By Tabari Morris
Fathers to Founders, executive director, Elgin Rose Sr. is shifting leadership and healing at the community’s very foundation. A one-time homeless, troubled man, Rose now heads up an organization dedicated to empowering fathers and transforming lives through mental wellness services, financial education and social services access.
From hustle to healing: A personal journey fuels a mission
In 2018, after Sacramento’s homelessness, he found his breaking point with Code Tenderloin, where he was able to heal as he worked to help others. He shared, “I liked it. I liked it. Damn, I ain’t gotta be perfect to do this. And it is a job. It is jobs that you can create; you can make money off of it, and it is an ongoing gift.”
Fathers to Founders has been hosting weekly group therapy sessions since 2021, which it has renamed to destigmatize the experience and persuade others to attend. Rose’s approach depends on candor — offering dignity, hope, and tangible skills to men who would otherwise slip between the cracks of traditional social services. Fathers to Founders’ pillars — mental wellness support and financial education — mirror the shortfalls that existed in his life, too, and the community at large.
With Rose at the helm, Fathers to Founders has won contracts with large health providers like Anthem Blue Cross and is poised to roll out to the San Francisco Health Plan. The organization is moving toward becoming self-sufficient with clinicians in house, providing the ability to make full-spectrum care without referral anywhere that may be unknown or hostile. “We don’t send folks down the block to some type of places. Our members ain’t feelin’ safe. Now we can refer. You ain’t gotta go there where they look like or act like the way they act,” says Rose.
Improving access and community building
Fathers to Founders has an accommodating schedule to meet the needs of fathers who work, as well as fathers who are in recovery, with the use of evening groups and daytime case management. Rose underscores the importance of trustworthiness and access, keeping himself accessible personally to aid and assist. As the group grows, he looks to develop staff that can further extend its reach and impact.
Rose’s journey to advocacy is proof of the power of lived experience to shape successful social leadership. Fathers to Founders offers a safe haven to fathers to be vulnerable, to access resources and to build new possibilities. It is changing individual fates — changing the very shape of community care for men at the margin is the ultimate result.
“It is good to feed healthy foods to people. It is good to give hope. I just want to give an opportunity to that kind of thing and make it sort of fun so that it don’t all taste so dull potato,” says Rose.
To find out more or to contact Fathers to Founders, visit www.fatherstofounders.org or contact Elgin Rose Sr. personally at 510-343-1934 or elginRose@fatherstofounders.org.
Tabari Morris, currently pursuing a journalism major at City College of San Francisco, is also undertaking an internship at SF Bay View National Black Newspaper and can be reached at Tabari@sfbayview.com.
