Tennessee Men’s Health Network

Funding from Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee is requested to underwrite 24/7 Dads, a collaboration spearheaded by Tennessee Men’s Health Network (TMHN), Tennessee Fathering Initiative (TFI), and program partner Knox County Sheriff’s Department. This present-day collaboration proposes to combine the respective program elements of the 24/7 Dad workshop, an evidence-based and certified best practices fatherhood involvement training program that has been put into practice by over one thousand organizations nationwide, and TMHN’s signature health education curriculum that has been facilitated by several corporate, faith and other community-based organizations. The prospective participants will come from the male population of the Knox County Detention Center.

The partnership’s goal will be to increase father involvement starting with men housed within the Knox County Detention Center through experiential learning.
The partnership will use specific evaluation tools supplied by the National Fatherhood Initiative to submit for a variety of grants including, but not limited to, Trinity Health Foundation Phase II. The partnership will also have financial support from Men’s Health Network, the national affiliate of Tennessee Men’s Health Network, and in-kind contributions from the National Fatherhood Initiative. Upon the success of the program, this collaborative effort between TMHN and TFI will expand to other law enforcement agencies and will offer fatherhood programs on a sliding scale. Moreover, the TMHN/TFI partnership will explore working with regional behavioral health centers on combining 24/7 Dad with chemical dependency programming.