workshops
The Co-Parenting Learning Academy: A Capacity Building Strategy for Community-Based Programs Serving Mothers and Fathers
3:45 – 5:00PM
TBC
While co-parenting is not new, emerging evidence of promise offers a unique opportunity to engage fathers and mothers and address the relational challenges of unmarried parents who want the best for their children, particularly low-income parents who are not romantically involved.
We must build agency and practitioner capacity to implement co-parenting content in programs providing services to mothers and fathers. Long-term engagement of unmarried non-custodial fathers will not occur without connecting with the mothers. Only a few federally funded programs include co-parenting classes/lessons directed primarily to married and romantically involved parents.
In facilitating an understanding of the breadth and depth of social welfare policy in the 20th and 21st centuries while exploring the policies and practices that have influenced the focus on mothers and children and have excluded fathers from family support systems, the Healthy Start TA & Support Center National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) is building the capacity of Healthy Start agencies through an innovative Co-Parenting Learning Academy to give agencies a better understanding of how co-parenting can be integrated into current Maternal and Child Health practices to improve pregnancy, birth, and child outcomes.
This workshop will provide information on the Healthy Start Co-Parenting Learning Academy, its goals and objectives, the sessions offered, and the framework for delivering community-based co-parenting services.
Speakers
Dr. Jeffery Johnson
Host, The International Fatherhood Conference / President, The National Partnership for Community Leadership / Washington, D.C.
Dr. Jeffery Johnson is President and CEO of the National Partnership for Community Leadership (NPCL).
As a national nonprofit intermediary organization, the mission of NPCL is to strengthen the service capacity of nonprofit and community-based agencies to empower youth and families.
A particular focus of Dr. Johnson’s work has been on the plight of African American men and families. Dr. Johnson played a principal role in passage of the first national fatherhood legislation in Congress, The Fathers Count Bill. Dr. Johnson is also the author of several publications including Fatherhood Development: A Curriculum for Young Fathers. Dr. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Urban Education from the University of Michigan.
Mr. Kenn Harris
Vice President for Engagement & Community Partnerships / Director of Healthy Start TA & Support Center National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ)
Kenn Harris currently is a Executive Project Director and Engagement Lead at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) in Boston, MA and serves as Project Director for the Maternal Child Health Bureau’s Supporting Healthy Start Performance Project (SHSPP) overseeing the Technical Assistance & Support Center for the 101 federal Healthy Start programs across the country. His immediate past job was as Vice President for Community Engagement and Director and Principal Investigator of the New Haven Healthy Start program at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in New Haven, CT. His professional career in MCH and public health spans over 30 years.
Before starting his job in CT, Kenn worked with the Boston Healthy Start Initiative in Boston, MA, one of the original Healthy Start project. There he established and maintained the Community Consortium and helped create the Father-Friendly Initiative. During his time in Boston, he also served on the “For Fathering Advisory Council” of the Medical Foundation, working with fragile families supporting responsible fathers.
Kenn is a past president of the National Healthy Start Association and helped establish the Association’s Dads Matter Initiative: Where Dads Matter, Washington, DC. He is co-creator of the Core Adaptive Model for Fatherhood (CAM©), an evidenced-informed model for fatherhood/male involvement programs. He is currently working on creating an evidenced-based home-visiting program for men and fathers that builds on the lessons-learned from the CAM model for Fatherhood and two decades of fatherhood program implementation.
Kenn is a national expert in the field of maternal and child health, public health, fatherhood/ male involvement and community engagement. He worked on “My Brother’s Keeper”, President Obama’s initiative to address the health of boys and men of color. He also has expertise and interest in topics of the impact of racism on health outcomes, equity and addressing men’s health in the age of mass incarceration.
Kenn co-authored and published an article “The Health of Young African American Men” in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, 2015). He continues researching Black men’s health and focuses on the integration of health services into programs for men and fathers.
Kenn remains passionate about women’s health, children, fathers and families as well as the health and well-being of the communities in which they live, work, learn, play and pray.