The Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF) project used an iterative learning approach, or learning cycles, to build evidence on promising practices to increasing participation in fatherhood programs. Fatherhood programs participating in the SIRF study implemented promising approaches to increase fathers’ participation, worked with the study team to assess how the approaches could be strengthened, and applied what they learned from those assessments to the next cycle of implementation. Each program tested one of three broad approaches to improving fathers’ enrollment, engagement, and retention in services:

• Coaching techniques used in case management
• Enhanced outreach to potential program participants
• Alumni peer mentoring

The videos on this page feature program staff members and mentors describing in their own words the SIRF approaches tested and how the participants responded to those approaches. Each approach has two corresponding videos. The first video describes the approach being tested and the program staff’s experience implementing it, and the second video explores participants’ experience of the approach.

Coaching

Coaching in Case Management

In this three-minute video, fatherhood program staff members describe their experience of implementing coaching-style case management techniques in their program. They outline some of the initial challenges that implementing staff overcame and some positive experiences of program participants.
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Participant Experiences of Coaching

This three-minute video features a coaching coordinator from a SIRF fatherhood program describing how coaching-style case management encouraged a participant to find his voice through the course of the program.
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Outreach

Participant Outreach

In this three-minute video, fatherhood program staff members describe their experience of implementing enhanced outreach techniques in their program, and the lasting benefits of these techniques for both programs and participants.
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Participant Experiences of Outreach

This three-minute video features an outreach coordinator from a SIRF fatherhood program describing the importance of personalized outreach in the community his program serves, exploring the meaning of outreach as a “warm embrace.”
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Peer Mentoring

Peer Mentorship

In this three-minute video, fatherhood program staff members describe their experience of implementing peer mentoring in their program during the SIRF study, reflecting on why peer mentoring is so important for the populations their programs serve.
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Participant Experiences of Peer Mentorship

This three-minute video features a peer mentor from a SIRF fatherhood program outlining his responsibilities as a mentor and describing a time he supported a father.
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