A brighter future for our youth

With Special guests:

• Chad Kolcze
• Martin Fisk

Our show today features up front a beautiful and haunting song by Janis Vaile about Parental Alienation. Icicles (I will wait for you) will be part of an upcoming special on the topic.

After a long time away from the studio our return to the airwaves was graced by the presence of two people who are doing something about boys at greater risk. At a time when there are so many one-parent families we know these risks.

Boys in families without Dads are more at risk of suicide, to have behavioural problems, to drop out of school and they represent over 70% of the inmates in juvenile state institutions.

To help counter these social problems there are good people providing mentoring services and other assistance. Today we cross to Byron Bay in the north of New South Wales and then to the nation’s capital, Canberra, to hear what Chad Kolcze and Martin Fisk are doing about keeping our youth happy and healthy.

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Our Closing the Gap Special

With special guests:

• Aaron Stuart
• Craig Hammond

We cross today to the frontline when we speak to Aaron Stuart who is the Manager of Aboriginal Projects at Centacare in Port Augusta South Australia. It is hard for many of us to imagine what it would be like to be the first person called after a suicide by one of our people. And then for it to happen again and again. Aaron is facing an endemic where the Aboriginal rate of suicide is four times greater than for non-Indigenous Australians and with children sometimes as young as 8 succumbing. Aaron provides some inspiring lessons about the positive action he is taking and tells us how he copes with the terrible stresses that go with his job.

Next we speak to Craig “Bourkie” Hammond who is the Leader Indigenous Programs, Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle. Craig is involved with a number of projects including the Nar-un-bah and Thou Walla engaging Aboriginal Fathers project. Fathering roles in the Aboriginal community extend to grandparents, uncles and older brothers. As one of eleven children himself and with a background as a youth worker Bourkie brings his skills and reputation to provide guidance and assistance in strengthening the relationship between Indigenous fathers and their children.

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Good Sports and Great Dads

With special guests:

• Peter FitzSimons
• Neil Young

Our guests today have both written about what it means to be a father and they let us in on some of the influences that have shaped the way they relate to their children.

Peter FitzSimons is well known through his exploits on the rugby field and as a wide ranging author, journalist and commentator. We talk to Peter about his family values that were implanted as part of a big family growing up in Peats Ridge New South Wales.

Neil Young grew up in England but having come under the spell of life in the Byron Bay region he became a late blossomer on the soccer field and most importantly as a father. Neil has some great stories, some funny and some poignant, about his experiences on and off the field.

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Our Grande Finale Salute to International Men’s Day

With special guests:

• Geneuvieve Twala
• Diane Sears
• Donald Berment

Today we present the final show in our series on International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 where the theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

We start out in Africa going to the home of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, namely Botswana, and finish up in Trinidad and Tobago via the USA.

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International Men’s Day on different continents

With special guests:

• Glen Poole
• Cathleen Williams
• David Hatfield 

International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 will be celebrated in over 50 countries around the world on 19 November and the 2011 theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

This week we drop in on the IMD coordinators in the UK, the USA and Canada to hear directly from the organisers some of their achievements since being appointed and what they have planned for 2011. The speakers are all entertaining and inspiring as we go across the world to hear from them. IMD is fast approaching as we devote the second of three shows to this important event.

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What International Men’s Day Means to Me

With special guests:

• Mick Kenny
• John D Evans  

International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 will be celebrated in over 50 countries around the world on 19 November and the 2011 theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

IMD interfaces with MOVEMBER and also with Universal Children’s Day on November 20 and in focussing on the main challenges boys all over the world face, asks how we can come up with local solutions to global problems.

At Dads on the Air this week we explore what IMD means to organisers in Ireland and the USA. Listeners are invited to share their own thoughts on giving the best start to boys by contacting the IMD coordination team at http://www.international-mens-day.com/ The best solution oriented approach will be awarded a prize certificate for the IMD FLAGSHIP PROJECT.

Across the sea to Ireland

Our first guest today is Mick Kenny, the Chair of Men in Childcare Ireland coordinating a celebration of IMD in Ireland. Mick has been working in childcare for 19 years, for the last 15 years in the early years sector (preschool / kindergarten) and he speaks to us from Kilkenny.

Mick is fortunate to be working in an area he loves. He is working towards his vision of seeing children feel it is normal to be cared for by both men and women.

Hear what the community gains from accessing men for this career and also the benefits to the male childcare workers themselves.

