Small Cities Imprint, Volume 3 (2011), No. 1, pp. 66 - 70

e Culture of Public Fathers in the Small City:
Where does the culture of inoled fathering reside in
the public spaces of the small city?
JOSEPH DUNN
North Island College

Father Inolement research oen focuses on issues relating to the impacts of paternal
engagement on child development and the broader benefits of Father Inolement for fathers
and their families. is study arose om an initiative taken by a group of service proiders
om various children- and family-serving organizations in the Comox Valley which together
constitute the Comox Valley Father Inolement Network. eir task was to identify an
activity and event in which fathers were able to actively and publicly parent in this small city.
Mapping spaces appropriate to the nurturing of Father Inolement was its first mission.

Let me begin by defining some of the terms of this question that we will be considering. An
'involved father' is a father whose enhances the well-being and healthy development of their child
through a sensitive, supportive, nurturing, affectionate, encouraging, comforting, and accepting
relationship. While parenting is oen perceived to take place in the private realm, our focus is on
this fathering 'culture' of shared values and sensibilities as it reveals itself in the public sphere : a
place where fathers interact with their children in community with other fathers and children.
is may express itself as a place of performance – active fathering together - or as a place of
dialogue within a collective body (as expressed by Habermas). Finally, the small city in this case is
a small valley – namely the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island - defined as the combination of a
small city, Courtenay, a small town, Comox, a quaint village Cumberland, and the surrounding
rural areas.
In the spring of 2006, a group of service providers from various children and family serving
organizations in the Comox Valley - Success by 6, C.V. Boys and Girls Club, Vancouver Island
Health Authority, Ministry of Children and Family Development, C.V. Family Services
Association, Teddies & Toddlers Parent Support Program, and School District 71 - recognized a
key community priority : to provide opportunities for fathers, particularly fathers of young
children, to come together in organized, public, father-focused community events and programs.
© Copyright 2011. e author, Joseph Dunn, assigns to the Small Cities Imprint the right of first publication and
educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive license to use this document for personal use and in courses of
instruction proided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. Any other usage is prohibited
without the express permission of the author.

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is group participated in a workshop entitled "Changing Fathers ~ Evolving Practice" presented
through the B.C. Council for Families, formed the Comox Valley Father Involvement Network
(CVFIN) and began researching and planning for events that could meet this need in the
community.
Over the past 30 years, even in the absence of basic data about fathers and fathers'
experiences, Father Involvement research has advanced significantly, oen focusing on issues
relating to the influences of Father Involvement on child development and the benefits of Father
Involvement for fathers and their families. Although fathers are oen absent from focused
demographic analyses – with the exception of policy research about child custody and access
issues – an increasing number of researchers (starting in the late 1990's) have been "examining
how fathers are constructing and redefining their roles and identities in a period of rapid social,
economic and cultural change, in part to appreciate what factors enhance or constrain fathers'
opportunities and efforts to provide for their children economically and be active engaged
parents"(Lero, Ashbourne & Whitehead, 2006). Rarely, however, has this research focused on
the subject of ‘Fathering as a Public Culture’, the value of these opportunities for fathers and their
children relating to other fathers and their children, and looking at the factors that affect
successful father participation in public spaces.
Community supports, events and public programs for parents of young children in the
Comox Valley - parent/child drop-ins, summer park picnic days, parent education programs,
neighbourhood houses - are diverse and offer valuable educational services as well as
opportunities to meet and, critically, network and learn with other parents. However, to a great
extent, these public opportunities of 'being parents with other parents' in organized community
programs and at public events are populated by mothers and their children. Significantly, at a
school-based Strongstart toddler and parent morning drop-in program or a public library
aernoon Storytime, the participants inhabiting these parenting spaces are very oen all mothers
and their children, and the programs are almost always facilitated by women. Fagan and Palm
have accurately identified that universal access services and programs (ones that are supposed to
be designed to be accessible to anyone) "have been developed … within a female-dominated
context [and oen would] require significant adjustment and change to be comfortable for
men" (Lero, Ashbourne & Whitehead, 2006). Fletcher, an Australian author of Defining
Fatherhood, further "suggests that it is not simply that services for infants and children are
female-oriented, or that they are hostile to men, but rather that ‘the invisibility of fathers is taken
for granted’" (Lero, Ashbourne & Whitehead, 2006) . He states that organized opportunities
"targeting families and children oen see mothers as particularly relevant and fathers as irrelevant.
e challenge is to recognize the needs and concerns of fathers and incorporate these into more
inclusive [or directed] programs that are relevant and responsive to the needs of fathers, mothers
and their children" (Lero, Ashbourne & Whitehead, 2006).
An obvious exception to this scenario is evident with regard to the engagement of fathers in
recreational or sports programs.
“Fathers oen take on leadership roles within sports
organizations or community-based clubs, and they are actively present at children’s games and
practices. In these cases, the visibility of fathers and the inclusion of their needs as points of
consideration when planning programs (e.g., practices at the end of the work day or on weekends,
and including mothers and fathers in consultations with parents about upcoming events) is
noteworthy”(Lero, Ashbourne & Whitehead, 2006). However, while fathers can be seen
standing - supportive monoliths - on the sidelines of soccer games, there are, clearly, few public
spaces or opportunities where fathers get to actively perform more broadly as engaged fathers in
community with other fathers and their children. Where then is public father-focused cultural

