Start a New At-Home Dad Group
Get Your Group Out There
- Set up an internet site and/or email account for your group.
At a minimum, set up an email account so people can contact you. For a website, it can be a free group page with Yahoo or Google or Facebook, a blog with Wordpress or Blogger, or Meet Up.com for a small fee. You can purchase or design a more advanced website with your own domain name, but this is more time consuming. The objective of having a site is to offer dads a destination for contact information, general information about your group, and a calendar of future group meetings/events. You need to decide whether to make the group private or public. Daddyshome recommends 
private so that someone in the group meets the new at-home dad in person before he joins.
- Establish a consistent playgroup day and time (and place if possible).
Dads with kids live by schedules and structure so it will be easier for members to attend if they can plan ahead. The locations can change frequently based on the geography of the group – zoo, local parks/playground, museums, indoor playroom, or parent & me classes. One suggestion is to have different members hosting in their homes and rotating weekly. Remember to incorporate travel times, naps, school schedules, etc.
- Get your name out there!
- Get listed on this site by filling out our Chapter Registration Form.
- Contact local media organizations.
A phone call or email notifying the media that you exist and you organized a group with contact information is necessary. Type up a formal press release as well. There are the main broadcast stations, newspapers, and smaller community and parenting papers to contact. - Make up a simple flyer with contact info and meeting time/place.
Post at hospitals, playgrounds, library, pediatrician office, and mothers groups. - Business cards can be made at a low cost.
You can create these on your computer or at a local print shop. You can hand these out to dads you run into across town. Encourage existing members to network as well. - Link Love:
Contact other at home dad websites or blogs with your website/group information. Try www.rebeldad.com or www.athomedad.org.
This information was written by Lance Somerfeld of NYC Dads Group, Phil Andrew and Mike Njus of LinOma Dads, as well as Tony Peters and Bill Beagle of the Dayton Dads that is posted on RebelDad. Daddyshome appreciates all of these dads for sharing the information that has made their groups a success!
