The Search for Warriors

Dads4Kids has a big goal. The Dads4Kids Board, and the team at Dads4Kids want to turn the tide of fatherlessness in our nation. Tonight over a million Australian children will go to sleep in a home that is without their biological father. In the vast majority of situations it could have been prevented. Many more millions live in a home where their father is disengaged or ineffective and so they grow up fatherless anyway – “the lights are on but no one is home”.

Christopher Brown, President of the National Fatherhood Initiative wrote an article in the respected Huffington Post, ‘The Proof is in: Father Absence Harms Child Wellbeing’. He shares the story of some new research.

Late last year, researchers Sara McLanahan, Laura Tach, and Daniel Schneider stepped into the fray with their review of nearly 50 studies that employed innovative, rigorous designs to examine the causal effects of father absence. Published in the Annual Review of Sociology, “The Causal Effects of Father Absence” examined studies that focused on the relationship between father absence and four outcomes for children: educational attainment, mental health, relationship formation and stability, and labor force success. Although these studies varied in the use of analytical approaches and found different effect sizes, they prove beyond reproach that father absence causes poor outcomes for children in each of these areas.

This is a critical distinction. The old adage, “correlation does not imply causation,” does not apply to the effects of father absence on children. In other words, for many of our most intractable social ills affecting children, father absence is to blame.

So what is the answer to the epidemic of fatherlessness that so deeply affects Australia’s children? The answer is quite simple. You! I know that comes as something of a shock but someone has to do something. All it takes is “a few good men” to coin a phrase. As Margaret Mead said,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”.

Firstly as fathers we MUST become the change we seek and be good fathers and husbands.

Secondly we must help others to do the same by advocating and giving to the cause of fatherhood.

Thirdly we can go the extra mile and train others to become great fathers and great husbands, commit to excellence in fathering and become a warrior for the cause.

Many years ago I realised that societal change always starts with a few. Excellence always begins with a few. We incorporated this concept into the Dads4Kids Good to Great Fathering Course. Good to Great is a ten week, one night a week fatherhood training course. The course was modeled on the SAS, an elite force within the Australian Army. The SAS motto is ‘Who Dares Wins”. Before we started the design process ofthe Good to Great Fathering Course I had extensive conversations with Brigadier Jim Wallace, at one stage the Commander in Chief of Australia’s SAS. To a number of my questions he answered, “If I told you I would have to kill you”. I did not proceed any further with those questions.

To see just how tough the training is for the SAS watch the YouTube link below called, “The Search for Warriors”. This is a warts and all award-winning documentary that will give you great empathy for those soldiers who train to join the SAS, and also for those who fail. Every year there are 2,000 applications to join the SAS from men who are within the army, navy and airforce. This is whittled down to 131 during an 18 month training program to meet prepare these men to meet the SAS standards. Only 26 men make it through the 21 days ordeal to become members of the SAS.

Add screen capture and link here.

Dads4Kids, just like the SAS, is looking for a few good men who want to help ‘change the world’ and help turn the tide of fatherlessness.

This will require a warrior spirit and a tender heart. Only the really committed should dare to apply.

Friday16 May to Sunday 18 May Dads4Kids will be holding its good to Great Train the Trainer Summit at Stanwell Tops, just south of Sydney. This initial training package is worth $1,710 but we are giving it free to approved applicants.

Make your application here. https://ausheart.wufoo.eu/forms/dads4kids-train-the-trainer-summit-registration

The Dads4Kids Train the Trainer Summit will help you move from being a good dad to becoming a great dad, hence the current title of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Course – ‘Good to Great’.

Scientific research shows that the best way to learn is to train others. As you coach and teach others, the principles of fathering excellence become embedded in your own life.

The Dads4Kids Fatherhood ‘Good to Great’ course is all about learning by doing. As you train others to do the course you will be committed to do the very things you are teaching and as you do them, they become part of your life. Your children are the greatest benefactors of your commitment to becoming a certified Dads4Kids Trainer. Not only will you embark on the journey to become a Dads4Kids Master Coach, but you will help change men’s lives and ultimately give their children a better start in life.

Attending the Dads4Kids Train the Trainer Summit, 16th, 17^th and 18^th at Stanwell Tops, 45km by train south of Sydney, will give you official certification by Dads4Kids as an Associate Trainer and allow you to organise and conduct your own Dads4Kids 10 week Fatherhood Mentoring Courses called ‘Good to Great’.

After completing your first 10 week course you will move from Associate Trainer to Qualified Trainer. Each time you train another group of men and do extra work to develop yourself as a trainer, and therefore a Dad, you accrue credit points and after teaching 5 courses become a Master Coach. By this stage the things you are teaching become part of who you are and you will have helped hundreds of fathers because of the multiplication effect of also helping train future trainers. In a relatively short period of time you will have positively affected thousands of children’s lives and helped change the nation in the process.

Many men have done theDads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation ‘Good to Great’ Course and it has radically changed their lives. More importantly doing the 10 week course has also changed the lives of their children and given them a better start in life.

Lovework

What is the assignment this week?

Be the Dad your children need you to be.
Give consideration to either coming to the Train the Trainer Weekend yourself or tell someone else about it. We are searching for warriors who will help us put our children first. It takes one to know one. Please tell your friends about it.

Yours for our children