Dunn

activity welcomed and located in a small city?
e C.V. Father Involvement Network (CVFIN) recognized that the existing successful
father-friendly public cultural events in the Comox Valley - an evaluation based on the longevity
of the event and on accessible community-wide father and child participation in the events included the basic factors of physical activity, low cost, and easy access. Could a long standing
tradition such as the Father's Day Kite Flying event at the Goose Spit in Comox be replicated so
that fathers had more than one day of public father celebration and community each year?
Helpful research compiled by the Father Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA) - a Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council CURA funded project at the University of Guelph's
Centre for Families - offers further criteria and strategies for success in engaging Father
Involvement. Significantly, Lamb and Oppenheim (1989) defined these critical factors: Father
Involvement is influenced by “institutional practices, skills and self-confidence, motivation and
support”.
Addressing this national research and consulting best practices documented in grassroots
Father Involvement events organized in other British Columbia small cities, the CVFIN network
set about organizing a Father and Child Free Swim and Barbeque public event to create just such
an opportunity. But would fathers come, and would they appreciate the chance to be public
fathers in community? What is the necessary formula or program model that would attract
fathers to come together and father publicly in this small city?
e resulting annual public father and child-focused cultural event, "e Comox Valley
Father Involvement Network Dad and Kid Free Swim and B-B-Q", now in its fourth year,
provides a model for identifying the criteria for creating, and a means of evaluating, a successful
father-friendly public cultural event in the Comox Valley and other small cities. In the first pilot
year of the Swim event (2007), approximately 90 fathers and children participated; in the second
year, over 200 fathers and their children from across the Comox Valley were part of the event; the
third year brought similar numbers, 250 participants, and a sense of having created a valuable
community tradition. Fathers and children were asked to fill out brief surveys (adult and child
versions created by CVFIN) in regard to the event they were attending and future father and
child-focused public events in the Comox Valley. e event planning process (including
organization, scheduling and public awareness / publicity), and survey results and their
interpretation by the Father Involvement Network, will help to answer the question: What are
the factors in creating successful father-friendly community cultural events in the Comox Valley
and nurturing a culture of Public Fathers?
First, why a swim event? e CVFIN network realized that a public, accessible event for
fathers necessarily needed to be free and inviting; they also had to provide fathers an atmosphere
that was familiar and non-intimidating – a recreation and pool centre. Research has consistently
indicated that scheduling of parent/child events oen conflicts with work schedules for fathers,
and so the decision was made to hold the event on a Saturday aernoon from 4:30-6 p.m.
Informal focus groups of fathers made it clear that providing food – in this case barbequed
hotdogs and juice/pop donated by the local iy's Grocery Store – was an important key to
making the event complete. In order to provide support, CVFIN network hosts (male and
female) welcomed fathers and children and encouraged a celebratory atmosphere – rather than a
support initiative or a free lunch. While parent/child programs and events are customarily
announced at schools and at other parent/child programs, the organizers recognized that a
different public awareness strategy was required to reach this particular audience. Newspaper
announcements with the heading "Kids, bring your Dads", free ticket leaflets handed out directly

