Fathers' UpLift, Inc.

Charles Daniels, Jr., co-founder/CEO of Fathers’ Uplift, grew up without his father. Despite his mother’s love, Charles felt the impact of abandonment and shame. He had problems in school, turned to alcohol and drugs to hide those feelings, and came close to actualizing thoughts of suicide. Ultimately, he realized that his fractured relationship with his father was at the root of his despair. After finding his Dad, Charles recognized that his father had his own challenges and that he was not responsible for his father’s absence. That journey led him to his life’s work. Charles holds  degrees from Bethune-Cookman University, Simmons University, Boston University. While on the journey of founding and operating Fathers’ Uplift, Charles has taught at the college level (Harvard University and Simmons University), has been a national speaker and writer, and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including CNN, ABC, Good Morning America, and WBUR.

Fathers’ UpLift works at multiple intervention points to help fathers become and remain emotionally stable so that they can have a positive and present influence on their children’s lives. Addressing the root cause of father absenteeism is an essential part of transforming expectations for active and engaged fathers. Working on three levels: individual, family, and societal ̶ creates the conditions that fathers, children, and families need to thrive in supportive, engaged, and positive surroundings. Fathers’ UpLift engages in a three-tiered approach to our mission, focusing first on impacting individuals (Therapy and Father to Father Mentoring), then on building families, and finally on enabling society to better serve and support fathers and families beyond our doors through the provision of internships and trainings for current and future social workers. 

In the United States, nearly 20 million children are growing up without a father figure. In situations where father absenteeism is impacted by incarceration, homelessness, depression, or joblessness, being an engaged father comes with more challenges. Fathers’ UpLift believes that everyone has the potential to be a good parent but that systemic oppression diminishes that potential. In many cases, fathers are left without access to the community, peer support, or mental health interventions that would help them overcome obstacles and fully engage in their children’s lives.

Fathers’ UpLift is the country’s first mental health and substance abuse treatment facility for fathers and families, helping fathers become and remain emotionally stable for their children. Fathers’ UpLift uses peer coaching, father-child therapy, trainings, youth programs, and support for incarcerated and recently released fathers to honor and rehabilitate the relationship between thousands of fathers and families in the Boston area. In their outpatient clinic, over 800 fathers and families receive mental health services from clinicians trained in trauma who reflect the population being served. Outside of the clinic, Fathers’ UpLift partners with community centers, substance abuse programs, and other agencies to build a holistic approach to helping fathers rebuild their lives and their relationships with their families.

Since 2011, Fathers’ Uplift has been the only Boston-based organization dedicated wholly to serving at-risk fathers in the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester. Fathers’ Uplift’s services build upon our mission to serve fathers who desire to overcome challenges and become a positive presence in their children’s lives. Leveraging Fathers’ Uplift’s network of partnering organizations (e.g., Vital Village Network, Suffolk County House of Corrections) and extensive experience providing mental health and peer-oriented services for men in Boston neighborhoods (Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan). This population of focus comprises predominantly low-income Black and Hispanic/Latino men and children. Fathers’ Uplift serves fathers (ages 15-65) who desire to overcome challenges and become a positive presence in their children’s lives. We also work with children (ages 5-24) who reside in absent-father households. We provide mental health and therapy services to women as well, typically single mothers raising boys and girls without a fathers’ presence. Our served population/clientele: 66% Black men, 14.8% White, 10.7% Hispanic, 4.1% Multiracial and 5.5% Asian/ Other; 72.5% male; 27.3% are female.

While serving black fathers and fatherless youth, we are providing more stable homes, guiding our fathers past obstacles that can prove disastrous. Our organization is running the first  mental health clinic focused on black fathers and their families, while establishing a model for empowering fathers and communities. Although father absenteeism does not discriminate, the impact of fatherlessness  impacts black fathers and their families at alarming rates. The Elevate Prize strives to ensure that humanity is elevated at every level. The need to uplift and elevate the voices and experiences of black fathers is extremely important and necessary at this time. 

After suffering from the absence of his own father, Charles took an unexpected approach to identify the barriers that prevented his own father from remaining engaged in his life. That personal journey transformed into a mission to serve fathers nationwide so they can remain positively engaged in their children lives. His own lived experiences as a black child growing up in a household without a father, led to the creation of the first mental health clinic in the country that is geared towards addressing the emotional issues men experience at each phase of fatherhood.

I was a product of fatherlessness and witnessed his mother’s struggles as a single parent. As I thought about my father and his absence from my life, I took an unexpected approach: I thought about the things he was going through that prevented him from remaining active in my life. Then I said to myself, ‘What if someone had been there to help him?’ It might have made a tremendous difference. After this experience, I set a goal, along with the help of my wife Samantha Fils-Daniels, to make sure that no child would feel the way I felt, and founded Fathers’ Uplift. I wanted to ensure that all children experience the feelings associated with having an active father, even if they are not in the same country, the same city, the same state and same home.