Mick’s efforts to increase the contribution of men in raising boys fits neatly with the IMD theme in 2011 and it is told with a lilting Irish accent.

The IMD Poet in the USA

Today we are honored to welcome back to Dads on the Air John D Evans who is the Illinois Regional Coordinator for IMD in the USA. John is an educator, humanitarian, folklorist, author and poet whose literary work Diary of a Renaissance Man was named Children’s Choice 2008 by the International Readers’ Association, the Children’s Book Council and 10,000 school children.

In talking to John we find out how IMD will be celebrated in the Illinois area of the USA in 2011 as well as hearing something of what was achieved in 2010. We hear about a writing competition that is open to writers around the world.

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Concern For The Nations' Boys

With special guests:

• Maggie Hamilton

• Melinda Tankard Reist

• Julie Gale and

• Dr Arne Rubinstein.                                                                          

Following years of neglect, there finally appears to be a ripple of concern, for the wellbeing of the nations’ boys. Growing up in an era that sees their fathers portrayed as either bumbling idiots or violent abusers, it is difficult for boys to find a role model to be proud of, or a place where they are honored.  

Our program this week consists of the recorded presentations made by four outstanding speakers, at a recent function held at NSW Parliament House, who dealt with the concern held by many, that we need to improve the support for the next generation of young men.  

First up we hear Maggie Hamilton, ‘What Is Happening To Our Boys’ , who as a well known author and social commentator, speaks about her new book, and the many reasons why we should be concerned about the way we support our boys, as they deal with the social pressures, new technologies, drugs and alcohol, peer pressure and porn, which affect them.   

Next we hear Melinda Tankard Reist, ‘Collective Shout’, who is concerned about the level of exposure to pornography and other social interests, and how some marketing influences negatively impact on our childrens’ view of the world.  

This is followed by Julie Gale, ‘Kids Free To Be Kids’, who is also concerned with the health and wellbeing of our kids, and how children are portrayed in advertising - i.e. What they wear, how they’re posed.  

Finally we hear an informative presentation by Dr. Arne Rubinstein, ‘Rites Of Passage’, who is the Co-Founder and past CEO of the Pathways Foundation, a Not For Profit organization that runs the National Award Winning Pathways to Manhood program in schools and communities around Australia. This program for teenage boys and their fathers is a contemporary Rite of Passage that aims to inspire the boys to have a vision and reach their potential.   

Dads On The Air is proud to have been broadcasting Men and Father’s issues for the past 10 years, and will celebrate our 10th anniversary, and persistence in the face of many adversities, on next weeks show. This now makes us the world’s longest running radio program, dealing with father issues.  

We hope to have many of our past contributors on the program, and look forward to your company, as we celebrate the success of the past 10 years, and proudly move into the next decade.

While it is difficult to be a lone voice in the wilderness, our mission will not be accomplished until the wilderness of political and media ignorance, is conquered, and our children’s human right to enjoy the love, care and protection of both parents, is guaranteed, and enshrined in legislation. 

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Boys' Education, Gender & Masculinities, Media Representation of Males, Mentoring, Raising Kids, Relationships, Young Men

Tuesday

Jun012010

What's Happening To Our Boys

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 10:30AM

With special guest:

• Maggie Hamilton.
  

Like a breath of fresh air, it was delightful to have Maggie Hamilton, celebrated author, teacher and publisher, join us on the program this week, to speak about her latest book ‘What’s Happening To Our Boys’ .    

With this new book, Maggie takes a good look into the trails and tribulations facing our boys and young men in the early part of the 21st century. As always, this well researched book is a must buy for today’s parents, who often find themselves struggling with the competing influences challenging the parenting of their sons.  

Maggie leaves no stone unturned, as she delves deep into how boys and young men deal with the many issues they face in a modern technological society, while also stressing the importance of a dad or other good male role model in their lives.  

Unfortunately Ken Thompson was unable to contact us to provide a scheduled update of his bicycle trip around Europe, where he is searching for his abducted son Andrew. However we look forward to hear the latest news of his experiences next week.  

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Boys' Education, Fatherlessness, Fathers and Sons, Gender & Masculinities, Raising Kids, Relationships, Shared Parenting, Young Men

Tuesday

May192009

The Rite Journey

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 10:30AM

With Special Guests:

• Andrew Lines and
• James Adams

Rites of passage and initiation into adulthood through ceremony and the passing on of wisdom from men to boys has always been a fundamental part of indigenous and tribal cultures but is strangely lacking in the West.

