56 | How Fatherhood Programs Supported Dads During the Pandemic

On the Evidence

In partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers across a wide range of human services programs, with the goal of helping fathers and families thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many of the typical ways organizations support fathers and their families, but it has also provided motivation to be creative, to adapt, and to experiment with digital services that have certain advantages in helping fathers meet their goals over traditional in-person services. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests John Ward, Sean Wilson, Richard Barr, Kirk Berry, and Rebekah Selekman discuss COVID-19’s implications for delivering fatherhood engagement services during and after the pandemic. • Ward is a father who shares experience working with a local nonprofit, Father to Father, in Charleston, SC. • Wilson is an intervention specialist at Father to Father who worked with Ward. • Barr is the vice president of strategic and organizational development at the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families, a statewide nonprofit that operates six local fatherhood organizations, including Father to Father. • Berry is an expert on responsible fatherhood programs at Public Strategies, a public policy research and consulting firm. • Selekman is a researcher at Mathematica leading the KEEP Fathers Engaged project with ASPE. Find a full transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/3aNxOvp Learn more about the partnership between ASPE and Mathematica to identify strategies used to engage fathers across human service programming: https://aspe.hhs.gov/father-engagement Some of the clips from this episode come from a webinar hosted by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). We thank APHSA for allowing us to use clips from its Third Thursday Virtual Mini-Series, which is available here: https://www.aphsathirdthursday.com/ Help us improve the show. Please take our listener survey at tinyurl.com/ontheevidence Upon completion of the survey, you will be given the option to provide an email address that will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 e-gift card.