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to fathers on the street, and an invitation and demystification of the event on the local Shaw cable
channel all aimed at reaching fathers with concrete ‘dad’ language and clear invitations.
We may assess the success of the event by returning to Lamb and Oppenheim’s critical factors
for successful Father Involvement. e 'institutional practice' of event venue, scheduling,
publicizing strategy and even the type of food was adjusted to suit fathers. e location of a pool
where fathers could actively play and swim with their children provided an invitation for them to
display fatherly 'skills and self-confidence'. e 'motivations' included free swimming and a free
lunch with no need to register in advance or special criteria for participation – all fathers and
children welcome - and finally the 'support' was provided by helpful CVFIN volunteers asking
only for feedback by completing a simple empowering survey.
e survey sheet, completed by fathers on one side and children on the other, revealed that
the publicity in its many forms reached fathers, but most came out to the event because of 'word
of mouth' from partners and other fathers– an interesting revelation that participating fathers
were once removed from the primary publicity message. Participants had not been to previous
CVFIN events, were extremely thankful for the event, and interested in volunteering at future
activities; fathers were anxious to leave contact information. Perhaps not surprisingly, children's
responses focused on their favourite parts of the event: swimming, water slides and eating. Both
dads and kids had lots of ideas for future father and child events, with the clear favorites being
skating, fishing and soccer activities – all accessible physical activities in outdoor public spaces.
Finally, what did this public culture of fathering look like? Well, nothing too surprising, but
at the same time nothing that you see very oen. Imagine a pool, water slides, and wading pools
filled with fathers playing with their children and talking with the fathers beside them – not
unlike what happens at the average parent/child program, but unusually more direct. Men
looking to the side to see how 'someone else is doing it' - some modeling behaviour while others
following a lead - in what appeared to be a supportive and non-judgmental environment. In the
absence of all but a few mothers, play seemed to be a bit more physical and the sound of voices
was deafening. When fathers and children turned their attention to the barbeque, fathers were
anxious to fill out a survey and were vocal about supporting more such opportunities; the mood
was relaxed and some men newly recognized other men as fathers rather than as working
colleagues in the community. While ultimately the family unit of fathers and their own children
remained, one could observe three fathers (relative strangers to each other) and 5 children
(familiar to each other) sitting around a table eating - a new dynamic of interaction and
community was created. Not all the fathers looked equally comfortable socially, but the children
were very helpful in overcoming initial hesitation in joining into conversations or sitting with
strangers. In short, the picture was that of a variety of fathers engaged with their children in the
company of other engaged fathers – enjoying themselves on a Saturday aernoon.
e vision of the FIN network is to continue organizing these events – a winter movie,
games and pizza night has been held successfully for the past two years - using this emerging
formula and following survey suggestions in order to encourage a growth and diversity in this
culture of fathers in public spaces. While plans are in place to create a communication network
for local fathers and a monthly father/child recreation event, sustainable government funding is
the main limiting factor. With research increasingly showing the critical role of father
involvement for children in terms of social, emotional and cognitive development, it is indeed
important that fathers, and the culture of public fathers, are enthusiastically supported by the
wider community in the small city.

Dunn

Works Cited
Lamb, M., & Oppenheim, D. (1989). “Fatherhood and father-child relationships: Five years of
research.” In S. Cath, A. Gurwitt, & L. Gunsberg (Eds.), Fathers and their families. Hillsdale, NJ:
e Analytic Press, 1989: 11-26. Print.
Lero, D., Ashbourne, L. and D. Whitehead. Inentory of Policies and Policy Areas Influencing Father
Inolement. Guelph, Ont: University of Guelph, 2006. Print.

About the Author
Joseph Dunn is an Early Childhood Community Development Coordinator in the Comox
Valley, and member of the C.V. Father Involvement Network. is conference presentation is
based on work completed by the C.V. Father Involvement Network. Joseph is also an instructor in
the English Department of North Island College.

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