Mentoring, supporting, coaching, call it what you will and package it how you like; it takes a village to raise a child!
In my early 20’s I was youth worker and met all sort of kids from different backgrounds. When I was in my late 20’s and early 30 I worked with street sleepers and the disadvantaged. These roles may sound very diverse but there was one thread that ran through both, Fathering!
Be it the kids in the youth group or older guys on the street a lot of my conversation over the years would end up focusing on parents and especially dads. One particular conversation really brought home to me the impact that I had in social fathering the people I was working amongst.
Joe (not his real name) moved in to a hostel that I was managing when he was 22. He grew up in London and was often found by the police wandering the streets even at the age of 5. He grew up with a string of “dads