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HANK ROBERTS-Founder

Henry L. Roberts -- or Hank, as he is fondly known to friends and colleagues-- became a mentor for The Boys and Girls Club of Oakland, California in 1986. The areas of greatest need for mentoring were in ballet, fencing and soccer. Ballet was foreign territory. Fencing involved swords; having grown up in St. Louis, Missouri, Hank had witnessed his fair share of weaponry. So soccer it was, even though he knew nothing of the sport. Hank developed a team of young soccer players from the Village projects into one of the best teams in Northern California and eventually earned the title of Soccer Coach of the Year for Northern California, District 4.

Hank Roberts is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology. When employed by 3M as a Hospital Sales Trainer, in 2004, he became the corporation's No.1 pharmaceutical salesman in the nation. In 2000, he was honored by the San Francisco Library Foundation with The Bay Area’s Unsung Hero Award.

He has helped an estimated 25,000 youth through soccer and his Peacemakers Inc. non-profit, which still mentors youth at Bay Area middle and elementary schools today.

Hank Roberts' first soccer team came from multicultural East Oakland. He has been named Soccer Coach of the Year in District 4–Northern California.

As a soccer coach, Hank elevated the self-esteem of disadvantaged youth—in particular pre-adolescent/adolescent boys. Mentoring and coaching were a natural blend, the perfect ingredients, which caused all who collaborated with Hank to succeed. Not only in soccer, but academically as well. The seeds—children playing soccer -- rooted Peacemakers, Inc., on the educational map here in the Bay Area community.

Peacemakers became incorporated in 2000, which alowed the program to be fully utilized in the Oakland Unified School District and the Ravenswood School District of East Palo Alto.

This educational partnership enables children from kindergarten to fifth grade, and advancing on to middle school (Claremont Middle School, Oakland, California) to learn in peace.

Peacemakers’ services educate students to become peer leaders, role models. and Junior Peacemakers within their schools. Plus, the program includes extra-curricular activities to enrich the students' lives. Students, their peers and adult mentors interact daily, reinforcing a structured atmosphere where self-esteem and academic success are always fostered.

The Peacemakers model approaches conflict resolution through praise, positive discipline and continual assessment of each student. This is nothing fancy, but critical to the success of the entire community.

The following questions are constantly probed with respect to educational contracts:

•Is the student thriving? If not, why?
•What is the home environment like?
•What can Peacemakers do to contribute to the effectiveness of the parents or caregivers who live with, guide, and shelter our students?

Peacemakers, Inc., provides outreach and aid through counseling, financial aid, vocational training, education, and provision of food and clothing. Something is working. Graduates who have participated in Peacemakers’ programs are coming back to serve as adult mentors, thereby contributing to the next generation, their families, schools, and the Bay Area community. Success, gladness and joy, indeed!