Dad La Soul
2067. Dan Flanagan
Dan Flanagan, from Worthing, founded ‘Dad La Soul’, a support network of over 10,000 fathers across the UK and internationally.
Having found that most parenting support groups and facilities were aimed at catering for mothers, Dan created ‘Dad La Soul’ in 2016. The volunteer-led group aims to help tackle poor mental health and the social isolation experienced by a proportion of the six million fathers in the UK, and give them a fun, welcoming environment where they can spend time with their children and meet others in a similar position.
The organisation has built a community over eight countries and runs both online events and in-person activities in Sussex, with Dan also running a separate initiative ‘TotRockinBeats’, which has hosted thousands of family-friendly raves and live entertainment shows in venues along the south coast.
The award for Dan comes ahead of Father’s Day.
Dan said:
“There are over six million dads in the UK, and ‘Dad La Soul’ has been set up to orchestrate a revolution in the way that their stories and struggles are seen, heard and supported.
“It is head-spinning to think about something that I started six years after feeling lonely and frustrated at the abject lack of resources there are for dads, has directly helped over 10,000 families – and as a small volunteer-run social enterprise operating from a “sleepy” small town in Sussex that is now having a global social impact, it isn’t easy.
“We have built a veritable smorgasbord of hard-working talent within our dads’ army, and to them, I want to say thank you.
“It is your time, effort, hard work and passion that counts – you make the change happen.”
See more about ‘Dad La Soul and their Social impact report’