Posted July 19, 2025
Watch Jose's Story Here
Getting ready to pick up his two sons from St. Bridget's Early Learning program, Jose was stopped by one of the employees who asked if he would like to sit in on a parent-teacher meeting.
"We were talking about different ideas for the program, and they were asking parents if you wanted to volunteer, and the advocate for the male's role popped up," Jose said.
Catholic Charities’ Early Learning program wants to prepare children for their future learning, provide family support, and involve the parents as much as possible.
"I thought it was really cool because there's a lot of moms in the program, why not add a couple of guy figures to help out a little bit," Jose said.
From that moment, Jose and a few other fathers came together for a barbershop talk.
The barbershop talk allowed a group of fathers to meet new people and brainstorm ideas for the program.
"We talked about mental health, father assistance..." Jose said, "We actually brought up the idea of Michael J Zone... Maybe we could have a father event there,"
During the meeting, one father thanked the group for opening his eyes to fatherhood.
"He felt as if his way of showing love to his children was by buying them shoes, buying them video games, and at the end he said, 'I'm missing so much on my kids growing up because I just give them what they want,’" Jose said.
Hearing this, Jose and the group were touched by its impact on someone in their first meeting.
"It was a moment to hold because there was maybe eight of us there. Maybe we haven't touched all of them, but we know we touched one father there," Jose said.
Through his volunteering, Joas attended the International Fatherhood Conference in Washington, D.C., where he won the 2025 Favorite Father award.
"It was a great experience," Jose said, "I ended up getting an award for Favorite Father of 2025, and it felt good to be celebrated."
The early learning programs at Catholic Charities are designed to prepare children for later learning, but they also leave with an extension to their village.
"It's a village for one," Jose said, "The kids grow with the teachers and the teachers grow a bond with the kids, and it's amazing."
To learn more about the early learning programs, click the button below!
Part of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
