Waka Toa Ora

Care for Dads in Christchurch and Canterbury

Give your thoughts on what should be happening to improve the lives of dads in this region. The Canterbury Men's Centre (CMC) provides care for dads but they want to improve in this area - along with the rest of the community sector.

What the CMC currently does for dads

1. Intake assessments in a social work framework for about 700 dads each year.
2. Counselling for those dads, with much of that provided free by CMC or funders.
3. One on one support for dads by a counsellor trained worker for 260 men last year. CMC is moving to a peer support worker model instead.

Dads Support Worker Role needed

The CMC is seeking a man that is ready to come back into the workforce in a peer support role after raising children - with the support of Work and Income .

View a job description for this Dads Support Worker role [PDF].

Things CMC have been told should be happening

1. A weekly support group for dads doing separation.
2. A weekly group for dads that are primary carers along with their kids.
3. Providing informal and formal advice from family court lawyers about processes and getting through them most gracefully.
4. Providing supervised access, noting that this would need to fit alongside existing options in various settings.

Tell CMC what should be happening for dads

Answer 5 questions online on what support you think Canterbury dads need.

Please share it with others that you think would like to steer this plan.

Thanks for your time and focus!