Andrew Lines is a high school teacher from South Australia who has devloped a unique boy’s education initiative which has evolved over the last 10 years. The program is called The Rite Journey and is implemented over a year in the school setting for boys around the age of 14 and is now being adopted in a number of private schools. There is also interest from the public sector. In looking at the racist, sexist and homophobic views that some of his students were expressing, and in the grip of reading Stephen Biddulph’s Manhood, he decided to question how this came about and found a lack of male role models, mentors and teachers in the boys lives.

Following our tradition of tracking Australian family law reform closer than any other media outlet, this week we move on to talk to James Adams from Fathers4Equality about the issue of perjury in the Family Court. He argues that the common practice of making up allegations against the father in the Family Court is a form of child abuse.

In a recent press release Fathers4Equality argued that the Chief Justice Diana Bryant’s personal push to take out the perjury elements in the Family Law Act is a case of poor judgement.

He says: “The Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, has recently launched an extraordinary attack on Australia’s internationally regarded 2006 Family Law amendments, by writing to the Attorney-General and asking him to urgently repeal important provisions within the amendments.

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Boys' Education, False Allegations, Family Law, Mentoring

Tuesday

Nov182008

Rites of Passage

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 10:30AM

Dr Arne Rubenstein

With Special Guests:

• Arne Rubenstein and
• Ruedi Oswald.

At the Men’s Advisory Network’s Second National Conference back in August, in Fremantle, we recorded Dr Arne Rubenstein’s inspiring keynote address titled Creating contemporary Rites of Passage and the Pathways to Manhood Program. Dr Rubenstein is the co-founder and CEO of the Pathways Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that runs the national award winning Pathways to Manhood Program in schools and communities around Australia. This program for teenage boys and their fathers is a contemporary Rite of Passage that aims to inspire the boys to have a vision and reach their potential.

Ruedi Oswald, is a licensed Swiss social worker who is going to give us an insight into what happens to separated fathers in Switzerland, and how easily they can be separated from their children once one parent is allotted sole custody by the legal system. We’re going to try and find out what differences there are in the way that separation and divorce are dealt with by the Swiss Family Justice System compared to what happens in the rest of the western democracies. While his wife, who is a doctor, lives in the family home and he hasn’t seen his 3 kids for 10 years, he is forced to live out of the back of a converted van. Ruedi is looking for support and can be reached at swiss.socialwork@web.de.

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Family Law, International Perspectives

Tuesday

Oct302007

Taking the Journey

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 10:30AM

With special guests:

• Gary Hodson, president of GAMMA - Gay and Married Men’s Association. GAMMA is a group of dedicated men who identify as Gay or Bisexual and who are - or who have been - married or involved in a heterosexual relationship. For more than a quarter of a century GAMMA has offered support and advice to thousands of married Gay and Bisexual men in New South Wales. Gary discusses the various issues faced by gay dads in Australia.
• James Adams, from Fathers 4 Equality, and candidate for Family First for the seat of Wentworth in inner Sydney at the upcoming federal election.
• Mark Young, from the Lone Fathers Association, Mackay Branch (QLD), with some disturbing information about reforms to the Child Support system.
• Paul Dayman and Damien Litchfield from Anglicare’s Boys Will Be Men program in Lilydale, Victoria. Boys Will Be Men is a school-based mentoring/adventure therapy program for boys aged nine to 12. The program brings together men from the community who volunteer their time to be positive and non-judgemental role models for a number of boys in a weekly program.

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Child Support, Gay Dads, Mentoring

Tuesday

Apr172007

New Zealand Special

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 10:30AM

With special guests:

• Celia Lashlie, author, He’ll Be Okay: Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men
• Jim Bailey, outspoken critic of the government-promoted mistreatment of fathers at the hands of the judiciary and the bureacracy
• Jim Bagnall, chairman of the Separated Fathers Support Network

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tagged Boys / Rites of Passage, Boys' Education, Family Law, International Perspectives, Male-Friendly Services

Page 1 ... 2 3 4 5 6

What's Happening To Our Boys

With special guest:

• Maggie Hamilton.
  

Like a breath of fresh air, it was delightful to have Maggie Hamilton, celebrated author, teacher and publisher, join us on the program this week, to speak about her latest book ‘What’s Happening To Our Boys’ .    

