The team of researchers at the origin of the Fathers Friendly Initiative within the Families (FFIF) has devoted nearly twenty years to studying fatherhood and family health from many different angles. It has explored men's experiences of pregnancy, and of the birth and infancy of their children. The changes in men's identities and their conjugal, co-parental and social relationships have fascinated the team. The approach has always been sensitive to the difficult contexts in which the role of father is sometimes performed. The team has documented fathers' needs, adaptation strategies, relationships to support and the services available to them.
The FFIF results from the findings of this research. It is also in continuity with activities such as the Changing Fathers, Evolving Practices training program that was implemented across Québec from 2002 to 2006. Thanks to the collaboration of the authors who initiated that training program, some of its activities can also be found in the FFIF. A wide range of new activities designed specifically for the FFIF have been added to those indispensable components. We would like to acknowledge the group that participated in pretesting these activities in 2010-2011. Similarly, we have to express our appreciation for the financial support of the Fonds Québécois de recherche en santé since it made it possible to evaluate the implementation of the initial project.
The FFIF team would like to draw attention to the financial contribution of Avenir d’enfants, which is supporting implementation of the program in five Québec regions from 2012 to 2017.
Finally, the FFIF is being conducted in the At the Heart of Families Labs at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO). At the UQO, the partners carrying out the program are the Canadian Research Chair in Family Psychosocial Health, the Centre for Studies and Research on Family Health Intervention and the Groupe de recherche sur la santé mentale chez les hommes en période postnatale et sur les pratiques professionnelles en soins de première ligne à leur égard. The FFIF's many valuable collaborators also include the Centre d’études interdisciplinaires sur le développement de l’enfant et la familleat theUniversité du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and the Regroupement pour la valorisation de la paternité (RVP).
