The Baby Shed: a hands on workshop for new dads (Randwick, Sydney)

Venue: JNC Randwick, 2 Albert Street behind 155 Avoca Street
Dates: Saturday 13th, 20th & 27th October 2012 9am – 11am
SENC Family Support Project at South East Neighbourhood Centre in partnership with Karitane and Junction Neighbourhood Centre is pleased to offer The Baby Shed, a FREE hands-on workshop for new fathers originally developed by the South East Sydney Illawarra Health Father Links Project.
Who is it for? The Baby Shed is a three-week group workshop for fathers with children ideally aged 6 months or under.
What is it about? The workshop will cover the practicalities of feeding, settling, sleeping, infant communication, baby massage, infant play and gaining basic understanding of infant development, as well as exploring what it means to be a father. The workshop will be facilitated by a male group leader and a Child and Family Health Nurse.
How do I join? Contact John Gilbert at SENC: 02 8338 8506

Dads Talk (Rosebery, Sydney)

An opportunity for fathers to get together and not only talk about their experiences but to also gain some real, practical ideas around being a parent.

When: Every Wednesday 6.30pm - 8pm
Where: Level 3, 55 Mentmore Avenue, Rosebery NSW 2018
Contact: Jason or Tim on 02 8314 9494 or 0419 461 422

For many men, becoming a father changes their lives beyond belief. Your priorities change, your relationship changes and your new family demands skills, qualities and emotional capacity from you that you didn't know you had.

Today, a father's role is quite different from past generations. We believe that not only does this changing, more hands-on role need to be recognised, it also needs to be supported. Some common themes include:

• Relationship issues
• Work/Life balance
• Sleep deprivation
• Managing relatives
• Difficult emotions.

Every stage of parenthood comes with its own unique challenges. As such, this group is open to all fathers. Each member comes with their own skills and needs of the group and each has something to offer the other men. As the complexity of your role as a father unfolds and you find yourself feeling alone and without support, this on-going group is an opportunity to talk about and process the experiences you are having and find that you are not alone.

Men's Groups in Tasmania

Many men have enquired about the whereabouts and contacts for various Men's Groups around Tasmania.  To this end TASMEN has collected a number of groups that have agreed to be put on the site with their information. These groups are independently organised and conducted and any requests for more information must be directed to the particular group identified in the listing.

Launch of the new Dads In Distress website

Dads in Distress Support Services are excited to announce that we have redeveloped our website. Now we can keep you better informed of our new and improved services and events, as well as general issues affecting fathers and families. One of the many innovative features provided by the highly professional (and sympathetic) web designers Webforce Five, is our ability to tailor-make how we help you, whether you are a dad experiencing separation, or a family member, concerned citizen, volunteer, professional or politician. By taking five minutes to join the website we can automatically alert you of only the information that is relevant or of interest to you.

It's a hard road for teenage dads (NZ)

If there's a teen mum then dad's probably a teenager, too. Daniel Johns - who was a teen parent himself - is passionate as he discusses his frustration about a lack of targeted support for people who find themselves in that situation. Daniel, now 21, is helping form a support system for teen dads. He has made a flying start by being granted one of only two year-long Waitakere City Council scholarships in that area. He is using the funding to co-run two support group courses in Henderson. He says there is a real and continuing need for support tailored to teenage fathers. Teenage mothers have antenatal classes, counselling, support and coffee groups. Daniel says men can join classes but the information is mainly directed at women.