Fathers in Focus Conference Track 1: Co-Parenting
Fathers in Focus Conference 2024 » Track 1: Co-Parenting
Track 1:
Co-Parenting
Co-Parenting Track
In this track, we focus on fostering healthy and cooperative co-parenting relationships. Sessions will explore effective communication strategies, conflict resolution techniques, and ways to prioritize the well-being of your children while navigating co-parenting challenges. Whether you’re newly separated or have been co-parenting for years, these sessions will provide valuable insights and tools to help you and your co-parent work together more effectively.
Concurrent Session 1: Better Together: Co-Parenting
This interactive workshop explores trauma-informed, culture-sensitive, outcome-driven approaches to empower and strengthen parents. Learn techniques to create supportive spaces that foster resilience and growth in parenting
Presented By
Terron Edwards is the Founder and Executive President of Fathers Making Progress. Terron has over 20 years of experience designing and implementing programs for fathers and families through workforce, parenting classes, anger management classes, lobbying and community organizing. Terron has been trained in over a dozen various fatherhood, coaching, and workforce curricula and has provided training for many that are now doing fatherhood work in our community. Terron has consulted and facilitated workshops for fathers and organizations across the country and in the Caribbean. In addition to his community work Terron has been a youth football coach and is a proud father, mentor and husband.
Contact: Terron@Fathersmakingprogress.org
Concurrent Session 2: Navigating Co-Parenting: Building Bridges, Not Walls
This presentation explores effective communication, conflict resolution, and prioritizing children’s well-being in co-parenting. Attendees will gain valuable insights and practical tools for fostering healthy, cooperative relationships. Target Audience: New, current, and seasoned fathers, educators, community leaders, and mothers interested in enhancing co-parenting dynamics.
Presented By
Otis Harris, Jr. is the founder of PushedN2Destiny Consulting LLC and has over two decades of experience in youth programming and community engagement. As Youth Program Manager at Vera Court Neighborhood Center, he creates safe spaces for young people to grow academically, emotionally, and socially. A devoted father, Otis draws from his own journey of co-parenting to help other parents build positive relationships with their children. He focuses on conflict resolution, effective communication, and fostering child-centered environments, providing practical strategies to strengthen co-parenting relationships and prioritize children’s well-being.
Contact: oharris@pushedn2destiny.com
Concurrent Session 3 : Who Do We Love?
Maintaining healthy co-parenting relationships is crucial for children’s well-being, especially after a romantic breakdown. This workshop offers strategies to strengthen communication and foster a positive co-parenting dynamic based on shared commitment and love.
Presented By
Anthony Cooper, the CEO, and founder of Focused Interruption in Dane County, Wisconsin, is a dedicated servant in community violence intervention, prevention, and reentry services. Renowned for bridging divides and promoting peace, his work reflects his journey through adversity, inspiring hope and resilience. Cooper’s commitment to empowerment and positive change is evident in the establishment of Dane County’s first hospital-based violence prevention program. His core belief in the possibility of change drives his mission to empower individuals and communities for a brighter future. Through Focused Interruption, Cooper continues to make a profound impact, fostering social change and building safer, more inclusive communities.
Contact: Acooper@focusedinterruption.org
Concurrent Session 4: Fathering Minds: Valuing Mental Labor in Parenthood
This program aims to make fathers aware of the mental household labor often performed by mothers to keep a family functioning. Fathers will learn to define, identify, and take on more of this labor. The target audience is fathers with at least one child under the age of five.
Presented By
David Hilgendorf
David is a doctoral student studying the impact of gender socialization on the way fathers parent. He is specifically interested in the differences between mothers and fathers and how they perform mental and emotional household labor. Before graduate school he was an at-home father to his three children. That experience helped him understand the differences between physical and mental household labor and how his full-time working partner still performed most of the mental and emotional labor of their family. David is interested in increasing fathers’ awareness and participation in mental household labor as a way of reducing parental burnout and increasing closeness of the father-child relationship.
Contact: dahilgendorf@wisc.edu
