Fathers need a place to check in before pressure becomes crisis.
The Dad Project is a community-based mental health and fatherhood initiative helping fathers recognize distress, regulate emotion, connect with support, and remain meaningfully present in the lives of their children.
Fathers experience depression during pregnancy or the first postpartum year in pooled research.
Rao et al. Journal of Affective DisordersOf fathers of one-year-old children screened positive for depression in a large United States study.
Davis et al. PediatricsHigher odds of depression among children exposed to paternal depression in a major pooled analysis.
Systematic review and meta-analysis. View studyScreening, practical skills, peer support, care navigation, family connection, and measurable follow-up.
The Dad Project intervention modelFathers are often found only after the fracture.
Many fathers enter systems through parenting stress, relationship breakdown, sleep problems, employment disruption, family conflict, substance use, or physical health concerns long before anyone asks about their emotional health.
Distress does not always look like sadness.
Depression may appear as irritability, numbness, exhaustion, overwork, withdrawal, disrupted sleep, loss of concentration, substance use, or emotional disconnection.
The county may have services without having a father-specific doorway.
The Dad Project does not replace behavioral health, family support, healthcare, workforce, veteran, or community services. It organizes them into one visible pathway that fathers can enter.
This is not another lecture about being a better man.
Fathers gather over food, conversation, practical exercises, family activities, and individual support. The experience feels approachable while the safety, screening, and referral system remains clinically responsible.
What father distress may look like before anyone calls it depression.
Financial strain, caregiving, relationship changes, work expectations, legal uncertainty, or reduced contact with children.
Irritability, exhaustion, emotional shutdown, isolation, poor concentration, disrupted routines, or increased substance use.
Parenting, work, relationships, physical health, and daily responsibilities begin to deteriorate.
Hopelessness, self-harm risk, psychiatric emergency, unsafe behavior, or inability to remain safe.
One project built for fathers, community partners, and county systems.
The Dad Project brings public health, behavioral health, family connection, community engagement, and practical fatherhood support into one coordinated experience.
You do not need the perfect words.
Enter through a meal, family event, partner referral, confidential Dad Check, or self-referral. Participation does not require a father to begin by calling himself depressed.
What fathers receive
Emotional scanning, pressure and anger tools, practical father-child connection strategies, peer support, navigation, family experiences, and a personal Dad Plan.
Restaurants and welcoming venues
Host Dad Nights, sponsor meals, share discreet referral information, provide family incentives, or become a recognized Dad Project welcoming partner.
Faith, recreation, schools, and employers
Refer fathers, host activities, share local events, support workforce stability, provide family resources, or participate in the broader father wellness network.
A measurable public-health pathway
The model combines father-specific engagement, validated screening, risk escalation, care navigation, group education, family connection, and longitudinal outcome tracking.
A platform for local evidence
The project can generate deidentified county-level findings on paternal depression, treatment access, social support, parenting stress, separation, child contact, and retention.
A clear path after a father says, “I am not okay.”
Welcome
Community event, restaurant partner, healthcare setting, referral partner, or self-referral.
Dad Check
Confidential screening for depression, anxiety, stress, isolation, substance use, and safety.
Triage
Community participation, curriculum enrollment, clinical referral, or immediate crisis response.
Dad Nights
Eight manageable sessions delivered through meals, discussion, skills, and real-life scenarios.
Connection
Peer support, family experiences, clinical care, county resources, and practical navigation.
Dad Plan
Personal recovery plan, father-child connection plan, certificate, follow-up, and alumni pathway.
Screening is paired with an action pathway. The Dad Project should never ask fathers to disclose significant distress without providing appropriate follow-up.
What The Dad Project does.
Conversation that does not feel like a clinic.
Fathers gather over food and manageable exercises focused on stress, emotion, anger, fatherhood, support, and recovery.
Early identification before the emergency.
Confidential screening and private follow-up help identify depression, anxiety, isolation, substance-use risk, and safety concerns.
Connection practiced in real life.
Family experiences help fathers build rituals, practice emotion coaching, and strengthen connection with their children.
More than handing someone a phone number.
Navigators help fathers access behavioral health, healthcare, employment, housing, veteran, family, and legal-resource supports.
A curriculum fathers can actually finish.
Each gathering includes a meal, emotional scan, honest conversation, one practical skill, a scenario or activity, and one manageable commitment.
The Weight Fathers Carry
Pressure, warning signs, depression, distress, and what fathers hide while appearing functional.
Reading the Dashboard
A 90-second scan covering mood, body, anger, connection, fatherhood, and personal safety.
Anger, Pressure, and Self-Control
Triggers, emotional flooding, de-escalation, reset plans, and repair after a poor response.
Fatherhood During Change
Separation, divorce, reduced contact, coparenting tension, and protecting the father-child relationship.
What My Child Sees and Feels
Emotion coaching, reassurance, child signals, and preventing children from carrying adult distress.
Connection Without Perfection
Low-cost rituals, nonresident fatherhood, virtual connection, repair, and consistent presence.
Building the Support Team
Social isolation, asking directly for help, provider access, peer connection, and community resources.
The Dad Plan
Warning signs, reset tools, professional support, fatherhood commitments, and 30-, 60-, and 90-day goals.
