Striving to tailor a program especially for fathers at high risk of abandoning their children, Boot Camp For New Dads is implementing projects nationwide designed to address the particular concerns of low income fathers and inner city dads.

Unfortunately, many previous programs meant to help fathers have had high failure rates because they reach dads too late. Boot Camp For New Dads believes the key to improving the quality of life for many young children lies in mobilizing community and social service resources to prepare fathers to be capable and caring before the birth of their children.

Boot Camp For New Dads is a unique program that brings "rookie" fathers-to-be together with "veteran" recent dads and their newborns. Boot Camp For New Dads, a non-profit program, is offered at more than 100 in hospitals, clinics, schools and churches across the U.S.

A NATIONAL PUSH

"The interest is definitely there, we just have to pull it all together," affirms Billy Kaplan, a Chicago therapist in charge of Boot Camp (For) New Dads in the Illinois area. "Tennessee has challenged us to match or pass their number of expansion programs," Billy proclaims. "We all realize there are only winners in this bet-but it's a marvelous contest! Our main goals are to get more Boot Camp programs running and to gain more exposure. We're taking the message to the streets, the high schools, the jails--anywhere that at-risk dads might be." Prototype outreach programs are currently being implemented in Illinois, Colorado, California, Tennessee, and South Carolina."

THE ILLINOIS EFFORT

In Illinois, Billy Kaplan is spearheading the locally initiated, "New Dads Project", a National Demonstration Project, with a task force including the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative, the Erickson Institute, Voices for Illinois Children, Parents Who Care and Share, and the Department of Public Aid. With New Dads Projects up and running at three Chicago-area venues, Billy hopes that ten to twenty new projects will be available soon. Reactions from hospitals have been enthusiastic with some already running programs to serve urban teen dads and other hospitals modifying their current Boot Camp program's content to address concerns of low-income dads or fathers of color.

CONNECTING THE DOTS TO DRAW A DAD

Boot Camp's outreach programs are addressing the special needs of low-income or inner-city fathers or fathers by opening the doors to connect various community services. In Illinois, Parental Involvement Project, helping dads to get more involved in their kids' lives and helping fathers get jobs and keep them, will conduct a free 12 week course if an organization lines up ten interested men. Another Illinois organization, El Valor, wants to run Boot Camp Programs in Spanish with special attention to concerns of Hispanic dads. From high school seminars on fatherhood, to guiding fathers on the process of applying for a job and keeping their jobs, to bilingual workshops, Boot Camp for New Dads' special outreach programs draw on diverse community and social service resources to extend their services.

EARLY HANDS-ON TRAINING KEEPS NEW DADS ENTHRALLED Like a "Head Start" program for dads, Boot Camp For New Dads wants to start dads off interested through education and participation, beginning in the delivery room. "If Dad's hands are the first to touch his baby, if he helps clean up his little tike right after birth, if his finger is the first that baby grasps, then he's hooked," declares Billy Kaplan. He also recommends picking up the "Face of Fatherhood" calendar, available across the country, that includes a nationally oriented resource guide listing phone numbers, organizations and websites devoted to fatherhood.

BOOT CAMP BEGINNINGS

Boot Camp (For) New Dads is a unique program that brings "rookie" fathers-to-be together with "veteran" recent dads and their newborns. Having a child is an awesome gift, and joy, and an immense challenge. Boot Camp (For) New Dads is helping dads prepare for their mission. A Boot Camp (For) New Dads session is a single three-hour program often on the first Saturday morning of each month.

Greg Bishop, founder of Boot Camp for New Dads, has had lots of hands-on experience caring for babies, with 12 siblings, 4 children of his own and numerous nieces and nephews. Bishop noticed that many men didn't seem to enjoy custody of their babies. After extensive research, he founded Boot Camp For New Dads at Irvine Medical Center (CA) in 1990 and has volunteered as Head Coach ever since.

National media, including news segments on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN as well as articles in Life Magazine, Parents Magazine, Reader's Digest and others, have helped fuel the expansion of Boot Camp For New Dads to 100 programs reaching thousands of new dads. The program is designed to bring a dad's perspective to the 1.5 million men who become fathers each year across America.

BADGE OF HONOR

"I can't imagine a more rewarding activity than helping new dads step up to the challenge," rejoiced Bishop, a Stanford MBA and active Boot Camp coach. "These guys are inspiring and should make all men proud, because once they understand how much they are needed, they deliver the goods."