Barbershop Evaluation Project

The Macaulay Child Development Centre was established in 1932 as a non-profit, charitable organization to promote optimal child development in partnership with family and community. Today it is a multi-service, child care and family support agency.

Staff at the Macaulay Child Development Centre wanted to do something different for Black History Month in February 2006 and organized the Barbershop Project as a one-time event.The Centre's staff's intentions were to "counteract" negative images of black fathers' and the stereotyped absenteeism in their children's lives. With the purpose to increase positive father involvement with their children and supported with funding from United Way, regular facilitated conversations with Afro-Caribbean fathers were held in Eglinton-Oakwood neighbourhood barbershops. The Black history Month event proved to be popular and after the success of that first session, the barbers, participants, and Macaulay staff agreed they were onto something exciting. They further developed the idea and created a program that would see monthly sessions in several shops.

Lively conversations, refreshments and resources typify a session, along with perhaps a skit, a video clip, or a spoken word performance to inspire thinking and discussion about important issues of concern to Black fathers, such as teaching and reinforcing a positive cultural identity, or guiding children's behaviour. The Centre has published a brochure, Black Fatherhood on Fathering: Tips from the Barbershop, available on their website click here.

CCBR has been asked by the Macaulay Child Development Centre to undertake an evaluation of one of its most unique programs. More than a Haircut: The Barbershop Project is designed to engage Afro-Caribbean fathers by holding monthly discussions in a natural meeting place within the community- the barbershop! Sessions are led by African-Canadian men who are fathers themselves and the topics are relevant to fathering. Promoted as "a chance to find out what others are thinking about being a father, about handling the responsibilities, and about enjoying your children, right from the beginning." The sessions are lively. If you were to go to a session at one of the four participating barbershops located in the vicinity of Eglinton and Oakwood (a.k.a. Little Jamaica) in Toronto, you would be captivated by the topics, questions, answers, and dialogue of the participants. Each individual has a story to tell about fatherhood that draws the listener into his household and different life experiences. Some important themes from fathers' perspectives are not highlighted by media sources or other parenting organizations that tend to focus on mothers. For example, when single mothers in the community are in the media, Afro-Caribbean fathers are typically condemned for their lack of support. That's where the barbershop project comes in.It gives fathers a platform to make their voices heard; to learn from and teach facilitators, whom themselves are fathers, father figures or male community leaders.

The overall goal of the project is to make a positive impact on the lives of Afro-Caribbean fathers and father models in their children's lives however, since the project began, very little has been done to document its impact on participants and the barbershops themselves. CCBR has begun an evaluation of the project that will engage all stakeholders in an effort to better understand the strengths and challenges of the program as well as to what extent the project is achieving its desired outcomes. Through this process, we will also document recommendations for strengthening the program. Preliminary results of the evaluation were recently shared with the project's Evaluation Committee.

Overall, the Barbershop Project has been greatly accepted in the Afro-Caribbean community at Eglinton and Oakwood. With our evaluation efforts, we hope to contribute to the further strengthening and success of this exciting and innovative project

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