A Practical Guide to Seeing, Serving, and Supporting Teen and Young Fathers
By Haki Nkrumah
Join Haki Nkrumah to celebrate the release of Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint with conversation, a selected reading, questions, and book signing.
Practitioners, fathers, families, community partners, friends, and supporters are welcome.
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For more than thirty years, Haki Nkrumah has worked alongside fathers, families, practitioners, organizations, and communities confronting that question. Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint brings those lessons together in a practical guide for people who want to build stronger, more responsive approaches to young fatherhood.
Moving beyond theory, Nkrumah explores the realities practitioners face every day: earning a young father’s trust, creating an environment where he feels seen and heard, strengthening co-parenting relationships, addressing employment and child support, developing effective programs, building partnerships, navigating funding challenges, and sustaining the work over time.
The Blueprint is designed for both experienced practitioners and those developing or strengthening fatherhood programs. It draws on real-world experiences, practical guidance, and lessons developed over decades of direct service. Readers are challenged to understand the father standing in front of them before deciding what services he needs.
This is not a one-size-fits-all program model. It is a framework for thinking differently about the work:
See the father. Listen to the father. Guide the father. Hold him accountable. Protect the child. Strengthen the family.
For practitioners, nonprofit and public-agency leaders, educators, funders, family-service professionals, and community leaders, Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint offers a resource for turning good intentions into thoughtful, effective practice.
Three excerpts from Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint offer a preview of its practical approach.
The first contact tells the father whether the program sees him. Receive him without disbelief, pay attention without assuming, acknowledge the person who accompanies him, speak directly with him, explain the work, establish permissions and boundaries, and agree on the next step.
The first contact is not paperwork before service. It is the first demonstration of service.
Listening means engaging, clarifying, observing, remembering, and returning to what matters. It requires distinguishing facts from interpretations, choosing the right time for difficult questions, and respecting the father without automatically agreeing with him. To see the father, the practitioner must listen to more than his words and must never pretend that observation alone supplies the whole truth.
Count referrals as referrals, enrollments as enrollments, and outcomes only when evidence supports them. Maintain the records required by the applicable system, evaluate to improve the work, and ensure that every report can be traced to proof.
Documentation does not replace service. It makes honest service visible.
Haki Nkrumah has worked in the fatherhood field for more than thirty years. He is the founder and executive director of Young Fathers of Central Florida, where his work has included father engagement, training and program development, employment services, co-parenting, family mediation, child support education, mentoring, family strengthening, and supportive services. Through Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint, he brings together decades of practical experience working with fathers, families, practitioners, organizations, and communities.
“Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint is a significant document, particularly helpful for practitioners who are looking to start a program.”
“Young Fatherhood: The Blueprint is credible, useful, and grounded in lived experience. It bridges the space between understanding the young father and knowing how to effectively work with him.”
The book is written for fatherhood practitioners, nonprofit and public-agency leaders, educators, funders, family-service professionals, child-support professionals, and organizations developing or strengthening services for teen and young fathers.
Yes. Available in paperback and e-book.
Paperback and e-book.
Paperback: $27.95. E-book: $12.99.
Yes. Schools, nonprofits, government agencies, conferences, training programs, and other organizations may contact Young Fatherhood Press for bulk-order information.
No. Training, speaking, and professional services are separate from the purchase of the book.
Use the Order Paperback button above to open the paperback listing on Books.by. Use Find E-book to see e-book retailer options through Books2Read.