'It's an honour': Yorkshire charity Leeds Dads nominated for National Diversity Award

Leeds Dads is a charity organisation founded by Errol Murray which aims to bring together a diverse community of fathers and show them that they don’t have to comply with stereotypical conventions of fatherhood.

The charity hosts weekly social events including playgroups, breakfast clubs, and kids-and-dads walks, as well as occasional Dads Nights Out where they have guest speakers. Recently they had a men’s mental health expert join them for a discussion about not being afraid to reach out for help.

Talking to Yorkshire Post about his nomination, Errol said: “It’s an honour, I’ve read some of the nominations and it brings you to your knees. It makes you stop and realise, gosh, is that what they really think of us. It’s humbling.

“Through the group we allow people to know that it’s ok to be vulnerable, to be afraid, to make mistakes, to cry. And the learning that occurs there is immense. We see around 1,000 dads a year, probably about 25 every weekend.”

Last year Errol attended the Fathers and Families Coalition of America conference in the United States where he spoke at three workshops. His talks included how to run a dads group and how to bond with your kids in the early days.

He said: “They were so excited because so much of their work supporting dads was around access or legal challenges and they were just so happy to see dads chasing bubbles or lying on the floor while their kids jumped on them.”

Errol also works as a perinatal partners peer supporter at the NHS where he provides support and help to partners of mums suffering from mental health issues surrounding childbirth.

He said: “Research shows it is 2 to 1 whether partners in these situations will experience feelings of depression or anxiety caused by the situation. A lot of partners are very fearful of this because they don’t want to show they are suffering from a mental health condition. So I support them in that respect - we have lots of different group activities to help them come to terms with the illness.

“Often the idea of a group of dads in a room being able to share their feelings and struggles gives them the strength to say ‘hey, I’m not the only one, other people have got through this and I will too’.”

You can vote for Leeds Dads for the Community Organisation Award for Gender and Errol’s personal nomination for Positive Role Model Award for Gender.

Voting will remain open until midnight on May 22.