Dear Parenting Journey Friends,
I write to tell you the bittersweet news that I will be leaving my position as Executive Director at Parenting Journey this month. My husband, Kyle Peterson, was recently named the new Executive Director of the Walton Family Foundation, and our family will soon be relocating to Bentonville, Arkansas.
Although I will no longer be in a position to lead the organization, I look forward to following the progress of Parenting Journey as a donor, advocate and cheerleader. In the immediate future, the Parenting Journey staff and board will work in close collaboration to ensure a smooth leadership transition. The executive committee of the board will provide interim leadership and will oversee a thorough and thoughtful search process to select Parenting Journey’s next Executive Director.
I am extremely proud of and grateful to my Parenting Journey team and Board of Directors for their tireless work to meet our mission to help build stronger families. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our visionary founder, Anne Peretz, as well as to all of our donors, supporters and partner organizations that make our work possible. Over the nearly three years of my tenure, our collective achievements have resulted in some impressive results, including:
- We re-branded and changed our name from The Family Center to Parenting Journey, allowing us to expand to 17 new communities in Massachusetts and deepen our presence in New York City.
- We launched our $11M Vision 2020 Campaign with a goal to reach 212,000 family members by 2020. To date we have reached more than 40,000 people and secured $8.9M in donations and pledges.
- Parenting Journey received the Champion in Action Award from Citizens Bank and NECN and the Urban Empowerment Award from YearUp Boston.
- We replicated our Parenting Journey training program nationally and are now reaching families in Florida, New Hampshire, Vermont, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, and Washington, DC. We also launched Parenting Journey International and now offer programs in Canada, Burundi and most recently Guatemala.
- We expanded our offerings to better meet the changing needs of families and now offer Parenting Journey for Fathers, Sober Parenting Journey, Family Coaching, and School to Success Workshops, in addition to Parenting Journey I, Parenting Journey II, and Parenting in America programs.
Of course, all of this hard work is on behalf of the fabulous parents and families we serve. I am humbled by their courage, resourcefulness and strength. It has been an honor and a privilege to lead an organization that sees the potential in parents and uses such a unique positive approach to break the inter-generational cycles of poverty, violence and abuse that threatens too many vulnerable children.
Thanks to all for allowing me to play a small part in the ongoing success of Parenting Journey.
Kind regards,
Maury Peterson, Executive Director
617-628-8815 office // 617-501-8945 cell // maurypeterson@gmail.com
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