Contact and Bio
Email: lvaden@fatherssupport.org
Website: www.fatherssupportcenter.org
Twitter: @fatherssupport
Facebook: Fathers Support Center
LinkedIn: Fathers Support Center
What are specific requests for St. Louis or others? We are always seeking businesses to partner with in the service of employing our program participants.

​Lynn Vaden, Account Manager for Fathers Families and Support Center graduated with a bachelors in Urban Affairs from St. Louis University. He began his career with ServiceMaster Contract Services, Inc. He served as President of Specialty Cleaning Division and Sales Manager prior to taking the COO position. As Chief Operating Officer for over 18 years, he worked to create a culture of excellence and professionalism throughout the company. For the next 14 years, he became Senior Sales Consultant and created opportunities and developed relationships to sell contract janitorial and specialty cleaning services to facility services buyers in the health care, educational, manufacturing, government, transportation and construction industries. As Account Manager, he now builds relationships with a range of St. Louis companies and shepherds people from FFSC employment training programs into companies. He works closely with companies to learn program participant stories, their assets, and their unique gifts and to support employer advocacy for employees and in creating trauma-informed cultures.

Episode 3, Part 2: Lynn Vaden, Account Manager, Fathers and Families Support Center

• How employment training programs work and the ongoing roles FFSC plays in creating bridges between employers and program participant graduates, now employees
• An explanation of the transition from justice systems to employment – the kind of learning stance employers need to become more trauma-informed
• Lynn’s training as a manager before coming to FFSC – he was expected to do everything the people he hired did so he could better understand how to advocate for them financially and personally. This meant refinishing floors, scrubbing toilets, and more and what that did for company cultures and for retaining talent and saving time.
• Lynn’s breakdown of the range of companies who are hiring FFSC program participants – from fast food to high paying companies.
• More insight into the unique gifts and talents justice-involved people and people who have been overcoming tremendous obstacles bring to companies

Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™ methods this podcast features

• Trauma-informed workplace cultures 
  • Understanding how people are treated at times in different environments in our region and insight into reactions that signal trauma.
  • See our workshops on The Power of Our Stories to Build Bridges and Shift Organizational Cultures; Building Emotional Intelligence; Bridge-Building Communication through Stories - Building Bridges and Maximizing Cultural Expertise. 

Contact and Bio
Email: lvaden@fatherssupport.org
Website: www.fatherssupportcenter.org
Twitter: @fatherssupport
Facebook: Fathers Support Center
LinkedIn: Fathers Support Center
What are specific requests for St. Louis or others? We are always seeking businesses to partner with in the service of employing our program participants.

​Lynn Vaden, Account Manager for Fathers Families and Support Center graduated with a bachelors in Urban Affairs from St. Louis University. He began his career with ServiceMaster Contract Services, Inc. He served as President of Specialty Cleaning Division and Sales Manager prior to taking the COO position. As Chief Operating Officer for over 18 years, he worked to create a culture of excellence and professionalism throughout the company. For the next 14 years, he became Senior Sales Consultant and created opportunities and developed relationships to sell contract janitorial and specialty cleaning services to facility services buyers in the health care, educational, manufacturing, government, transportation and construction industries. As Account Manager, he now builds relationships with a range of St. Louis companies and shepherds people from FFSC employment training programs into companies. He works closely with companies to learn program participant stories, their assets, and their unique gifts and to support employer advocacy for employees and in creating trauma-informed cultures.

Episode 3, Part 1: Lynn Vaden, Account Manager, Fathers and Families Support Center

• Introduction to Podcast, Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
• Lynn’s story of coming to St. Louis from Arkansas, what drew him to St. Louis and what challenges he sees St. Louis facing  
• Lynn’s experiences of the challenges of creating equitable access to transportation in St. Louis
• The respect people in FFSC programs experience that prepares them for employment
• The kind of advocacy companies have helped provide FFSC to overcome obstacles FFSC is facing to secure employment for program participants
• The kind of daily advocacy Lynn and his employment and social service teams exercise on behalf of program participants
• The reality that many across our region suffer from alcohol and drug addiction or are going through a hard time and the benefits Lynn and FFSC offers program participants as they walk closely with them and with their employers 
• Sweet spot stories that capture when program participant expertise aligns perfectly with company specific talent needs
• The type of asset-based listening Lynn and FFSC engages with program participants to hear all that they have been becoming in the midst of challenges, hardships, and traumas
• How living in justice centers is some of the best preparation for adding value to a company
• Stories of employer advocates who become so invested in program participants and the transportation or other challenges they may face because they are experiencing how much value program participants bring

Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™ methods this podcast features

• Organizations who are rooted in local history and forging collective action with others in order to do our part together to help people overcome lack of access to sustainable resources. 
  • This episode touches on past and present St. Louis transportation history rooted in deficit perspectives. 
  • Deficit perspectives hinder the access of all of our communities to public transportation that goes from the city to the county.
  • Deficit perspectives also work against regional investment in all our youth and families and against our regional economic growth.
• Organizations who are building relationships across sectors to support one another in Doing Our Part Together. 
  • St. Louis companies who are doing their part to join FFSC in getting to know FFSC employment training program participants. When good matches are found, these companies are reaping the benefits of their investment in program participants as a result.
• Training programs rooted in the stories of employees, and employers who take the time to learn the stories of employees. The result is the retention of diverse multifaceted talent. 
  • The power of listening to and learning the many assets people have and bring, especially people who are overcoming the obstacles associated with living in communities without access to consistent and sustainable resources. This deep listening prepares employers for working more effectively with all of their employees.

