My Time CIC
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Contact
Amra Mekic
Email
Project funding
£150,000
Funding round
My Time proposes to support fathers and their families in a holistic 'think family' approach, that will enable a supportive partnership of voluntary and statutory agencies to ensure that all family members are able to access equal and appropriate support that meets their needs and takes into consideration language, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and faith.
The Family Action for Choice Tomorrow programme has an emphasis of highlighting the importance of the father within the family structure and how their influence (positive and negative) can affect the parenting and their child's learning and development whether they are a resident and non-resident parent. The programme also acknowledges that many families have secondary (step) fathers that assume a parenting role and are often excluded from access to external support.
The project is based within an inner city area of central/east Birmingham with 70% of population from BME communities with 70% being Muslim. FACT is aimed at 40 families per annum that have multiple and dysfunctional risk issues and include negative behaviour by the father (domestic violence or mental health issues) with the aim to enable the family to establish more equality and empathy based relationships that improve parenting and child welfare and development in line with Every Child Matters. This will provide choice for mothers who wish to pursue a reconciliation progression route as opposed to separation.
The programme includes changing behaviour, developing positive lifestyle /self-esteem, and positive parenting without smacking and includes face to face counselling, horticulture therapy and sport coaching.
The Family Action for Choice Tomorrow (FACT) project will be located in the Small Heath area of Birmingham City Council, and psychological support to families in crisis (where the father is a key player in the future family development) that are experiencing multiple issues including English not first language, seeking asylum, domestic violence, racial discrimination, unemployment, poverty, destitution, social exclusion and the affects of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.
The project aim is to provide an accessible safe culturally and faith sensitive environment for local families at risk to learn stronger interpersonal skills (confidence and self-esteem), gain a greater understanding of all family members needs, learn how to develop family action plans and effectively work together with support from local resources and organisations. The project will be a consortia of local expertise, community organisations and resources.
FACT will be delivered through an action plan that will provide a range of learning based activities that suit individual family needs with talking and non talking activities (music, drama, horticulture, art, photography) that stimulate positive interaction, social integration and improvement of communication and understanding.
My Time CIC will work principally with the father but coordinate activity with other agencies that would be working with the mother and children. The project would have a strong emphasis on gaining stronger interaction between genders by having gender specific activities that build up self-esteem alongside family activity so that each family member gains the confidence to participate.