Caring Dads
From Harm to Healing Through Accountability
Background
Over 2.9 million boys and girls in Australia have witnessed family and domestic violence against a parent before age 15.
35% of women world wide have experienced intimate partner violence and 7% of women in Australia hospitalized for family and domestic violence related assaults were pregnant.
56% of homeless youth in Australia had to leave home due to family and domestic violence.
Family and domestic violence has a measurable and substantial association with caregiver and family functioning which in turn has a substantial association with child health and behavior.
Caring Dads
Caring Dads is devoted to ensuring the safety and well-being of some of our communities’ most vulnerable children through working with fathers (including biological, step, and common-law) who have been abusive, neglectful, or violent in their families or who are deemed to be at high-risk for these behaviours.
There are three components to the Caring Dads program:
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- A seventeen-week manualized group intervention program for men.
- Systematic outreach to children’s mothers.
- Coordinated case management to ensure that child safety and well-being is enhanced as a result of fathers’ involvement in intervention.
Group Intervention
The group component of Caring Dads combines elements of parenting, fathering and child protection practice to enhance the safety and well-being of children.
Program principles emphasize the need to:
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Enhance men’s motivation.
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Promote child-centered fathering.
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Address men’s ability to engage in respectful, non-abusive co-parenting with children’s mothers.
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Recognize that children’s experience of trauma will impact the rate of possible change.
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Work collaboratively with other service providers to ensure that children benefit (and are not unintentionally harmed) as a result of father’s participation in intervention.
A typical group usually runs for 2 hours, one night a week, for 17 weeks. There are usually between 10 and 15 men registered in each group. Groups may only be led by accredited Caring Dads facilitators.
Family Safety
This component involves:
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Systematic outreach with children’s mothers by devoted program staff or by those working in partnership to ensure mothers are informed about the program, to ensure safety and freedom from coercion. .
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Collaboration between professionals and mothers to anticipate and work to avoid potential unintended negative consequences of men’s involvement in intervention.
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Provision of referral and safety planning to children’s mothers, as necessary.
Case Management
This component is a commitment to working collaboratively to support children and establishes:
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A clear community-based model for accountability to ensure that child safety and well-being is enhanced as a result of fathers’ involvement in intervention.
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Open communication between Caring Dads program and other professionals working to ensure the safety and well-being of members of the family.
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Joint meetings and planning in response to ongoing or rising risk presented by father.
Upcoming Program Dates & Locations
Caring Dads group sessions are delivered in accessible community locations across the Binjareb region. Each program runs weekly over 17 weeks, providing a consistent and supportive environment for fathers to learn, reflect, and grow.
See below for upcoming start dates and venues:
Ravenswood Community Centre
Every Wednesday (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)
Commencing 25 June 2025
Baldivis Library
Every Wednesday (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)
Commencing 13 August 2025
Mandurah – Peel Community Legal Service
(5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)
Commencing 25 September 2025