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123 6 Model Programs and Useful Resources Comprehensive Service Projects, Organizations, Web Sites, Movies, and Young-Adult Books Pertaining to Teenage Fathers During the 1970s and through the early 1980s, it became clear that adolescent childbearing was a major social problem. Each year during that time period, about a million teenage girls got pregnant, and roughly half of those young women gave birth to a baby. The health, social service, educational, and legal systems of our country began to recognize that these young mothers and their children were at risk for a variety of social, economic, and health-related difficulties. In response to these problems, numerous multifaceted service programs for teen mothers were established to improve the life circumstances of these teenagers and their children and to reduce the number of girls having babies. Although adolescent-mother programs flourished, they did not solve the major national problems associated with adolescent pregnancy and parenthood. Furthermore, these programs did nothing to address the hardships of teen fathers, who were found to have lower income levels, less formal education, and more children over the course of their lives than their non-father peers.1 A new approach to addressing these problems was needed. In a historic turn of events, in 1982 the Ford Foundation funded a twoyear national demonstration project known as the Teen Father Collaboration whose purpose was to encourage agencies that already work with teenage mothers and their children to extend services to teenage fathers. No project of this kind had ever been undertaken, and the geographic scope of the Collaboration was enormous. Teenage father programs were started in eight cities: Bridgeport, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis and Saint Kiselica 3rd pages.indd 123 Kiselica 3rd pages.indd 123 8/7/2008 11:18:35 AM 8/7/2008 11:18:35 AM 124 W HEN BOYS BECOME PA R ENTS Paul, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Poughkeepsie , New York; and San Francisco, California. Each agency from the participating cities designed and developed its own unique program. In addition, the agencies were charged with the tasks of developing effective strategies for reaching and helping young fathers, documenting how they developed teen-father services, and drawing attention to the problems of adolescent fathers in their communities. The agencies also gathered extensive information about the fathers they served. The Teen Father Collaboration and other renowned program, such as the Maine Young Fathers Project, Public/Private Ventures Young Unwed Fathers Pilot Project, and the Texas Fragile Families Initiative produced a gold mine of findings that are instructive to any professional or concerned lay person interested in starting a local initiative to support the development of a teen-father program in his or her community. Here are some of the lessons these projects have taught us about developing effective programs for adolescent fathers. Form a Service Coalition and a Board of Directors Communities can best address the various needs of teenage fathers through the formation of service coalitions in which professionals from different agencies and organizations pool their resources and work collaboratively to offer a wide range of services. For example, The Greater Bridgeport Adolescent Pregnancy Program, which was one of the sites for the Teen Father Collaboration, was headquartered at the local YMCA, but included linkages with other youth service organizations, such as the Bridgeport Community Health Center and the Cardinal Sheehan Center. Through this arrangement , the Bridgeport program was able to address the social, spiritual, and physical needs of teenage fathers from the greater Bridgeport area of Connecticut. The service coalition should be headed by a board of directors, which sets policy, makes suggestions, and provides guidance for the service coalition. Typically, the board consists of six to ten members, including residents from the local community, professionals from local, county, state, and national agencies serving youth, and representatives from the juvenile justice system.2 It is advisable to have at least one current or former teen father on the board to offer a young father’s perspective on policy matters.3 All members of the board should be genuinely interested in the well-being of young fathers. Preferably, the head of the board should be a “community catalyst”—that is, a well-known and respected member of the community who has the clout and connections to make things happen.5 The director of the board also must know how to deal with the public in an assertive but diplomatic manner, Kiselica 3rd pages.indd 124 Kiselica 3rd pages.indd 124...

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