Fatherhood

Oklahoma State Department of Health Fatherhood Initiative 

In the fall of 2017, the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Service began developing a pilot program focused on fatherhood engagement.  Although Maternal and Child Health has a stated focus on families, fathers have not had as much focus as mothers in program development.  This project was aimed specifically to work with fathers who wanted to increase their level of engagement with their children, and ensure that the communication and relationship with their co-parent (married or not) is as positive, cooperative, and rooted in support for their shared children.  

Current Program Information:

• Pilot programs have worked with men who have struggled with substance abuse, those who are incarcerated, young fathers, and fathers who want to better their relationship between themselves and their co-parent to best support their children.  
• Participants engage in completing a curriculum with units centered around the importance of being intentional and taking deliberate action to shape their lives toward the way they want them to be, emotional safety, physical safety, and safety in their communities to provide the best environments for their children to thrive.  
• Most importantly, the curriculum focuses on how to create closer, safer, more nurturing relationships with their children and finding the best ways of relating to children and co-parents.

You can find Fatherhood newsletters with information on tools for new fathers, information and research on how to promote positive communication between fathers and their children and the mothers of their children on this website.

• Tool Kit for New Dads
• Tool Kit for New Dads - Spanish

Mailing Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
Perinatal and Reproductive Health Division
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave., Suite 1702
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-6406

Physical Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK

Phone: (405) 426-8111