Contact and Bio
Email: ctillis@fatherssupport.org
Website: www.fatherssupportcenter.org
Twitter: @fatherssupport
Facebook: Fathers Support Center
LinkedIn: Fathers Support Center
What are specific requests for St. Louis or others? Please continue to support the efforts of FFSC and other family serving organizations. Follow and like us on social media platforms to stay connected.

Cheri D. Tillis is the Executive VP/COO of award winning and nationally recognized Fathers’ and Families Support Center, St. Louis.  Mrs. Tillis is responsible for providing oversight of agency programs and daily operations of 6 current locations and the 55 staff positions with the help of her phenomenal team of Directors and Managers. She has 15+ years of experience in this role and currently focuses on building community partnerships, federal grant writing, program development and management.  Prior to her responsibilities at FFSC, she served as a Youth Specialist for the Division of Youth Services in St. Louis, MO.  She also served the St. Louis area as an Americorps member. Mrs. Tillis holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Jackson State University, a Masters of Science in HR Management from Lindenwood University, a Business Management for Non-Profit Leaders Certificate from Washington University Olin School of Business and was a 2016 Missouri Foundation for Health Fellow. She has also served as the PI on several Fatherhood research studies in partnership with Washington University Brown School of Social Work and The Brown School Evaluation Center in St. Louis, Mo. Most importantly, she is the wife of Bradford Tillis and the mother of 2 sons, Caleb and Nicholas. ​

Episode 2, Part 2: Cheri Tillis, COO Fathers and Families and Support Center

• More information on the range of St. Louis and Missouri funders who have run interference for FFSC, provided essential trainings, and help grow their capacity
• FFSC as a village around youth and families; funders as a village around them
• The range of ways individuals, businesses, and sectors have joined the work and are needed to keep joining the work
• The kinds of FFSC partnerships available that support businesses too

Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™ methods this podcast features

• Serving as a Bridge
  • Helping people understand how their fields and their expertise are needed to provide for specific community needs
  • IT support, data analytics, marketing, legal translation, any field can be a support
  • Helping organizations understand the services FFSC provides that are needed everywhere, not just in NSTL
  • Growing collective regional capacity in the process

Contact and Bio
Email: ctillis@fatherssupport.org
Website:www.fatherssupportcenter.org
Twitter: @fatherssupport
Facebook: Fathers Support Center
LinkedIn: Fathers Support Center
What are specific requests for St. Louis or others? Please continue to support the efforts of FFSC and other family serving organizations. Follow and like us on social media platforms to stay connected.

Cheri D. Tillis is the Executive VP/COO of award winning and nationally recognized Fathers’ and Families Support Center, St. Louis.  Mrs. Tillis is responsible for providing oversight of agency programs and daily operations of 6 current locations and the 55 staff positions with the help of her phenomenal team of Directors and Managers. She has 15+ years of experience in this role and currently focuses on building community partnerships, federal grant writing, program development and management.  Prior to her responsibilities at FFSC, she served as a Youth Specialist for the Division of Youth Services in St. Louis, MO.  She also served the St. Louis area as an Americorps member. Mrs. Tillis holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Jackson State University, a Masters of Science in HR Management from Lindenwood University, a Business Management for Non-Profit Leaders Certificate from Washington University Olin School of Business and was a 2016 Missouri Foundation for Health Fellow. She has also served as the PI on several Fatherhood research studies in partnership with Washington University Brown School of Social Work and The Brown School Evaluation Center in St. Louis, Mo. Most importantly, she is the wife of Bradford Tillis and the mother of 2 sons, Caleb and Nicholas. 

​​Episode 2, Part 1: Cheri Tillis, COO Fathers and Families and Support Center

• Introduction to Podcast, Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
• Introduction to core structure of the trainings provided by Fathers and Families Support Center
• Cheri’s story of growing up in St. Louis and her career path and how she found FFSC
• Cheri’s story of creating every position she occupied from case manager to COO
• How FFSC operated as a team to support one another through the growing pains
• How FFSC discovered community core needs and recruited funders and supporters to help them provide for those needs
• How FFSC branched out from those core community needs and expanded the resources they provided 
• How FFSC secured steady funding that aligned with their mission and their niche
• How FFSC worked strategically with funding to keep employees employed
• How FFSC hires and promotes from within, including people who partake of their programs
• Funders who are key players in both securing funding, systematizing operations and in helping remove obstacles FFSC faces
• The range of resources St. Louis and Missouri funders provide
• Specific support and tough love for employees that streamlines operations and provides for employees and the organization

Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™: How to Build and Sustain Communities
Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum™ methods this podcast features

• Building inclusive innovative change-making teams
  • Recognizing range of strengths and weaknesses of team members
  • Learning the value in the cultural language practices of team members
  • Providing needed training to help team members expand cultural expertise and communicate with needed audiences
  • Supporting employees through learning process
• Multiple sectors as key village partners
  • Identifying specific needs of community members
  • Partnering with funders and organizations who join the team and understand or research the multi-faceted nature of those needs by getting to know programs, people, obstacles program participants are facing
  • Building a village that makes the village FFSC is possible