NEYDL-Annual-Rep-2023.indd

‘The (DigiDAD) courses…they helped me very much and I got more active and got more, like, very comfortable with what I’m doing as a dad.’ (Young Dad) ‘We were watching the (DigiDAD) videos together not too long ago and it was quite funny, and then obviously I had a bit reminder of the examples and the answers of things, like what the things obviously you can do, or you can’t do. And I still watch them still, just obviously to get reminded.’ (Young Dad) 9 North East Young Lads & Dads | ANNUAL REPORT 2023 AN EVALUATION OF DIGIDAD: A PIONEERING DIGITAL EDUCATION AND SUPPORT OFFER FOR YOUNG FATHERS By Professor Anna Tarrant & Dr Izram Chaudry DigiDAD was launched officially in 2022 but was established during the pandemic when there were curbs on meeting and providing support face to face for young fathers and aspects of support were shifted online. Towards the end of 2022, before Anna was appointed as Chair of Trustees at NEYDL, Dr Izram Chaudry (The University of Bradford) and Professor Anna Tarrant (The University of Lincoln) conducted an independent evaluation of this pioneering new e-learning education and support platform that has been developed with and for young fathers. The evaluation confirmed that just one year following its inception, DigiDAD has huge potential for supporting young fathers to develop their knowledge and skills in relation to parenting. Evidence generated further demonstrated that it is already meeting its primary objectives, namely, to ensure that: 1. More young fathers have the confidence, skills, and opportunities to be a positive presence in their children’s lives. 2. Statutory services recognise and value the role of young fathers, and that, 3. The stigma of being a young father is reduced. Findings show that young father users of DigiDAD value its accessibility and creativity and that through interaction with the content they felt supported to develop their confidence around their parenting skills with increased knowledge. The young fathers at NEYDL who have been involved in the content creation have also benefitted from gaining new skills, engaging in knowledge exchange processes with professionals and later securing employment. The platform is beginning to feature more professionals and is available to them to refer to young fathers. The evaluation process also highlighted the value of showcasing the capabilities of young fathers, in turn changing the narrative about young fatherhood in order to reduce stigma. The co-creation methodology that underpins the process for creating content also showcases the skills and strengths of young fathers engaged with the North East Young Dads and Lads and ensures that the content combines lived experience with the evidence- base. In terms of future growth for the platform, the evaluation process supported the following recommendations: - The retention of the co-creation process and partnership work between young fathers, experts and specialists to ensure further quality outputs, - Increasing the visibility of DigDAD through more effective marketing and referrals from professionals to a wider cohort of young fathers, - Maintaining its USP and local/regional identity as the platform grows, balanced alongside visuals presenting diverse experiences and identities of fatherhood, - Relatedly, developing all content so that it is as inclusive as possible, and - Monitoring the use of the platform longer term to evidence its reach and impact. These recommendations are being taken forward by the charity as it seeks to fund and support further co-creation work and content development for the site. DigiDAD is a really exciting digital offer created by young fathers for young fathers, with great potential to reshape the support landscape for young fathers around the world. A link to the final evaluation report is provided here: https://fyff.co.uk/files/0bd83ad6e931e5eae8115a97e23a915cd6962dd7.pdf GAMING TOGETHER By Will Patterson, Robert Oughton & Nathan Noble As discussed in our 2021 Annual Report, NEYDL has always been impressed by the potential of online video gaming to bring young dads together and strengthen peer relationships outside of facilitated group work activities, so much so that with the support of our funders (BBC Children in Need and The National Lottery Community Fund) we invested in a gaming pc and purchased gift vouchers as tournament prizes to support closed-group video gaming competitions. In addition, we have purchased and distributed gaming headsets and controllers to support engagement by young dads living in poverty. Using ‘Discord’ (a software familiar and accessible to most of the dads we support which allows users to chat in real time as they play), we currently deliver video gaming sessions every Monday and Friday evening to up to 13 young dads living in Durham, Gateshead, Sunderland, and Newcastle. The gaming group is a big success for the charity, helping young dads to open-up about their difficulties, talk to NEYDL staff and young dads and form lasting friendships. Some of the dads who game with us suffer from social anxiety and have previously turned down invitations to meet other young dads face to face, but since we started the gaming group they’ve now started to meet up in person with and without NEYDL’s support. Some of the ways young dads are benefitting from the video gaming group are presented below, in their own words: ‘I’m happier sitting in the house and gaming than going out drinking and stuff. It stops you from getting into trouble.’ ‘When you’re gaming, people are more confident to talk about stuff.’ ‘I was brought up by the most manly man. He’d go to the pub, get pissed, get in a fight, and come home. That’s just what he did. But that’s not me. I don’t want to be like that. Gaming’s my gateway. It’s how I vent.’ ‘It’s a community. You start talking about the game and then end up getting into a conversation about anything and everything.’ ‘Your brain goes left. You don’t think about your problems. You think about the game. You think about the enemies you’re fighting and stuff. It’s like mindfulness.’ Funded and supported by Following Young Fathers Further at The University of Lincoln, we recently commissioned Research Software Engineer Dr Mike Simpson, Newcastle University, to work with our young dads to develop a technical specification for upscaling the video gaming project to support a regional audience of young dads, with consideration to GDPR compliance, accessibility, functionality, and safeguarding. At the time of publication, we are seeking additional grant funding to implement this technical specification and support more young dads through video gaming. Watch this space!