Chapters · Certification Not Yet Open
Bring this to your city.
The goal is 500 Houses of Hope. The way that dies is a hundred organizations using the name badly, one of them harming a child, and the whole thing ending in a single news cycle.
So the curriculum travels free and the name is earned. Anyone may help fathers. Only a certified operator may say Kids Deserve Dads or House of Hope, and the difference between those two sentences is a trained operator, a safety protocol, and an annual audit.
Where this actually stands
Certification is not open and no license is available today. You cannot certify fidelity to a model nobody has proven once. The Rapid City programs launch this fall, Affiliate opens after a year of them, and chapters follow the first published outcome report. If you want in when it opens, tell us now and you will be first in line.
The Model
Three tiers.
You can start with nothing but a room and a trained facilitator. The curriculum is free at every level, forever.
Tier 1
Affiliate
Free
Run the programs using our curriculum. You may not use the Kids Deserve Dads or House of Hope name.
You get
- +Full curriculum library and facilitator guides
- +Intake and outcome instruments
- +Quarterly operator call
You owe
- ·Annual safeguarding attestation
- ·Anonymous aggregate outcome reporting
Tier 2
Certified Chapter
$500 to $5,000 a year, sliding scale
Licensed to run community programs under the Kids Deserve Dads name in your area.
You get
- +Everything in Tier 1, plus the name and mark license
- +Operator training and certification
- +Listing in the public registry and referral routing
- +Grant templates and national aggregate outcome data to cite
You owe
- ·Signed license agreement
- ·Background checks on everyone with participant contact
- ·The published safety and discharge protocol, adopted verbatim
- ·Quarterly outcome reporting and an annual fidelity audit
Tier 3
House of Hope
$5,000 to $25,000 a year, sliding scale
Licensed to operate a residential sanctuary under the House of Hope name.
You get
- +Everything in Tier 2, plus the residential operating manual
- +Intake and danger assessment instruments
- +Facility design standards and the capital-stack playbook
- +Direct advisory support through pre-development
You owe
- ·Residential licensure in your jurisdiction
- ·Two-staff minimum coverage at all times
- ·Incident reporting to the national office within 24 hours
- ·On-site audit before opening and annually after
Fee waivers exist and are used. A chapter with no budget pays the floor. License revenue funds the training, the audits, and the registry, and is never modeled as an income stream.
The Non-Negotiables
Eight things that are not up for discussion.
These apply at every tier, including the free one. Failure on any single one of them ends a license.
Background checks
Every staff member, volunteer, and board member with participant contact. Before first contact, refreshed every two years.
The two-adult rule
No adult is ever alone with a child who is not their own. No exceptions and no trusted-person carve-outs.
The safety protocol, verbatim
Operators may add to the published safety and discharge protocol. They may not subtract from it.
Scope discipline
Coaches do not deliver therapy. Navigators do not give legal advice. Nobody gives investment advice. Trained and posted.
Mandatory reporting
Under local law, with a written procedure and trained staff.
Outcome reporting
On the common instruments, into the central registry. An operator who will not report cannot be certified.
Nondiscrimination
Services available to any father regardless of race, religion, national origin, orientation, disability, or ability to pay.
No political activity
Advocacy is conducted by the national organization within 501(c)(3) limits, never improvised locally under the licensed name.
Immediate termination
Falsifying outcome data. Operating without current background checks. Concealing a safeguarding incident. Using the name for political fundraising. Charging a father for a service the standard requires to be free. Each of these ends a license the day it is confirmed, with public delisting.
The Path
Inquiry to certification.
You tell us where you are and what you have. We check territory, organizational status, and leadership.
Two calls on the model, the non-negotiables, and honest cost. Most conversations end here, and that is a healthy outcome.
Operator certification: facilitation, safeguarding, intake, data capture, scope discipline. Remote, with one in-person intensive.
You open with at least three programs, one of which must be a weekly dads’ group. Monthly check-ins.
First fidelity audit. Full license. Listed in the public registry.
The minimum viable chapter
You do not need a building, a budget, or paid staff. You need a room, one trained facilitator, and three programs. Start with The Round Table, Fathering Foundations, and Connection Hour: one program for the man, one for his skill, one for his kids. Everything else is expansion.
See all twenty-one programs →Get On The List
Tell us where you are.
Certification is not open yet. Every inquiry logged now is first in line when it is, and it helps us prove national demand to the funders who underwrite the certification system.
Chapter interest
Your city, your organization if you have one, and what you are already doing for fathers. Zac reads every one of these himself.
Prefer email? Write to zac@kidsdeservedads.org
Not ready to run a chapter but want to help? There is plenty to do.