Families First Southampton aims to:
- Support fathers to remain involved in the care of their children.
- Maintain good communication between fathers and their partners, in the best interests of their children.
- Reduce fathers’ social isolation.
Families First Southampton is based at and seek to deliver services to all fathers and men who provide care for children in collaboration with other agencies. We are seeking to work with family support organisations whose primary criteria isn’t direct work with fathers. We provide an outreach Fathers Worker to work one-to-one with dads to assist them in addressing their identified needs. We will also work with other organisations to establish father-friendly drop-ins and support groups.
Having built good networks across the city we signpost fathers/carers to support when required.
The strategic aims of Families First Southampton are: to support fathers to remain involved in the care of their children and to support healthy family relationships. The main groups of fathers we are particularly offering support to are non-resident fathers, young fathers and where there is an illness or disability in the family.
The outreach is available to all fathers/carers (foster carers and men going through the adoption process). Our support is also available to those who are not presently in contact with their partners and children. Where children have contact with our service we are available to talk about any concerns they may have.
Families First can help you as a Dad directly or connect you with one of our partners for any of the areas below (if not listed, do get in touch):
- Child contact and family court
- Father friendly support groups
- Parenting plans
- Parenting and positive father/child attachments
- Disability Advice
- Relationship difficulty
- Parenting when no longer in a relationship with the mother of your child
- Life and transition coaching
- Managing difficult emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression, loneliness
- Housing, benefits and debt advice
- Activities to do with your children
- Prison contact and release support
- Accessing volunteer possibilities
