Community Connect
Welcome to the seventh edition of Family and Community Services' e-newsletter.
ISSUE 7 • JULY 2009
E-news from Family and Community Services
Warehouse Parents Doing OK
"What do you want your children to remember about you?" was the question for men at the Warehouse North Island Distribution Centre (DC) in South Auckland recently.
The question was asked by Alfred Ngaro, one of the faces of the It's Not OK campaign.
Alfred is also a SKIP parent educator and runs community-based parenting projects in Auckland. In September last year, he facilitated work-based discussions about being a dad with dads at the DC as part of a joint project among SKIP, The Warehouse, and DIY Fathers.
These sessions led to dads sharing their stories and photos for a booklet which was distributed free throughout Warehouse stores to celebrate Fathers' Day 2008.
The project was so successful that The Warehouse extended it to include follow-up parenting sessions for the 150 men working at the Distribution Centre. The June sessions were facilitated by Alfred Ngaro and SKIP parent educator Vicky Ellison.
During the parenting sessions the Distribution Centre dads were asked to think about their own personal ‘Daddy Stylz': were they ‘Rock', ‘Paper', or ‘Tree'? The Rock style is very strict, gives lots of orders, has heaps of rules and very little room for negotiation. The Paper style is characterised by the lack of limits and boundaries. The third style of parenting is the Tree which represents being solid and grounded, but with the ability to be flexible.
"As well as talking about ‘Daddy Stylz', we got the guys to think about where most of their influence and support for their role as dads comes from. This exercise showed that their own families and personal experience influence how they are as dads," says Alfred.
"It is so impressive that The Warehouse is doing something to help promote a positive family life. It was awesome to be able to create the space for guys to talk about being a dad with other dads and see them getting ideas from each other."
The dads who took part had this to say:
"I have been a dad for a long time, but now I realise I have to give more."
"It was good to learn how to show and express feelings like how to tell your child you are proud of them."
"Attending these DC Dads sessions, dads made us all realise the effect we have on our children and how we can alter the way our kids grow up."
DC mums didn't miss out – they also attended sessions in June to share their ideas and experiences of motherhood. Their stories and photos will become a resource for other New Zealand mums and will be launched later this year.
SKIP is a partnership initiative between government and communities that promotes positive parenting. SKIP works to develop collaborative projects to give parents the information and skills they need to build strong relationships with their children.
