Young Fathers –
Free Advice Booklet  Are you a young father or about to become one? Written from the perspective of young fathers themselves, this booklet offers practical information and advice to help you be the best father you can to your child.
Download it here… Young Fathers -
Free Advice Booklet (2.1mb)Young Fathers Initiative (YFI)A Working With Men (WWM) project
The Young Fathers Initiative (YFI) aims to support and benefit young fathers - those 25 years-old and under - and expectant young fathers.
The trigger for this new campaign was young men telling us they had been ‘accused’ of being a baby father when they believed they were not. We then consulted with young women and they confirmed that this does happen, and they gave a number of reasons why, including:
Some young men feel wrongly accused initially, and they turn out to be the father; others turn out not to be the father. And there are those young men who do not find out for sure either way. We will be offering advice and support throughout the process, from when a women is still pregnant to deciding and getting a DNA test and through whatever the results turn out to be.
The Baby Father Accused Campaign aims to bring to the surface this issue and generate awareness on how to best deal with the situation – for both young women and young men. This campaign is NOT about helping young men side step their responsibilities. It IS about ensuring both young men and young woman are supported to think through and work out their futures. One of the central messages in the campaign is about promoting condom usage amongst young men. With the clear message that ‘The only way to be as sure as you can that you are not a baby father is to use condoms every time you have sex.’ This campaign is being directed at young men in the London Borough of Lewisham, in partnership with Lewisham Teenage Pregnancy Unit, and funded by Lewisham Primary Care Trust. We want to make the aims and messages of the Baby Father Accused Campaign, together with the leaflets and posters produced for it, available to everyone (not only young people and agencies in Lewisham). Hence this information can be viewed and downloaded from this website.
If you do not know for sure who the father of your child might be, think through the implications before you say anything or accuse a young man. There are stories of young women who have decided which man would make the best father of her child – and this has backfired when a DNA test has shown he wasn’t the father. There are agencies and people who can help you think through a plan and give you advice and support. These are detailed in the leaflets you can view on this website.
This is not the time to make impulsive decisions or say things you may regret later. This is the time to carefully decide on what is best for the future, and this may mean not knowing for sure until after the baby is born and finding out who is the father of the child. Both of your families are involved, whether you like it or not. Talk to them, they will be able to support you and help you make decisions. There are agencies and people who can help you think through a plan and give you advice along the way. For example, mediation for young people, help with arranging DNA tests, information booklets. Information available through the Baby Father Accused Campaign
If you would like to receive a hard copy of one or more of these leaflets, please email: info@workingwithmen.org, with ‘Baby Father Accused’ in the subject heading.
For more information you can contact Hannah Merry on: Tel: 0207 237 5353 Email: info@workingwithmen.org Working With Men website: www.workingwithmen.org |
