It all began back in 2003 with 3 at-home dads and a vision.
Mike Stillwell, Peter Steinberg and Matt Vossler were a trio of at-home dads from the Washington D.C. area involved in a great local playgroup. They wondered why there wasn’t a National At-Home Dad Network so other at-home dads around the country could find great local playgroups like theirs. So they got together with an attorney and, in 2003, incorporated the first and only national non-profit organization for at-home dads, Daddyshome, Inc.
Board expansion Getting other at-home dads from around the country interested in the idea was difficult. Men in general think they can solve any problem on their own and don’t think they need the support of a national organization. It took 6 years but Mike, Peter and Matt managed to convince enough at-home dads from around the country to join the organization. In 2009 the board was expanded to 8 members from 3 regions of the country: East, Central and West and over 20 chapters were registered. Daddyshome was on the move! Annual At-Home Dad’s Convention For 10 years, Oakton Community College in the Chicago area had hosted an annual convention for at-home dads as part of their study of this unique family arrangement. But, after 10 years, the College ended the program and thus their interest in the convention. So many at-home dads had valued these annual get togethers that they decided to keep it going. Andy Ferguson stepped up and agreed to host the event in Kansas City, where he was living at the time, and many others including Dayv Glusing, Phil Andrew, Hogan Hilling and Brian Chalmers agreed to help. Daddyshome stepped in to provide the convention the non-profit status it needed to solicit donations that would help to keep convention fees low. The 11th convention in 2006 was a huge success and the convention has continued to grow ever since.
Website In April of 2010 Daddyshome launched its much anticipated website, www.daddyshome.org. The goal of the site is to help at-home dads connect by finding or starting a local at-home dad group, getting information about the Annual At-Home Dad Convention and connecting with discussion forums on www.athomedad.org and facebook.
The Future Daddyshome is excited about the future for at-home dads. The number of at-home dads continue to grow and, more importantly, so do the number of those seeking support so that they can become BETTER at-home dads. Daddyshome is committed to these at-home dads and plans to continue to offer more and better ways to help these at-home dads find the support and resources they need to be the best at-home dads they can be!
