Baltimore City Head Start + Father Engagement

A New Plan to Support Fathers in Head Start

In January 2022, the Ballmer Group gave the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) a planning grant. The goal? To create a new way to help more fathers get involved in Baltimore City Head Start (BCHS) programs. If this plan works well in Baltimore, the hope is to share it with Head Start programs across the country and even other early childhood and family support organizations.

After a strong planning phase, we’re now ready to put this plan into action in Baltimore. This will serve as a “proof of concept”—a real-life example to show that it works. After that, we’ll create a plan to share it more widely.

Why Focus on Fathers?

During our talks with BCHS leaders, one thing became clear: they want to see more dads involved. This matches a new rule from the Office of Head Start, which says programs should put more focus on fatherhood engagement.

Historically, Head Start has had a hard time getting fathers to take part. The problem got even worse during the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. BCHS shared that during this time, even fewer fathers or father figures joined activities like family goal-setting meetings or parenting workshops.

A father stands by his son in a classroom holding a cut out of his son's body traced on paper.

Working Together to Build the Plan

Thanks to support from the Ballmer Group, CFUF built a strong team that included people from CFUF, MEF Associates, and BCHS. Right from the start, we worked together to plan the project. This helped everyone feel more connected and committed.

This teamwork also helped us:

Build trust with BCHS staff and families
Gather better information about what was stopping fathers from getting involved
Come up with solutions that fit the needs of families and staff

Because of this strong foundation, BCHS staff are excited and ready to begin the next phase.

Please use the following link to read through the Fatherhood Engagement Resource Guide that was created to support the field of human services related organizations.

What We Learned

The work we’ve done so far is based on:

CFUF’s long history of helping fathers
BCHS’s dedicated staff
MEF Associates’ experience with research and program design

Together, this team helped create a model that is thoughtful, research-based, and designed to work well for fathers and families in Head Start settings.

A Book to Support School Attendance

We also created a fun and meaningful children’s book called If Your Dad Takes You to School. This story is inspired by the popular book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and features real Baltimore City Head Start dads and their kids on their way to school.

Click image to read book.

Why We Made This Book

Since the pandemic, daily school attendance hasn’t returned to normal. Many Pre-K children are missing more than 10 days of school, which is called chronic absenteeism. Missing too much school can cause gaps in learning. In fact, research shows that children who fall behind in reading by third grade often start falling behind as early as kindergarten.

How the Book Helps

Our book helps in two big ways:

It shows how important dads are in helping kids get to school every day.
It encourages families to begin reading together at home, which supports early learning and helps close the reading gap.

Ways to Engage With the Book

We created If Your Dad Takes You to School to be more than just a story—it’s a tool for connection and learning. Here are a few easy ways to use and share it:

Send the book link to child care leaders you know.
Read the book during story time at school or at home.
Share the book in your organization’s newsletter.

These small steps can make a big difference in getting more families involved and supporting strong school attendance from the very start.

Downloadable Posters for Our School Attendance Program

To go along with the book, we also designed a set of posters for schools, community centers, and local churches. These posters feature real dads from our photo shoot and highlight how important fathers are in helping their kids get to school every day.

You can download and use the posters in places where dads are likely to see them—near entrances, pick-up and drop-off spots, and even in bookbags, backpacks, or monthly newsletters.

These aren’t stock photos. These are real fathers we’ve worked with—Baltimore dads who are showing up and making a difference.

To download the posters, click to open a larger size in a new tab. Then right click and choose save image.

A poster with orange shading that says, "Make every day count" and emphasizes fathers' role in school attendance

A poster with blue shading around the edges says, "A dad is his child's first teacher."

A poster with green shading around the edges says, "dads know that going to school everyday is important."

A poster with orange shading around the edges says, "getting ready for school is dad's work too!"

Looking Ahead

We believe that involving fathers in a meaningful way can improve children’s learning, strengthen families, and build stronger communities. We’re proud of the work so far and excited for what’s ahead as we bring this model to life in Baltimore—and eventually beyond.

Stay tuned as we continue to share what we learn and how we grow.