My role as a Fathers Project Coordinator was to provide help, give advice and support to any father or male carer. To Facilitate a Fathers, male carers and their child/runs FREE stay n play drop-in every Saturday (term time) and one day during the week in the evening (term time). I was also able to offer one to one support to dad’s/male carers if requested. It was also my responsibly to provide planning of sessions, write reports and provide written evidence as and when required.
As a child care practitioner my role was to supervise children from 6 months till 4 years old in a FREE community crèche.
My parenting facilitator role would be to provide advice, help and support families in need of help and to run 13 week parenting programs.
As a know your rights advocate, I would facilitate Free drop –ins for service users to gain advice and support.
My role as a Family room support worker was to support any service users and to support them in engaging and interact with their children.
• I have had more than 10 years of experience working with children of all ages and from different backgrounds and cultures.
• I have also had extensive health and safety, first aid, parenting, child protection and people skills training over the last 7 years.
• Not only was its Time 4 dads the 1st dads/male carers stay n play drop-in in the borough of Croydon, but with my skills, experience and knowledge I successfully helped set up other dads groups in the borough of Croydon including dads drop- in’s at Children’s centres.
• I have good communication skills when communicating with perspective clients in a group set up and in one to one sessions.
• I have successfully delivered 3 13 week Strengthening families Strengthening Communities parenting programs, which tacked subjects such as: Bullying, Race, behaviour, empathy, religion, smacking, Challenging family life
• I have the relevant skills in report writing and preparing case studies. Planning stay and play drop-in sessions.
• Having recently attended Child Protection and Child in need meetings within the Borough of Croydon Social Services department, I have attended such meetings with and without parents, provided important and confidential information and spoken on cases I have worked on.
• I have the relevant skills and knowledge when it comes to working with children i.e. birth to 16 years old, having worked for 4 years in a crèche as a Child Care Practitioner. My roles would include: Providing a safe and secure environment for the children and staff. To implement learning skills age appropriate to the child, supervising free play and to assess the children’s needs. To plan crèche sessions regularly and attend any meetings and training sessions relating to Every Child Matters.
• I have an inside knowledge and understanding of the needs of men, fathers and carers and have successfully single handed run a dads drop –in stay and play programme for 9 years. I have organised workshops such as: ict, craftwork, numeracy and literacy, first aid, cooking, social evenings, fitness and sports and have catered to their needs and requests.
• Having been a father, single father and stay at home dad, I have an understanding of the challenges we are fathers with children have faced within society. I have shared my experiences with others, some who have low self esteem and have felt isolated within their community.
• I have also trained to be an advocate working in a socially deprived environment, providing help and advice to service users on various subjects like: pensions, benefits, housing and form filling in.
• I fully understand the importance of good time keeping and pride myself on attending meeting, sessions and training programs punctually and on time.
• I am computer literate in word, publisher, Power Point and excel, know how to store information on a computer, am able to construct and present power point presentations and to keep financial records in Excel format.
• I am able to work with other professionals, colleagues and on my own and have the attitude to respect others views and understandings. I have worked within a team for many years and I am able to thought shower on any subjects that are presented to me.
• I have the skills when providing outreach to service users, venerable people and young adults, I have attended individuals homes to provide them with support, care and information with the knowledge to also protect myself for health and safety reasons.
• I have good telephone communication skills when dealing with the public and professionals.
• I have a knowledge and understanding of Family Law and Criminal law and can confidentially pass on such help and advice to an individual or professional person or organisation.
• In my present job contracted to work 20 hours, over the 9 years I have worked well over those hours if and when the job required it. My passion for helping people would require me to work sometimes unpaid, at weekends and evenings. My role as a Fathers Project Coordinator also required to be on call out of work hours via mobile phone so that any dad/carer could contact me in any emergency or for support and advice.
• I am able to sign post individuals or professionals to the relevant agency and have gone the extra mile to make sure that when I sign post, it is the correct agency for the need of the individual or professional.
• My roles within the Family centre where I worked varied from week to week and sometimes day to day and this would not be a problem or issue for myself. Having trained on many different levels, I would be able to work in a crèche, provide family support, work in a kitchen, report writing and open and lock up the building if need be.