Michael, you are just the kind of person the Sullivan Ballou Fund seeks to recognize and affirm. You came to the FATHER Project in 2009 as a client needing help with employment, transportation, and housing and with understanding your rights regarding your son. From the very beginning you firmly believed in the importance to children of strong, involved fathering. And you worked hard to be an active working dad.
Once you successfully completed the FATHER Project program, you made a decision to help other men along the path that you had walked. Since that time as a staff member of the FATHER Project, you have provided parenting coaching, help with legal proceedings, and mentoring to dozens of men. In the last two years, you transitioned to the Reentry Team, providing career counseling to men reentering the community from incarceration. And more than a career advisor, you have been a friend and guide to men making the difficult transition to a new life in a changed world.
Your mission to promote effective fathering has not been limited to helping individual fathers. You were one of the co-creators of the Citizen Father Project that prepared fathers to be leaders in their communities as well as with their children.
Since the COVID pandemic began, you have been instrumental in helping the Reentry Team and the FATHER Project shift to virtual services.
In all these things, Michael, you have expressed the same heart energy—selfless devotion to the wellbeing of others—that has always been the force by which civilization evolves for the good. You deeply value and connect with fathers, and you have been a crucial asset to the FATHER Project. We are honored be able to acknowledge you in this small way.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members