About Us
FIRA History
On March 8, 2002, a national forum entitled "Father Involvement Day" was held in Toronto. Ninety participants, including fathers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers met to discuss the broad vision and specific research strategies for FIRA. Through a series of roundtable discussions, a number of strategic priorities were identified, including the formation of a steering committee and the pursuit of funding to support the development of a research infrastructure. The FIRA Steering Committee met in Toronto on September 20, 2002 to further outline topic areas for an application for the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) program of SSHRC. A document describing strategic themes (based on FIRA research priorities) was sent to all FIRA Network members. The Steering Committee of FIRA submitted a letter of intent to the Community University Research Alliance Program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. FIRA was notified and invited to submit a full proposal in June 2003. In December 2003, FIRA received CURA funding to carry out a 5-year research program, later extended to six years.
FIRA's CURA program was completed at the end of 2009. On October 28, 2009 a meeting of stakeholders was held at York Unversity to discuss the continuation of FIRA. As a result of that meeting a new interim steering committee was formed to seek funding opportunities for new projects. Those efforts were not successful and the interim steering committee in now in hiatus. In the meantime, the Centre for Families Work and Well-Being, at the University of Guelph, continues to support the maintenance of the FIRA website. John Hoffman currently serves as communications coordinator and spokesperson for FIRA.
