Yeddung Mura CEO Pastor Priestley Obed, pictured with Deanne Booth, welcomes the Caring Dads program. Photo: Region.
An Australian-first program launching in Canberra aims to break the cycle of abusive behaviour in families.
Caring Dads is designed to help fathers move away from using, or at risk of using, abusive behaviours in their families.
The program – run by local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) Yeddung Mura – is not about punishment, but healing, accountability and building safer homes for children.
Ida Hanley, a program manager and facilitator at Yeddung Mura, says fathers need the right tools to succeed.
“These [fathers] already feel shame,” Ms Hanley says. “They need to get given the right tools to be better dads and to be better partners.”
Ten to 15 dads will come together for two hours over 17 weeks to reflect, learn and grow.
Whether they’re biological, step, or common-law fathers, the goal is the same: to break the cycle of intergenerational violence and help them become safer, more responsible parents.
Ms Hanley says the program encourages honesty, self-awareness and hope.
“The Caring Dads program helps men to be honest with themselves, build self-awareness and ignite hope that they can be good fathers and partners.
“They return week after week to keep working on themselves.”
Fellow facilitator, Uncle Darryl Lingwoodock, says the program aims “to instil a sense of worth… in men in relation to their relationships with their children, and by extension, to their wives, girlfriends or the opposite sex”.
“There’s a lot of men out there who have issues with raising families,” he says. “[We teach] men how to be men and teach people how to be dads.”
The program focuses on four key areas:
- Building trust and motivation to reflect on fathering
- Encouraging child-centred parenting
- Owning up to abusive or neglectful behaviours and understanding their impact
- Rebuilding trust with children and planning for a healthier future
CEO of Yeddung Mura, Priestley Obed, says the program has been carefully designed, adapted and delivered by Aboriginal facilitators to help local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fathers “develop healthy parenting skills and strengthen their relationships with their children”.
Backed by $960,635 in funding over two years through a partnership with Kids First Australia and the National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses, Caring Dads is set to begin soon.
Contact Yeddung Mura on 1800 86 4663 or email info@goodpathways.org.au
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