In today's world there always seems to be so much suffering and so many in need of our help. Sometimes it is a bit overwhelming to consider all of the many unfortunate ones we encounter personally in our lives or see on television. For some of us it has become so overwhelming that we have abandoned all hope to make a difference in this world and are content to just go about our daily lives concerned with our own needs. I understand how hopeless it can seem at times. I understand how it appears that nothing we do seems to make any difference in other people's lives.

I believe it is time to fundamentally change how we provide help and support to those who are struggling. We live in a consumer driven society and as such we have been convinced that all we need is more of the right stuff to make us happier, cooler, and better looking. We have convinced ourselves that this is the answer to the challenges of poverty that if we just give people enough of the right stuff their problems will be solved. As someone who has seen first hand the grip of poverty on the lives of people I believe that poverty is not the lack of stuff, but is in stead the lack of options and the lack of hope that tomorrow will be any different than today. The causes of poverty are complex and many of them are systemic. If we do not address the systemic problems that are underlying this challenge we will continue to lose generation after generation to poverty or low income employment.

I believe that if all we do is continue to fund programs that do not fundamentally change people's lives then we will never make any progress towards creating a better, healthier, and safer society. It is not enough to sustain a life while at the same time doing nothing to provide the tools to improve that life.

The time has come for us as a society to stop asking people to do what they are untrained to do and begin providing them with the tools and the training to improve their lives. Too many of our organizations today are sustaining lives, but not improving those lives. We want to be able to provide these men with the tools to improve not just their lives but also the lives of their children. We need your help to do it. Will you help?

For every 1,000 dollars we raise:

• We are able to provide the "Man Class" to 10 young men who otherwise would not have the opportunity to know how a responsible man lives.
• We are able to provide parenting training to 12 young couples who otherwise would not get the skill training to be come good parents.
• We are able to provide anger management classes for 25 young men who otherwise would not learn the techniques of how to express their anger in appropriate ways or the source of their anger.
• We are able to provide drug and alcohol classes for 50 young men who otherwise would be trapped in an addictive lifestyle with no hope.

Please help us to help others by:

• Making a financial contribution to our efforts.
• Supporting our efforts to reestablish the institution of marriage.
• Supporting our efforts for public and social policy makers to begin to treat the family as a whole.
• Volunteering your time and experience to our efforts to heal the family.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" - Martin Luther King, Jr.