Another milestone

Over 200 copies of the DVD have now been sent out. John has 'sold' 7 so he's winning!

News from My Space

ManCub would like to be added to our MySpace friends list. He says "you guys are utter heroes. . good luck."

We've made the shortlist

We have been shortlisted for a Community Impact Award and have been asked to attend a Prince's Trust Celebrate Success evening at the Bristol Marriott on 19th November. However there are some problems. Partners are not included because their names did not appear on the nomination paper. My fault, I'm afraid, but I didn't think there'd be a problem. And children won't be able to go. Transport is also going to be a challenge as group members have to travel from Swindon, Calne, Melksham, Southampton and Paignton. So some sorting out is needed before we go.

Dads Music on MySpace!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=412954029

The two tracks recorded for the DVD are now up on myspace, click the link above to go and have a listen!

Trailer on You Tube

Just finished - a short (2:45) trailer with extracts from the DVD. There's a copy here on the blog (top left of main page). The idea for this came from another Dad's information website, so hopefully they'll add a link to the trailer and more people will get to hear about the film. If you want to add the trailer to your website or blog just get in touch or leave a comment. Or if there are other videos it'd be good for us to add as links, let me know...

The Dads Matter Too Calendar 2009

The calendar's gone off to print. Most of the photos were taken by Terri back in the (sunny!) day(s?) of summer. All the Dads chose words of wisdom to share their thoughts on being a Dad. Jackie's put it all together (a couple of times, as print costs were higher than expected, so a different format was needed..) and it's ready to order with plenty of time for Christmas! Phew!

Happy New Year!

Watch this space for costs/how to order.

Preview of sample pages below...

Wiltshire Young Parents' Guide

Here's Stuart being interviewed by Jane Morgan in Melksham yesterday. Jane is the Supporting Young Parents Project Worker based in Chippenham and is updating Wiltshire's Young Parents Guide. Stuart agreed to be a 'young dad case study' for the Guide. Good for you, Stu!

Good BBC Breakfast news

Well, the piece went out twice this morning. Steven texted me to say, " Just watched the Marcus interview on BBC1 and thought it was great. It was really positive and the interview with that man after was really good as well." Says it all really. Well done Marcus, and Charlotte and Harley. I hope we'll get a copy some time. When I do I'll put it on the blog. And someone has posted a fantastic reply to my previous post. Check it out!

BBC Breakfast

I've just spoken to Louise, one of the programme's producers. Our piece is now going out on Monday. Louise has decided to use Marcus's interview as the basis for the piece and was very complimentary about his contribution. Somebody from Fathers Quarterly magazine will be in the studio, along with a young dad from Sunderland. She says that 'our' bit will go out at 7.40am and at 8.40am on Monday. Watch that space!!

Prince's Trust update

I've just received a letter from Sue Porto, the Regional Director of the Trust, confirming our nomination for the Community Impact Award. There have been 58 nominations, and these are being shortlisted down to three finalists for each of eight Award categories. The judging panel meets next week to shortlist three finalists for each Award, so we stand a 40:60 chance of being one of those. If we are we'll be asked to attend the Celebrate Success Awards evening on 19th November. We should find out in a week or so. Well done you guys!!

Watch us on BBC Breakfast this Friday!

Much excitement in Wiltshire this afternoon when Tim, the reporter, and Neil, the cameraman, came to film us for a segment of this Friday's programme. A BBC producer had come across the Love it! article and decided that it was worth following up. Good for her. So Charlotte was filmed letting Mike into the house (twice), Marcus was interviewed about the Young Dads-To-Be course, and Mike was able to give his views on its value.

The idea was for Tim and Neil to go over to Trowbridge to interview Paddy but Paddy had to go off to another appointment. So we tried to get hold of Stuart but he was seeing his Connexions adviser about his EMA (most important) so we got hold of Chris in Calne and a second interview took place there.

Tim is going to let us know more details about the programme but it may mean getting up earlier than usual on Friday morning to watch it. So keep checking the blog for more details.

Jessie has arrived

Stuart and Leia are now the proud parents of Jessica who arrived on Sunday 15 days late. She weighed in at 8lbs 7ozs. Not surprisingly Leia is rather tired. She went through two bottles of nitrous oxide, broke the bed, bit Stuart, but managed without pethidine or an epidural. Stuart's doing the night feeds and his paper round, so he's tired too. Welcome you two to the wonderful world of parenthood!

Feedback from California

"What a top-notch project! ...(It) has given us many ideas for our own outreach."

The DVD reaches a milestone

Just sent out the hundredth copy of the DVD. And we're getting some really positive feedback. One respondent calls it "a brilliant addition to my teaching aids". Another says it's "well put together" and "very inspiring". All of this reflects great credit to the young dads in the film because of their ability to describe their experiences and feelings so articulately.

Are we chuffed?! Even more than Den and Rob appear to be. Here they are, gracing the front cover of the August e-dition of The Source, the UK Youth magazine. We'd like to think that they'd been chosen for their good looks, but we may have got that wrong.

Here's part of the reason - a feature on the use of "the arts" as a means of enabling young people to communicate, with each other and to a wider audience. The article featured several case studies, one of which centred on our film and the media workshops that we ran along side it.

And here's 'our' case study, with Den and Rob looking happy once again. John gets quoted, as does Jackie and there are links to both our blog and Jackie's, as well as info about how people can get hold of the film.

So copy this link or just click to go to THE SOURCE (August 2008 edition) at http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=t14A8H0fXm51&EID=09a5efac-0c98-4aa6-ad6a-21ac6c6b6fa2&skip=true