Making the Difference for Dads in Memphis

Families Matter Inc., a leading Memphis non-profit, was awarded a $25M, three-year competitive procurement contract with the State of Tennessee to provide innovative services to low-income fathers and their families. Second Mile President, Michael Bolton, led the bid team of senior executives, operations staff, contractors, and subject-matter experts in this successful four-month solutions development and proposal submission. He also served as a subject matter expert and coach during the preparation for the mandatory oral presentation.

The State-prescribed proposal preparation required best practices research and review, developing a detailed logic model for the operation, labor market analysis and evaluation, focus groups analysis, and coordination of multiple partners in support of the prime contractor, Families Matter.

Together the team designed AFIRM—A Father’s Involvement Really Matters—an unprecedented combination of community-based mentoring, employment opportunities, child support advocacy, and fatherhood and family skills development. Focused on Memphis-area, young, low-income fathers, AFIRM is rooted in promoting community-wide understanding of how father engagement provides unique lifelong benefits to a child’s emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. Through Families Matter’s collaborative, young father’s gain access to insights, supports, and opportunities necessary to break the cycles of poverty and father absence so prevalent and so destructive to Memphis.

The State of Tennessee selected AFIRM as one of only seven proposals from a pool of 81 initial submissions.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, said that “[The Families Matter proposal] gives men in West Tennessee the tools that they need to provide for their families by increasing economic mobility, creating paths for sustained child support payments, [and providing] mentorship programs to help men build strong relationships with their children. Strong families are made stronger when fathers are engaged with their children. This is an example of a community partnership that I believe will change lives.”