Get on the b-u-s to be a better dad

If you want to be a better father, just think of a bus, says Wayne Bradshaw, the leader of the Fathering Project.

He believes kids need three things from their dad, and each is represented by B, U or S:

• B stands for being there.
• U stands for unconditional love, even when there’s bad behaviour.
• S stands for special, as in finding the specialness in your kids and helping them build their self-worth.

Wayne says he’s no expert on being a dad, but after becoming involved with the Fathering Project in 2014 he has learnt a lot about the importance of fathers.

The project is based at the University of Western Australia and was founded by cancer specialist Dr Bruce Robinson more than 20 years ago after he noticed that many of his dying patients expressed regret at not having spent more time with their kids.

As leader of the project, Wayne is a tireless champion for fathers across Western Australia.

The charity reaches thousands of people with the motto of “changing kids one dad at a time”.

And Wayne drives a variety of approaches to promote the role of fathers – and father figures – including a schools program and Champion Dads groups.

“It’s about trying to improve outcomes for kids,” says Wayne. “The main program is to create fathering groups in schools and opportunities for men to gather. Typically, men don’t communicate as well as women, and the groups give them a chance to do activities together.

“As part of that process, they learn how to be better dads, which makes them realise how important they are,” says Wayne.

Wayne is “grateful” to have been voted a Westfield Local Hero and achieve recognition for his cause within the community.

The $10,000 Westfield Local Heroes grant has enabled us to introduce the ‘Fathering project’ program into three more schools including Wembley Downs, Hillary’s and Mindarie. With schools closed now through until early February we have a targeted roll out to further introduce the program into Scarborough, Dianella Heights and Craigie in early 2019.
With the 3 new schools now engaged in the project that has equated to roughly 70-100 dads per school.

“Thank you to Westfield Innaloo and all those who voted for me as a representative of The Fathering Project. We are very fortunate to be a recipient of $10,000 that we can use to help dads and kids.”

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here.