One day in 1993, Halbert Sullivan awoke on a bus stop bench in the heart of the “St. Louis ghetto,” he said.
“Mind you now, I was living in St. Peters for 26 years,” said Sullivan, the founding president and CEO of Fathers’ Support Center. “I said, ‘What am I doing waking up here? I must be crazy. Everyone’s been telling me I need help, and I’m going to go get some.’”
At that point, Sullivan had been struggling with drug addiction for 11 years. He’d also been in and out of prison for drug-related offenses. His sister guided him to a drug rehabilitation program that he could get into in three days.
“The things that I heard in rehab made sense,” he said.
The people leading the programs were former drug addicts who had turned their lives around. They now had jobs, homes and families, and that gave him hope that he could have those things too, he said.
Sullivan went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Fontbonne University and a master’s of social work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University.
While in his master’s program, two women approached him with the idea for starting the Fathers’ Support Center, which promotes the father’s involvement in their children’s lives through intensive job training, group therapy, community service and parenting workshops.
Since its inception in 1997, the center has served more than 14,000 fathers and their families, transitioning nonparticipating fathers to a position of involvement in the lives of over 40,000 children.
At the start of every program, Sullivan shares his past with the fathers. On July 27, he celebrated 24 years free of the “horrors of addiction,” he said.
“My experiences are deeply imbedded in the methods and strategies that we do in this program,” Sullivan said. “You got to get honest about your situation. You have to accept that you did this; no one did it to you. You got to get started. You can’t keep waiting on tomorrow.”
On Friday, November 17, Sullivan will receive the 2017 Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award at the St. Louis American Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Business networking luncheon and awards reception, to be held at Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis.
Why does Sullivan think the center’s mission is so important? He rattled off statistics like they were his home address or phone number. About 82 percent of all teenage girls who get pregnant come from fatherless homes. About 73 percent of all high school dropouts, 70 percent of all juveniles in detention, and 65 percent of all homeless and runaway youth have no father in their lives.
“The dad is very important to the child’s psychological and emotional development,” Sullivan said. “If we could draw the dad’s strength and involvement, then we could get rid of a lot of issues that our youth are facing today, and we’d help to break the cycle of poverty.”
Family Formation is the center’s core program. The men who enter the Responsible Fatherhood Project commit to a six-week, full-day program, where they are taught a variety of parenting and life skills. Included in the curriculum is nutritional and financial literacy, mock interviews for employment opportunities, and family bonding experiences. During the final two weeks, clients are required to wear business attire to prepare them for employment opportunities.
“The number one thing that the men and others are facing is an economic problem,” Sullivan said. “To solve an economic problem, that starts off with a job. If a guy is having a time with a child and he can’t buy ice cream or cookies, he’s going to soon stop coming around. Because men want to do things; they want to fix stuff.”
When Gary Turner walked into class on his first day at Fathers’ Support Center, he was unemployed, homeless and separated from his children.
Because his children were living in a foster home in California, his fight to reconnect with this children was even more difficult than the center’s average participants. Some of the men have an unstable relationship with the mothers of their children; some can’t see their children until they pay child support; others have been imprisoned and need to prove to the courts they’ve been through the center’s training. Turner was legally battling the State of California.
The mother of his children was ill and couldn’t care for them in San Francisco. Turner wanted custody, but without a job and home, the prospect seemed impossible.
Then Turner found the center. He was placed in facilitator Willie Streeter’s classroom. Streeter, a graduate from the program himself, could relate well to his new client – a client with hope, but uncertain of what to do or where to go. Streeter took Turner under his wing and made sure he took advantage of the available resources.
Turner found a full-time job in the construction field, and that allowed him to pay rent, pay bills and provide for his children. Once he was back on his feet, the center’s legal services went to bat for Turner in California.
“Gary Turner’s case epitomizes what we do at the Father’s Support Center,” said Lisl Williams, director of legal services. “We had a viable dad here in the state of Missouri. His children were in California in foster care. But for our efforts at the Father’s Support Center, we would have had two boys lost into the foster care system, when they could have been with their father.”
Turner won his fight for full custody of his children and brought them home to St. Louis. He is the proud father of a set of twins – a boy and girl – Cortland and Courtney, 15; Gary Jr., 30; and a stepfather to Amber Horton, 32.
“Watching him with my younger siblings, Courtland and Courtney, is truly amazing,” Horton said. “I don’t know if even two parents could even do what he does by himself.”
This year, the center honored Turner with their Father of the Year award. Turner remains gainfully employed and he makes sure to put his children and their needs first.
Turner said, “Families need to be together and they need their father. This is a rough world out here and, with Dad being around, the dad could help you prepare you for that world.”
The 18th Annual Salute to Excellence in Business Awards & Networking Luncheon will be held Friday, November 17 at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis, with a networking reception at 11 a.m. and luncheon program at noon. Tickets are $100 for Preferred/VIP seating and $75 for general admission. Call 314-533-8000 or visit www.stlamerican.com for more information or to purchase tickets.