In short, I know how it feels to not have an active and engaged father. On the other hand, I know how it feels to be a Black father who wants to be engaged in his child's life. Both experiences have equipped me with the tools to continue serving fathers and families. I'm confident that this mission is one that is needed internationally, and with the help of the Elevate Prize we can bring hope, love and guidance to fathers throughout the world. 

When this organization was first started nine years ago, we used the proceeds from a $3,000 fellowship (the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship) to start supporting fathers at a local health center. Since then, the organization has grown leaps and bounds. This could not have been done without pivoting at a time where it was difficult to find funding to support our cause. As such, we had to identify a means to obtain residual income so that we did not end having to shut our doors. While on the verge of running out of money during our fourth year of existence, we began to think outside of the box and began applying for paneling through various insurance companies. Becoming paneled would allow us to bill our constituents' health insurance every time we provided a service. This eventually resulted in us becoming a mental health clinic. Becoming a licensed mental health clinic allowed us to bill the health insurances of individuals that have Mass Health (our state's health insurance) and private health insurances. My personal connection to this mission prevents me from giving up. To be honest, I am well aware of what is at stake if I decided to give up. 

It has not been a smooth road but it’s been an enriching process. Every bump, denial, and rejection propelled me. Eventually, as I worked through the struggles in my path, Fathers’ Uplift became the country’s first outpatient mental health clinic for fathers and families. Fathers' Uplift now at a place where we’ve figured out how mental health can positively be used to strengthen fatherhood and families. I'm a first generation college graduate, who had not experience in business, especially in the mental health sector. Being able to do all of these things with no former experience is an example of the type of leader that I am. I'm not afraid to try and fail. Nor, do allow past failures to keep me down. I learn from them and try again until the intended outcome takes place. 

Fathers’ Uplift exists to break the intergenerational pattern of fatherlessness, poverty, and recidivism. Fathers’ Uplift works actively with fathers using a mental health approach, including individual therapy, group therapy, couples family therapy, therapeutic mentoring, family support stabilization and psychiatric services, to overcome each of the barriers (financial, oppressive, emotional, traumatic, and addiction-based barriers that prevent them from remaining engaged in the lives of their children, both in and outside of the prison system.  We expect Fathers’ Uplift success to translate into poverty reduction, lower incarceration and recidivism rates, improved educational outcomes, and improved self-image and self-esteem.

We have an innovative tool for combating mental health, and this could be scaled to other parts of the healthcare system to advance affordable, effecting and accessible mental health for all. Our mental health clinic can be scalable in every state because of the presence of Medicaid. To scale the clinic will take time. In addition, our coaching services would be a priority in terms of scaling because there are fathers that want to give back in every state, as well as father absent households that need assistance. Funding generated from our clinics in Massachusetts could be a great source of support for providing fathers that want to make a difference, the tools to do so, until we are able to scale out mental health clinic fully. Ideally, we would like to be connected to the regions of this country that have the highest percentage of single mother households. The following areas are on our radar to tap into within the next 5 - 10 years based on the number of single mother households in these areas: Los Angeles, CA: 204,230; Baltimore, MD. 

We will need board development support, particularly assistance with guiding us through the transitioning of our old board and identifying new board members with connections in the cities we are currently looking at. We have a need for assistance developing and implementing a thorough strategic, marketing and expansion plan. We will need support in ensuring that our brand and image is consistent throughout all of our correspondence currently, our website does not reflect where we are fully at this stage of our growth. Our current limitations are as follows: Branding, board development & transition, and communication and marketing plan. 

Branding, Communication & Marketing Plan: We are currently working with a volunteer who specializes in branding. She is currently working with us to ensure that are branding is consistent and up to date.

Board Development & Transition: We have recently added one new board member with expertise in board development. He is currently supporting us with identifying new board members, while supporting us with thinking critically about transitioning board members who's terms have ended. We have not identified board members in Baltimore and Los Angeles yet. Nonetheless, we plan to do so in the near future. 

Vital Village Network – Affiliated with Boston Medical Center (BMC), the Vital Village Network is a network of residents and over 75 organizations committed to maximizing child, family and community wellbeing. 

Suffolk County House of Corrections Family Matters Program - Family Matters is a voluntary program under the Division of Re-Integration Services at the Suffolk House of Correction developed to assist inmates and their families with working toward positive relationships.

Communities for Justice  (CRJ) - (Partner Type: Referral & Support for Recruitment): CRJ as it exists today is the result of several mergers of organizations rooted in different aspects of social activism. They focus on preventing crime, while providing direct aid to incarcerated men and women and to newly released former prisoners and later to adults with developmental disabilities. 

Boston Community Leadership Academy & Mission Hill High School - (Partner type: Referral & Support for Recruitment): FUL licensed clinicians & CRA/A-CRA providers serve youth and families identified at the Boston Community Leadership Academy & Mission Hill High School with substance use services, mentoring, parenting support, and intensive case management when needed.