Healthy Teen Network is pleased to announce that Colbert (Cole) Williams has been selected to receive the Healthy Teen Network 2019 Outstanding Former Teen Parent Award.

The Outstanding Former Teen Parent Award is presented to a former teen parent who has overcome the challenges of early parenting to achieve extraordinary personal and/or professional success. Typically, this person is self-sufficient and demonstrates outstanding leadership in achieving community or career goals. (Learn more about our awards and past awardees on our conference website.)

Cole is the CEO and Founder of “Son To A Father” and “Cole Speaks,” which are programs that work to empower and restore relationships between teens and their parents. He has developed curricula and workshops that explore the emotional terrain of parenting.

Cole’s journey from growing up fatherless, to becoming a single adolescent father, to reuniting with his biological father, to finally fostering and adopting fatherless sons are the lessons he uses to illustrate the colors of parenting in the 21st Century. He is a motivational speaker, fatherhood consultant, facilitator, and most importantly, a father.

Cole’s most recent work has been dedicated to providing fatherhood training, support, and materials for the Michigan Adolescent Pregnancy and Prevention Program (MI-APPP), as well as shifting the culture of the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center, where he provides life skills and leadership development to incarcerated youth. He and his sons have developed a 12-week Fatherhood Workshop Series for incarcerated fathers, in partnership with the Criminal Justice Chaplaincy (CJC), an organization whose mission lies in rebuilding lives and restoring hope for families and communities affected by the Criminal Justice System. Both Cole and CJC are working together to support fathers who will one day return home to children, families, and communities awaiting their return.

Healthy Teen Network is honored to celebrate Cole and present him with this year’s Outstanding Former Teen Parent award at our national conference on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, during the awards luncheon at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.