Request for Applications > Start or Expand ​Your 24/7 Dad® Program

National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) seeks applications from organizations that want to partner with NFI to expand the evidence-based 24/7 Dad® program within the community or communities they serve in select Midwestern states.

NFI seeks applications from organizations that:

1. Currently use the 24/7 Dad® program and that want to serve more dads with it, and
2. Do not currently use the 24/7 Dad® program and that want to implement it for the first time.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants may be any community-based entity that serves families (e.g. nonprofit, faith-based organization, reentry facility, school, military installation, etc.) in the following states:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Michigan
• Ohio
• Wisconsin

Note: Organizations that serve communities in other states considered to be part of the Midwestern U.S. are not eligible. 

Background

NFI’s mission is to transform organizations and communities by equipping them to intentionally and proactively engage fathers in their children’s lives. NFI builds the capacity of community-based organizations that seek to begin or enhance fatherhood programs to benefit fathers, families, and especially children in their communities.

Our services build capacity through father-friendly assessments, skills training, technical assistance, strategic planning, and community mobilization around fatherhood. A vital aspect of this capacity-building effort has been the expansion of NFI’s evidence-based 24/7 Dad® program, such that the program has become the most widely used fathering program in the country among community-based organizations.

Independent third-party evaluations have shown the 24/7 Dad® program increases three assets, in diverse racial and geographic populations, that are critical to effective fathering:

1. Increased awareness and knowledge in how to be a good father,
2. Development of self-efficacy in the skills that mark a good father, and
3. A high-quality relationship with the mother of a father’s children (i.e. a good co-parenting relationship).

As a result of the 24/7 Dad® program’s popularity and effectiveness, NFI has acquired funding to expand the use of the program in select Midwestern states.

NFI will provide the selected organizations with free training and material resources to effectively run the 24/7 Dad® program (i.e. curriculum kits, fathering handbooks, additional web-based training, and support materials)