Brief History of the Program

In 2001 Randy Thomas, founder of NewDay Services for Children and Families, saw that fathers coming out of the court system were struggling to support their children with the threat of jail time as their only incentive for getting on track. Randy persuaded Tarrant County Community Supervision personnel and IV-D judges to begin FOCUS (Fathers Offering Children Unfailing Support). In 2003 the new Executive Director, Elna Vanderberg, hired Michael (Mike) Hall to take over the facilitation of FOCUS. Having worked with fathers from different backgrounds through his organization, Strong Fathers-Strong Families, Mike brought considerable knowledge and experience to the position. During his first year as FOCUS facilitator Mike shifted the format and process of the program, making it more interactive and relational. He wanted to reach the hearts of the fathers who were being mandated to attend the program.

In September of 2004 Tommy Jordan joined the team as an instructor and now serves as FOCUS Coordinator. Tommy’s passion for FOCUS stems from his background as a child of divorce, his experience teaching and mentoring fatherless boys, and his own commitment to grow as a father to his three children. Don Mansfield also joined the FOCUS team in 2004 as an instructor and to handle all attendance records. Don’s experiences as a non-custodial parent, a trained family mediator, and Family Law Center Chaplain have been invaluable in making connections and building rapport with our participants.

Since August 2004 NewDay Services has been using variations of the FOCUS curriculum that exists today. In the period from August 2004 to August 2006 the organization has implemented 14 ten-week FOCUS classes, graduated 211 different men, and retained better than eighty percent of all participants that attended at least one session of the program. This FOCUS curriculum is a result of three years of experience, trial and error, quiet reflection, conversations over coffee, and most importantly, participant feedback.

In Spring 2006 the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) contracted with NewDay Services to develop a formal FOCUS curriculum for replication throughout the state. The OAG has recognized that it will take both a “carrot and a stick” to get noncompliant fathers to support their children not only financially but emotionally as well. FOCUS is a program that does have a powerful stick: the fathers are mandated to attend or face time in jail. However, when the fathers show up angry and resentful, they are treated with kindness, respect, and high expectations. They gain camaraderie with other fathers in the same boat, engage in serious introspection, and participate in a series of activities over time that result in the development of a detailed plan for “building a strong kid” who can become a successful adult.
Note from the Authors

FOCUS has worked well for us because we have worked it over and been worked over by it. After considerable fine-tuning, we have found that the activities reach the majority of the men in our classes. Every week we find that we learn so much from the fathers and the overall experience of co-facilitating the program. We have seen many men changed because of their participation in this class and we as facilitators have been changed by their participation as well.

Mike Hall and Tommy Jordan