Programs

The National Father­hood Festival

 Event Pro­file: The National Father­hood Fes­ti­val is an annual event hosted by Daddy Uni­ver­sity Inc. in col­lab­o­ra­tion with forward-thinking, community-oriented orga­ni­za­tions and busi­nesses. It is designed to cre­ate access to crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion and ser­vices to alle­vi­ate bar­ri­ers to pos­i­tive par­ent­ing. The event is unique in that it is designed for fathers by fathers and includes strong parental involve­ment at all stages of the plan­ning process. The Father­hood Fes­ti­val also fea­tures an award cer­e­mony which rec­og­nizes the lead­er­ship and ded­i­ca­tion of fathers in the community.

Event Mis­sion: The mis­sion of the Father­hood Fes­ti­val is three-fold: One, to Edu­cate and re-educate fathers and father-figures about the sig­nif­i­cance of father­hood in the fam­ily and the com­mu­nity. Two, pro­vide direct access to resources and ser­vices to assist in reduc­ing bar­ri­ers to pos­i­tive father­hood and respon­si­ble par­ent­ing. Three, to chal­lenge non-constructive stereo­types about fatherhood

Event Out­come:

          Over the years, through feed­back and repeat atten­dees, it has been estab­lished that the Father­hood Fes­ti­val pos­i­tively impacts, fathers, fam­i­lies and com­mu­nity stake­hold­ers. Fathers learn essen­tial tools related to cul­ti­vat­ing healthy rela­tion­ships and pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive child devel­op­ment. In addi­tion, they gain direct access to legal advice which makes enforces under­stand­ing of essen­tial guide­lines as well as pro­vides them with increased con­fi­dence on how to nav­i­gate the legal sys­tem in the best inter­est of the child.  As a result of more focused and con­fi­dent fathers, fam­i­lies are able to enjoy bet­ter bonds through increased aware­ness of the impor­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of father­hood. In addi­tion to the pos­i­tive impact on fathers and fam­i­lies, the Fes­ti­val has pro­vided a unique oppor­tu­nity for ser­vice and providers to gain increased access to a pop­u­la­tion seek­ing their resources.

Spon­sors: The Father­hood Fes­ti­val is made pos­si­ble through the gen­er­ous sup­port of pro­gres­sive and com­mit­ted spon­sors, sup­port­ers, and pro­ceeds from the Annual Daddy Daugh­ter Dance. The Father­hood Fes­ti­val for­mat allows spon­sors to par­tic­i­pate in a man­ner which reaf­firms their com­mit­ment to the com­mu­ni­ties which they serve. Spon­sors are invited to actively par­tic­i­pate at the event to pro­mote their ser­vices and prod­ucts in order to increase brand aware­ness and to max­i­mize their out­reach efforts to fathers and families.

Recent Spon­sors: DHS–AIC/ARC Divi­sion, The United Way of South East­ern PA, Philadel­phia Hous­ing Author­ity, Wells Fargo, May­ors Father­hood Ini­tia­tive Pro­gram, The Fathers Day Rally Com­mit­tee, Radio One, McDon­alds, Phi­laAbun­dance, Head Start – F.A.M.I.L.Y, School Dis­trict of Philadel­phia, Real Men Cook – Phila, and PNC Bank.

Please look for the National Fes­ti­val in your city

The Fathers Club

The Fathers Club is a par­ent­ing pro­gram for new all fathers in need of strong par­ent­ing skills. This pro­gram pro­vides assis­tance with rela­tion­ships, child rear­ing, child sup­port, child cus­tody and con­tin­ued involve­ment in par­ent­ing. It focuses on key father­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics such as mas­culin­ity, dis­ci­pline and work/family bal­ance, boy­hood to man­hood, com­mu­ni­ca­tion with mother, deal­ing with anger/stress and more.  Addi­tion­ally, it helps men eval­u­ate their own par­ent­ing skills as well as their father­ing role mod­els.  We use a cur­ricu­lum cer­ti­fied by the National Father­hood Ini­tia­tive. This cur­ricu­lum allows us to pro­vide par­ent­ing infor­ma­tion to new fathers thru the AM Pro­gram. It also allows us to pro­vide par­ent­ing infor­ma­tion to expe­ri­enced fathers thru the PM Program.

The Fathers Club is a free year­long class spon­sored by the West Philadel­phia YMCA. The year­long classes help to address the more seri­ous issues of par­ent­ing chil­dren. Through the chal­lenges and suc­cesses we must focus on how pow­er­ful Fathers are to our chil­dren, our fam­i­lies, and our communities.

The Fathers Club uti­lizes the com­bi­na­tion of col­lab­o­ra­tion with area part­ner­ships, a strong cur­ricu­lum and trusted male facil­i­ta­tors from the area to bring sus­te­nance and reduce the bar­ri­ers these par­ents have to rais­ing pow­er­ful children.

We uti­lize an exten­sive pre and post survey/ eval­u­a­tion process to meet the needs of each par­ent. Each par­ent has dif­fer­ent needs and we con­nect them to the proper resource while never let­ting go. Our classes are well attended because of our loy­alty to solu­tion. Our pro­gram is tai­lored toward each indi­vid­ual branch. We use the resources we are part­nered with, within the com­mu­nity so our par­ents are not sent far out of the area. We are able to pro­vide ser­vices on site by invit­ing resources and social ser­vices into our exist­ing workshops.

Daddy Daugh­ter Dance

Daddy Daugh­ter Valen­tine Dance

The Daddy Daugh­ter Dance and the Daddy Daugh­ter Valen­tine Dance are our annual fundrais­ers for the National Father­hood Fes­ti­val, a 501c(3)(pending) organization.

The National Father­hood Fes­ti­val is a free full day conference.

The Daddy Daugh­ter Dance is held in the month of June before or after Father’s day. The event is usu­ally held at the PA Con­ven­tion cen­ter from 6:30pm to 9pm. Din­ner, pic­tures, danc­ing, and gifts are included in the ticket price. We nor­mally have a total of 500 attendees.

The Daddy Daugh­ter Valen­tine Dance is held in the month of Feb­ru­ary before or after Father’s day. The event is usu­ally held at the Val­ley Forge Radis­son Hotel, con­nected to the Val­ley Forge Con­ven­tion cen­ter from 6:00pm to 9pm. Din­ner, pic­tures, danc­ing, and gifts are included in the ticket price. We nor­mally have a total of 500 attendees.