Fathering Me: A Journey into Fatherhood

David A. Jones (Doc), LMSW, is excited to share his expertise in a virtual space. He has provided professional development throughout the United States, presenting at national and international conferences for early childhood programs, child welfare, colleges, universities, foundations, and staff interacting with men, helping them embrace the responsibility and positively impact their child's development. He leveraged his understanding of theoretical frameworks (cognitive behavioral) as a base for his Fathers First Initiative, a model he developed, which gained widespread attention as an innovative approach to working with African American and Latino adolescent fathers. In 2008 he designed and developed the Bronx Fatherhood Program, a full service program in the South Bronx for 16 -21 Y/O non-custodial fathers. An accomplished poet, he was awarded a William Randolph Hearst Foundation fellowship in 2001. David was selected as Innovator of the Year by the Visiting Nurses Association of America in 2005. His work was featured on CNN's Aaron Brown show, Headline News, NY 1, UPN 9, CBS 2, and WNBC 4. The New York City Department of Education purchased over 1000 copies of Fathering Me: A Journey into Fatherhood, as a professional development resource for guidance counselors and social workers. His Documentary Fathering Me: The Long Walk Home received an award at the World Film Fair in New York in 2018.