Every session produces something the father can use.
| Session | Primary Skill | Participant Product | Father-Child Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Weight Fathers Carry | Recognizing pressure and warning signs | Personal pressure map | Identify how stress enters parenting |
| 2. Reading the Dashboard | Emotional and physical scanning | Dad Dashboard | Pause before reacting to a child |
| 3. Anger, Pressure, and Self-Control | De-escalation and emotional regulation | Personal reset plan | Use a safer response during conflict |
| 4. Fatherhood During Change | Separating adult conflict from parenting | Fatherhood continuity plan | Protect routines and predictable contact |
| 5. What My Child Sees and Feels | Emotion coaching | Three communication scripts | Name, validate, and guide emotion |
| 6. Connection Without Perfection | Building low-cost rituals | 30-day connection calendar | Create repeatable father-child moments |
| 7. Building the Support Team | Help seeking and social support | Five-person support map | Reduce isolation that affects parenting |
| 8. The Dad Plan | Recovery and setback planning | Personal Dad Plan | Protect connection during future stress |
Curriculum components are evidence-informed and will be evaluated as a combined local intervention. The full Dad Project package should not be described as a proven evidence-based program until outcome data are available.
Practical community delivery built on tested methods.
Behavioral activation
Participants make small, structured commitments that rebuild routine, activity, connection, and momentum.
Cognitive-behavioral skills
Fathers examine the sequence between triggers, interpretations, physical reactions, urges, decisions, and consequences.
Motivational interviewing
Navigators use nonjudgmental conversations to help fathers explore ambivalence and move toward appropriate care.
Peer support
Dad Nights reduce isolation, normalize help seeking, and create relationships that can continue beyond the eight-session series.
Parenting and emotion coaching
Fathers practice naming, validating, and guiding children’s emotions while maintaining age-appropriate boundaries.
Care navigation
The program confirms appointments, resolves barriers, and measures successful connection rather than counting a referral alone.
Fathers need places to practice connection—not just talk about it.
Dad and Me Day
A structured but relaxed father-child event hosted at a park, recreation center, restaurant, library, museum, or activity venue.
Community Day
Family activities, food, county services, health resources, employers, recreation programs, and completion recognition.
Event Share
A moderated weekly list of child-friendly activities, parks, free events, school programs, health resources, and family venues.
The project should live where fathers already live.
Restaurant Partners
Host welcoming Dad Nights and family meals without turning a restaurant into a clinical setting.
- Sponsor meals or private rooms
- Host quarterly Dad Nights
- Provide family meal incentives
- Share discreet referral information
Family-Friendly Places
Create a network of places where fathers feel welcomed when arriving alone with their children.
- Recreation centers
- Libraries and museums
- Bowling and activity venues
- Parks and community rooms
Clinical and Resource Partners
Provide a credible response when screening identifies depression, danger, or practical instability.
- Behavioral health providers
- Healthcare and benefits support
- Employment and housing services
- Veteran and reentry programs
The project will measure more than attendance.
PHQ-9 and GAD-7 change at intake, completion, three months, and six months.
Time from referral to first attended clinical appointment and resolution of access barriers.
Contact, confidence, routines, emotional presence, and reported relationship quality.
Changes in isolation, perceived support, coping, and parenting pressure.
Identification, escalation, warm handoffs, follow-up, and continuity after urgent care.
Referral source, engagement, retention, partner participation, successful navigation, and follow-up completion.
A pilot designed to produce service and evidence.
| Pilot Measure | Proposed Target | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| High-risk participants receiving immediate protocol response | 100% | Safety cannot depend on ordinary scheduling timelines |
| Moderate or high-need fathers contacted within 48 hours | 90% | Rapid follow-up reduces failed referrals and disengagement |
| Core curriculum completion | 65% | Tests whether the delivery model is practical and acceptable |
| First clinical appointment attendance among referred fathers | 70% | Measures successful navigation rather than referral volume |
| Six-month follow-up completion | 60% | Allows the county to assess whether change is sustained |
| Providers and community personnel trained | 50–75 | Builds a broader father-responsive service network |
These are proposed pilot targets, not guaranteed outcomes. Final targets should reflect funding, staffing, clinical capacity, referral agreements, and county approval.
Scholarship, fatherhood, and lived experience.
“No father should have to reach the edge before a community asks whether he is okay.”
Kevin Ahmaad Jenkins, PhD, is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. His work examines how institutions, social conditions, and public systems shape health, identity, opportunity, and human performance.
His commitment to The Dad Project also comes from lived experience. During a period of profound personal and family disruption, he experienced severe depression and survived a suicide attempt. Recovery clarified the need for credible places where fathers can tell the truth, build practical skills, and receive help before distress becomes dangerous.
The Dad Project is not one man’s story presented as every father’s experience. It combines lived understanding with research, public-health design, clinical partnership, community delivery, and measurable evaluation.
Explore the complete Dad Project system.
The introduction
A concise overview of the need, model, evidence, founder, and proposed Prince George’s County partnership.
View primerThe implementation plan
The evidence base, county model, intervention design, staffing, evaluation, timeline, budget framework, and partnership request.
View prospectusThe eight Dad Nights
The complete curriculum, worksheets, family experiences, facilitator guidance, certificate pathway, and safety boundaries.
View curriculumResearch that informs the model.
Rao W, Zhu X, Zong Q, et al. Prevalence of prenatal and postpartum depression in fathers. PubMed record
Davis RN, Davis MM, Freed GL, Clark SJ. Fathers’ depression related to positive and negative parenting behaviors. PubMed record
Large systematic review and meta-analysis examining paternal depression and depression among offspring. PubMed record
Recent meta-analysis examining paternal depression, anxiety, stress, and child developmental outcomes. PubMed record
Randomized trial of a father-specific intervention for divorced and separated fathers. PubMed record
United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on screening for depression in adults. View recommendation
Build the place fathers can go before everything falls apart.
The Dad Project is seeking county, healthcare, behavioral-health, restaurant, recreation, faith, employer, and community partners interested in developing a measurable 12-month demonstration.
