David’s Story - Young Dads Project

(The names in this case study have been changed, but the case remains the same).

David is a 21-year-old Dad living with his girlfriend, son (now 10 months old) and step daughter (8 years old) in North Edinburgh. David was referred to us in October 2019 by his Social Worker who wanted someone to support him to gain confidence around his 2 month old son. David was struggling with his new role of ‘Dad’ and he had never felt comfortable spending time alone with his child. He was suffering from high levels of anxiety whenever he took his son out. 

During one of their early conversations Greg, our Project Worker, and David were discussing the importance of having a network of supportive people in your life. David told Greg “why would I ever want to rely on anyone else, they’ll only ever let me down,” and this sentiment has been the driving force behind much of the work they have carried out together. Greg began taking David and his son on walks around his local area. During one of these outings they visited a community centre where the manager was kind enough to give them a quick tour. She told them about the kinds of ways they can help support families and this included a clothes swap scheme they had set up. David was surprised at this, expressing how great it was that people would help each other out in such a way. He had come out wearing his partner’s jacket that day, but left with a new jacket that he has used on most of their outings since. 

At first Greg organised all their outings but as David’s confidence grew he began actively asking to go places with him. One of the first trips he wanted to do was to take his son to Butterfly World to see the tarantulas - something he had had an interest in growing up. This opportunity for David to share an interest with his son was heartening to witness and he still talks about that trip as being a highlight of his time with his child.

After building a positive, trusting relationship with David, Greg started looking to push him out of his comfort zone by doing some group work. The Dads Rock Project Workers organised a meet up involving two other Young Dads we were working with at the time. During the first meeting, David was quiet and withdrawn, focusing on his son and not wanting to engage with the other dads. Afterwards Greg spoke to him about opening up to others and David was keen to try again. He felt that now he had met them once he would be more comfortable next time! We arranged to go around the Royal Botanic Gardens and David was far more relaxed, taking part fully in conversations and sharing his experiences of being a Young Dad with a peer. David is now excited and looking forward to our next Young Dads meeting.

Greg says, “Having the opportunity and dedicated time to spend working so closely with David has had such an impact on his confidence. He is now happy spending time with his child, is learning to accept support from others and can see the value in forming these positive relationships with people.” 

Dads Rock - Young Dads Project - September 2020