Wallace “Wallie” Niehl knows what it is like to grow up without a father. He knows what it’s like to live apart from his own children. And, thanks to guidance and support from The Father Center of New Jersey, he also knows what it takes to gain and maintain custody of his youngest three kids, and give them the kind of childhood he never had.
“My own father was murdered. He wasn’t there, and my mother worked all the time. Just being a teenager growing up in Trenton back then (with the gangs), regardless of the loss of my father, I was lost. I got kicked out of school at age 16.”
“Growing up, I was always looking for something I didn’t have—and that was family.”
Today, the father of six children, and grandfather of five, has custody of his three youngest boys, ages 13, 9 and 6. They play flag football. They do fine in school. And they motivate Wallie to be the best father he can be. He thanks William (Bill) Davis and The Father Center of New Jersey for this.
“They do everything they can to help you. If you are a father, they have so many different programs and resources to offer. Suits for job interviews, mental health services, anger management classes, all kinds of things,” he says.
Through innovative programming and personal and professional development, The Father Center of New Jersey supports men like Wallie in gaining the life skills they need to meet the responsibilities of fatherhood.
Read Wallie’s full story and more in our 2024 annual appeal letter.
