CDHS awards seven community grantees through the Colorado Fatherhood Program | Press Release

Grantees will support activities that improve the quality of relationships between fathers, children and families

The Colorado Department of Human Services announced today that seven community sites across Colorado have been selected to provide services to fathers with funding support from a $7.5 million grant. The grant funding created the five-year Colorado Fatherhood Program, which seeks to support fathers to sustain healthy relationships, reinforce responsible parenting through skills-based parent education, and foster economic security.Awards range from $75,000 to $125,000 annually for the five-year program, and the Colorado Fatherhood Program estimates it will enroll 455 fathers annually. Fatherhood sites participating in the Colorado Fatherhood Program will act as local hubs that empower fathers through family-centered case management, parenting education, and connections to community-based services that strengthen fathers’ well-being and help them build relationships.

“The work of the seven sites selected will support fathers in the vital role they play for children and families,” said Mary Alice Cohen, director of the Office of Early Childhood. “We are very excited to see grantees make a positive impact in their communities.”

The Colorado Fatherhood Program grantees and counties served are:

• La Plata Family Centers Coalition – La Plata County
• The Pinon Project – Montezuma County
• Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pueblo – Pueblo County
• Denver Human Services – Denver County
• Hilltop Mesa County – Delta County, Mesa County and Montrose County
• Empowering Communities Globally – Boulder County
• Prowers County Department of Human Services – Prowers County

“We are extremely excited to have been chosen for the grant. This opportunity allows us to continue the work we have done for a decade in supporting and engaging fathers,” said Lanie Mireles, director of the  Prowers County Department of Human Services. “We plan to actively work with our partners within the process to help build a community response that honors the critical role fathers play in the health and well-being of their children’s lives.”

Fatherhood sites will receive about 70 hours of training to help them implement programming, including a unique curriculum that blends two successful programs, Nurturing Fathers and Dads Matter, that teach fathers about parenting, nurturing, and healthy relationship skills through workshops, in-home sessions, and one-on-one support. The Colorado Fatherhood program will evaluate the success of this new blended curriculum.

Fatherhood sites will participate in evaluations to understand how the Fatherhood Program impacted financial health, parenting, and co-parenting relationships.

Sites will offer these voluntary services to all fathers (biological, expectant, adoptive, stepfathers, foster, kinship, grandfathers, and father figures) over 18 years of age who have, or are caring for, children up to age 24 years. In addition, programs will perform specialized outreach to include those fathers with children receiving Medicaid, single parent fathers, noncustodial fathers, military veteran fathers, fathers without a high school diploma, fathers participating in Head Start, fathers re-entering after incarceration, fathers with a history of involvement with the foster care system, and unemployed fathers.

The program will be supported by a group of project partners, including CDHS’s Office of Early Childhood, Office of Economic Security, and Office of Children, Youth and Families; the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment; the Financial Health Institute; Head Start; Illuminate Colorado; the University of Denver; and philanthropic partners.