Leading MT Fathers to the Front: Meet Family Engagement Specialist, Richard Jarvis

Meet Richard Jarvis, one of our Family Engagement Specialists here at Martha’s Table. Since joining the team, he has helped families to be more hands-on with their parental and childhood development. His work empowers parents to be their child’s first and primary teacher.
Richard has worked directly with 20+ families since he started in 2019 and treated each family with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves.

One parent noted that,

"I just feel heard. I feel like I can ask questions and develop a relationship with Rich. I trust my child here...that is most important!"

It’s through respectful and genuine interactions that the team is able to successfully impact so many families. For Richard, something more manifested into the idea that we could be doing more the celebrate our male caregivers.

“I see a lot of fathers doing the pick-up, drop off, being the main source of contact, but there’s nothing for them.” – Richard

This realization drove Richard to start Fathers to the Front. The program began as a supportive space where male caregivers were able to come to share their stories. Once a month participants meet to cover topics such as financial literacy, housing, and much more. Father’s to the Front doesn’t stop there. Because of Richard’s initiative we now host our annual Fathers to the Front Cookout, where we honor and celebrate male caregivers.

Fathers to the Front isn't where the work stops. Richard wants to dig deeper and see what happens.

That drive is exactly what propelled Richard into his recent appointment as a Board Member for The DC Board for Reentry and Returning Citizens. Along with other board members, Richard works to establish practices that support returning citizens with high-quality resources as they make their return to the community.

Supporting strong children, strong families, and strong communities can be challenging at times. However, with the support of team members like Richard, Martha’s Table is able to fiercely stand with our community each and every day!