Being a Dadvocate for my son Dakota, is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. We have a unique bond tying us together. I am a trained family leader and so should you be I will get more into that below but first I need to brag a little.

Being a Dadvocate, I am always there for him. I am coaching his DC Dolphin Football team. There was nothing at the time that I thought could beat watching him rum for his first touchdown, but life is full of surprises and just keeps getting better.

Being a Dadvocate made me the Webelo Den Leader to him and his Pack 262 Cub Scout Pack.

Being a Dadvocate, I am there volunteering in his classroom weekly doing math flashcards.

Being a Dadvocate, my son was riding a two-wheeler without training wheels and could swim the length of on Olympic-sized swimming pool, this is not so much my doing as it is physical ability but I am the one who took him to the kiddie pool when he was two and a half years old to play. Then he took 4 years of swim lessons so I have to claim a little involvement other than getting a really good tan in the process.

I first stoked Dakota’s competitive fire when he was five and he won his age group race at the Elephant Rock Ride’s Shimano Youth Series. In his first attempt a year earlier he finished second and that did not set will with him and he wanted to win. This year he really wanted to Ride the Rockies with his Mom but he has baseball obligations and commitments to his team and a three-day summer football training camp held by the CU Football Coaching staff in Boulder.

Enough bragging already on to something very cool and that would be family leadership, the Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) offers an awesome opportunity to get involved in your children’s lives in ways you never even thought possible. It is state-sponsored and held throughout the state as well as the Denver metro area.

Program graduates spend more than 120 hours to develop skills needed to become effective leaders in their communities. Once recruited and accepted in to the program, participants attend a 20-week curriculum that integrates personal and child development, leadership training, civic literacy and civic participation skills. The curriculum includes four components:

1. An initial retreat, then two 10-week sessions that focuses on knowledge about the change process, skill building, and tools of civic engagement and a community project.
2. In only 20-weeks, Institute graduates make a significant impact within their communities.
3. Through their community projects, they demonstrate that when given civic and leadership tools, families can guide public policy and decision making directly and indirectly through their actions and commitment to children, youth and the community.
4. The Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) started from a public-private partnership between several statewide organizations, business leaders and community members.

This class is 100% free of charge and includes a weekly dinner for you and your kiddos as well as free daycare for the kids should you need to bring them. Please go to http://flticolorado.org/ to sign up today, the next class start in January and is well worth your investment!

Mike is from Castle Rock and is known as the MileHighDad. He has been blogging about his life as an at-home dad since 2002, and is a nationally syndicated columnist for the National At Home Dad Network. He can routinely be found at the playground, sporting fields of Caste Rock or somewhere organizing the National At Home Dad Convention to be held in Denver in 2013/14. He lives by the motto of “Always be there for your kids.”