Three major grants have been awarded to Present Pillars, a Benton Harbor-based advocacy group that promotes fatherhood and champions the cause of fathers.

Present Pillars Director James Gunter tells us the organization is receiving $150,000 over two years from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

“That will fund our Health Navigator program because going into next year and beyond, we want to have a heavy focus on men’s health,” Gunter said. “We want men to really concentrate on their well-being, not as an act of selfishness, but as an act of love.”

James says when dads maintain their own health, it helps their whole families. Present Pillars has also been approved for a $50,000 grant from Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, or ALPACT.

“That one is to just foster better relations between police and community. But we want to take that a step further. We want to bolster our expungement program. We want to do more with our school partners.”

Gunter says as part of that effort, they’re going to be producing a documentary about partnerships between police and fathers in the community.

Finally, Gunter says the St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Rotary Club Foundation has awarded Present Pillars a $7,500 grant to improve technology at its Pillar Center on West Main Street in Benton Harbor. Gunter says men, or anyone, in the community will be able to use computers at the center to apply for jobs, build resumes, or really do anything they need to do with a computer.

Gunter says all of the support Present Pillars has been getting since it started during the pandemic has helped to improve the Benton Harbor community.