2Not1 Fatherhood & Families

High Road: At 2NOT1, we are dedicated to building strong family units by working closely with parents to assist them with removing barriers in their lives that prevent them from being fully engaged in the lives of their children and families. To continue our objective to promote the safety and well-being of children by implementing strategies to keep fathers involved and families together, we have created a comprehensive parental educational initiative called the "High Road". The "High Road" assists and supports parents with their parenting needs, connectedness with their children, effective co-parenting, and ability to be their children's primary educator and advocate. 51 families were served through this program. Parents set and achieve personal and family goals during "Parent Time". Families will build their skills and work as a family to serve their community by identifying matters/issues that concern them most through the Family Service Learning model, and importantly, intentional and responsive two-generational learning occurs during "PACT-Time" which strengthens the parent/child bond.

Tutoring/Family Affair Initiative: 2NOT1 offered tutoring, which allowed students to access and complete learning activities online. 2NOT1's tutoring was offered to continue supporting those students who returned to in-person learning who received failing grades, and or showed a decrease in academic achievement due to the pandemic. 2NOT1: Fatherhood & Families, Inc., continued to assist students and their parents/guardians with navigating the return to school process and to increase academic achievement. 2NOT1 offered educational services and support, which included tutoring, academic testing, and homework assistance. 2NOT1 offered a safe learning environment for 40 + students that provides both educational and social-emotional support as they recovered from the pandemic. 2NOT1 expanded this program to include the entire family as they began to participate in in-person school service activities. The Family Affair initiative promotes the support of all family members to assist with strengthening families and supports them as they safely navigate in-person supports and programming. The activities included ongoing fatherhood discussions, client assistance, camping, fishing, and other family-oriented programming.

Parent Advocate Program: 2NOT1 Parent Advocates provides advocacy and supportive services to birth parents who children were placed in the child welfare system. Parent Advocates provide these advocacy services to assist families with reunifying. This program served 50 + parents and their children. Community partners consist of the child welfare system and family court. The 2NOT1 Parent Advocate program works towards addressing the root cause of health disparities such as structural inequities by offering the High Road Parent Leadership training, ongoing case management, and supportive services. Parent Advocates engage, educate, and empower birth parents to lead their families, manage systems of care, and keep their families intact through parent/child bonding strategies. The 2NOT1 Parent Advocates assist birth parents/families with navigating the child welfare system by working toward case plan goals, removal prevention, and maintaining custody of their children. Parent Advocates provide extended support and resources to birth parents who are attempting to navigate the court and child welfare systems. Parent advocates make every effort to involve fathers in the parenting, advocacy, and reunification processes by bridging the gap between the various systems of care, including co-parenting efforts among birth parents and foster families. If any parent is at risk of losing their children to the child welfare system due to substantiated abuse and or neglect allegations, our program will provide support regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or race. Parent Advocates empower birth parents to advocate for their children and their family. This program is a community connection that increases a family's capacity. It strengthens and stabilizes the family structure, and it removes barriers that prevents family unification. The Parent Advocates are knowledgeable of community resources that assists with homeless prevention as well as local agencies that help families meet their housing needs. The Parent Advocate program evaluation answers critical questions of our board members, funders, and employees. Our goal is to show the effectiveness of our program through an outcome-based evaluation. Questions are asked during this process that will show that 2NOT1 is making a positive impact on the lives of the families we serve. The assessment period is one of the most significant components of our program.