Franklin County, OH Calling All Dads Initiative

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services (FCDJFS) partnered with the National Center for Urban Solutions (NCUS) for programming to engage fathers in their child’s development and early education. NCUS assisted FCDJFS in outreach to early child care providers for the Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) initiative, an unfunded mandate requiring all licensed child care providers who accept state subsidies (Publicly Funded Child Care) obtain at least a 1-star rating through the state’s SUTQ early learning standards by July 2020. NCUS focused its efforts on community outreach by launching Calling All Dads, a county-wide grassroots campaign that engaged un-rated child care centers throughout Franklin County in an effort to assist them with earning their SUTQ star rating, while also providing fathers training and resources to help them prepare their child to be kindergarten ready. During their outreach, Calling All Dads assisted 247 child care centers with the SUTQ star-rating certification process and referred 51 child care centers for SUTQ application assistance. They distributed over 750 Fatherhood Resource Guides, 200 Kindergarten Readiness Kits, and had over 1,200 fathers sign the Proud Dad Pledge, a pledge ensuring their child has access to quality child care, that they read more with their child, they take a break from electronics, and that they build better relationships with their child.