With this new book, Maggie takes a good look into the trails and tribulations facing our boys and young men in the early part of the 21st century. As always, this well researched book is a must buy for today’s parents, who often find themselves struggling with the competing influences challenging the parenting of their sons.  

Maggie leaves no stone unturned, as she delves deep into how boys and young men deal with the many issues they face in a modern technological society, while also stressing the importance of a dad or other good male role model in their lives.  

Unfortunately Ken Thompson was unable to contact us to provide a scheduled update of his bicycle trip around Europe, where he is searching for his abducted son Andrew. However we look forward to hear the latest news of his experiences next week.  

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Rite Journey

With Special Guests:

• Andrew Lines and
• James Adams

Rites of passage and initiation into adulthood through ceremony and the passing on of wisdom from men to boys has always been a fundamental part of indigenous and tribal cultures but is strangely lacking in the West.

Andrew Lines is a high school teacher from South Australia who has devloped a unique boy’s education initiative which has evolved over the last 10 years. The program is called The Rite Journey and is implemented over a year in the school setting for boys around the age of 14 and is now being adopted in a number of private schools. There is also interest from the public sector. In looking at the racist, sexist and homophobic views that some of his students were expressing, and in the grip of reading Stephen Biddulph’s Manhood, he decided to question how this came about and found a lack of male role models, mentors and teachers in the boys lives.

Following our tradition of tracking Australian family law reform closer than any other media outlet, this week we move on to talk to James Adams from Fathers4Equality about the issue of perjury in the Family Court. He argues that the common practice of making up allegations against the father in the Family Court is a form of child abuse.

In a recent press release Fathers4Equality argued that the Chief Justice Diana Bryant’s personal push to take out the perjury elements in the Family Law Act is a case of poor judgement.

He says: “The Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, has recently launched an extraordinary attack on Australia’s internationally regarded 2006 Family Law amendments, by writing to the Attorney-General and asking him to urgently repeal important provisions within the amendments.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Rites of Passage

Dr Arne Rubenstein

With Special Guests:

• Arne Rubenstein and
• Ruedi Oswald.

At the Men’s Advisory Network’s Second National Conference back in August, in Fremantle, we recorded Dr Arne Rubenstein’s inspiring keynote address titled Creating contemporary Rites of Passage and the Pathways to Manhood Program. Dr Rubenstein is the co-founder and CEO of the Pathways Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that runs the national award winning Pathways to Manhood Program in schools and communities around Australia. This program for teenage boys and their fathers is a contemporary Rite of Passage that aims to inspire the boys to have a vision and reach their potential.

Ruedi Oswald, is a licensed Swiss social worker who is going to give us an insight into what happens to separated fathers in Switzerland, and how easily they can be separated from their children once one parent is allotted sole custody by the legal system. We’re going to try and find out what differences there are in the way that separation and divorce are dealt with by the Swiss Family Justice System compared to what happens in the rest of the western democracies. While his wife, who is a doctor, lives in the family home and he hasn’t seen his 3 kids for 10 years, he is forced to live out of the back of a converted van. Ruedi is looking for support and can be reached at swiss.socialwork@web.de.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Taking the Journey

With special guests:

• Gary Hodson, president of GAMMA - Gay and Married Men’s Association. GAMMA is a group of dedicated men who identify as Gay or Bisexual and who are - or who have been - married or involved in a heterosexual relationship. For more than a quarter of a century GAMMA has offered support and advice to thousands of married Gay and Bisexual men in New South Wales. Gary discusses the various issues faced by gay dads in Australia.
• James Adams, from Fathers 4 Equality, and candidate for Family First for the seat of Wentworth in inner Sydney at the upcoming federal election.
• Mark Young, from the Lone Fathers Association, Mackay Branch (QLD), with some disturbing information about reforms to the Child Support system.
• Paul Dayman and Damien Litchfield from Anglicare’s Boys Will Be Men program in Lilydale, Victoria. Boys Will Be Men is a school-based mentoring/adventure therapy program for boys aged nine to 12. The program brings together men from the community who volunteer their time to be positive and non-judgemental role models for a number of boys in a weekly program.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

New Zealand Special

With special guests:

• Celia Lashlie, author, He’ll Be Okay: Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men
• Jim Bailey, outspoken critic of the government-promoted mistreatment of fathers at the hands of the judiciary and the bureacracy
• Jim Bagnall, chairman of the Separated Fathers Support Network

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...