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Joseph
J. Maiorano
Extension Educator
Family & Consumer
Sciences
Fit 2-B
FATHERS (F2BF) is an
educational curriculum in which research-based information about inmate
education and parenting education have been combined with the author’s
personal experiences to create a social and fathering skills program for
helping participants-- males involved in the corrections system (e.g.
incarcerated, sentenced to an alternative to incarceration, or
participating in other  forms of community-transition programming) to become better
men and fathers.
The short term goal of this program is for
participants to improve their knowledge, confidence, and skills as these
pertain to social and family relations. When this goal is accomplished,
participants will be able to successfully complete their sentence and have
a permanent and successful reentry with their children, families, and
communities (Reinhart, 1991).
The intermediate goal is for members to
exhibit better social and fathering behaviors (e.g. healthy relations with
their children and positive interactions with others: family, friends and
co-workers). As a result, participants may become less of a security risk
during the remainder of their sentence, and less at-risk for recidivism
when compared to non-participants (Reinhart, 1991). Also, children whose
fathers practice these behaviors will be less likely to engage in at-risk
behaviors that could lead to imprisonment (e.g. drug use, truancy,
rebellion) (Merren, 1991)
 The long term goal of F2BF is for
positive changes to occur in the economic, social, and civic conditions in
communities where participants will complete their sentences or released
F2BF members live and work. Inmates, who participate in F2BF and become
members of a post-release form of F2BF, will have the continuum of services
and programmatic intervention that are believed to improve their reentry
success (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 2002).
The F2BF curriculum offers parenting
educators “pick-up-and-go” resources that can be used wholly or in-part.
Beyond the intended audience, components of this curriculum have been used
with Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS), Teen mothers and fathers, Early
Childhood professionals, Head Start staff and parents, and as content for
other parenting-education programs.
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Fit 2-B
FATHERS is intended to improve the physical, practical, and social fitness
of participants, hence the title, Fit 2-B FATHERS.
Ÿ
Physical Fitness – A physically fit father has the strength to
perform the duties of fatherhood and to keep up with his children.
Ÿ
Practical Fitness – Becoming practically fit for fatherhood is the
main component of F2BF.
Ÿ
Social Fitness – Having the ability to relate to people of all ages
is the means for appropriately and purposefully interacting with children
and other adults.
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The philosophical
framework upon which F2BF was founded is a classical view which asserts
that criminal behavior can be attributed to errors in an individual’s
thinking. This is not to say
that segments of society and even a number of its institutions may not play
a role in the occurrence of crime, nor is it to say that advocacy is
unjustified or unnecessary, but it does say that individual change must
precede or at least coincide with social change. If social change occurs first, or alone, criminals will
merely be presented with new challenges in committing crime. However, if errors in the thinking
of criminals are changed. Then
by necessity, a change in the
social environment will likely occur (Merren, 1991, Gerber and Fritsch,
1995).
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The F2BF logo
includes a representation of black lines that fade out of view. The black lines represent social
controls – mechanisms used by society to guide or prevent certain behaviors
e.g. security cameras, prison bars, etc. The fading lines symbolize how participants, after
gaining the knowledge, skills, and attitudes offered by F2BF, can move from
being dependent upon the external locus of social control mechanisms to
being dependent upon their own internal locus of self-control. The 10 bars represent F2BF’s
original 10-session curriculum.
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The Sessions
Ÿ
Living
Proactively
Ÿ
Back
to Basics
Ÿ
Career
Advancement
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Money
Wise
Ÿ
Keeping
a Balance
Ÿ
Child
Development
Ÿ
Play,
Learning, and Fathers
Ÿ
Health
and Safety
Ÿ
Communication
I & II
Ÿ
Promoting
Literacy and School Success
Ÿ
Setting
Limits I & II
Ÿ
Roles,
Rights, and Responsibilities
Ÿ
Healthy
Living
Ÿ
Controlling
Anger
Ÿ
Wrapping
It Up
Ÿ
Graduation
Celebration
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A statistical summary of data
collected from formal program evaluation methods. Click here to view the data.
Connections to Web Sites
Family
Corrections Network
National
Center on Fathers and Families
The National
Fatherhood Initiative
Children,
Youth, and Families Educational Resource Network
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