Fathers & Families Of San Joaquin

Fathers & Families of San Joaquin has their feet in the trenches and is making a positive impact in the lives of others. They have a genuine desire to bring about positive change in the community.

I earned a Ph.D. in Social Thought from the University of Chicago in 1969. I’ve been a peace and social justice activist and community journalist in Stockton since 1979. I was given the Unity and Community Award by Stockton Metro Ministry in 1995, and named an Architect of Peace by the Architects of Peace Foundation in 2010. I met Samuel Nunez before he founded Fathers and Families. He’d been a fatherless teenage gangster who turned his life around in prison, and dedicated himself to training young men to become Real Fathers. I found Sammy to be a brilliant man of utter integrity, and began serving as an unpaid consultant to him. I volunteer as a writing mentor to the at-risk young men (and women) whom he serves, across all ethnic lines.
He trains them to think clearly, to analyze themselves and their community, and to communicate respectfully with friends and adversaries. He exposes them to spiritual traditions, especially Native American. He serves them with passion and compassion, and teaches them utter, principled nonviolence.
Sammy Nunez and his team at Fathers and Families are shining lights in this struggling and violent city. I’m grateful to work with him, and consider him my colleague. Every time I talk with him or his young people, I come away uplifted and hopeful.
I give my intellectual and spiritual energy to only three nonprofits; Fathers and Families is one.

Working to stem the school to prison pipeline this organization has done a great deal to educate the general public as well as support and mentor youth that are normally disregarded. FFSJ Provides community activities in ignored neighborhoods, has facilitatedgrieving and healing celebrations across cultures and backgrounds, supports and mentors youth as well as and striving to build the FFSJ infrastructure. This organization provides a much needed service to the Stockton and San Joaquin Community.

FFSJ does amazing work with minimal resources. We plow forward despite many barriers. We are grassroots and we get into the hood where our work is vital to building hope among our underserved communities. There have been countless testimonials from youth and young parents who have shared our experience and love, and found some hope in their future. We are well networked within our local activist and service communities and well connected to the bigger statewide and national support and change communities. We are currently promoting the concept of a Community Empowerment Zone with a central focus of a Youth Empowerment Center to build out from. We have a solid Board of Directors that provide thorough fiscal oversight.

I am the Chair of the Board as elected in 2010. This org in no way deserves the recognition of being transparent as the financial records are from 2008, 09, both of which I'm listed on as a Board member without my knowledge or consent. I did not become a Board member until March 2010. The listed CEO and Founder Sammy Nunez is currently operating this org without any oversight as he attempted to fire his board to avoid oversight, claiming he and his wife conducted an audit and found Board member's applications were"missing" and since there were no apps on file our status as Board members was null. He went so far as to tell the public that we were "imposters" and even wrote an alternate Bylaws reflecting himself as President and CEO. Despite being ordered by the Board to no longer do so he is continuing to operate the org and solicit funds as well as make expenditures which are unauthorized as he holds all banking account information. A complaint to the State Attorney General s being filed.