by Dr. Kyle Pruett talks about the important and unique role fathers play in the lives of young children.

This is a list of books that celebrate fathers and the many reasons they are special. Selections include a number of beloved books featuring diverse families.

This website is specifically designed for fathers and professionals working with fathers. The website features a Dad Blog, tips and activities, videos, webinars, and more.