Baumgardner is named top manager
First Things First CEO has ‘heart of a servant’
Julie Baumgardner says that one of the best initiatives offered by the group she heads, First Things First, helps fathers who are behind in child-support payments stay out of jail.
Over 300 men have gone through the 12-week Dads Make a Difference class and only six have ended up incarcerated due to child support issues, Baumgardner said. Some of the fathers now have custody of their children, while the effort also has saved taxpayers millions of dollars, she said.
“When we have healthy families, people do better in every aspect of life,” said Baumgardner, who has been named Chattanooga Area Manager of the Year for 2017 by area business groups.
Baumgardner, 55, who has headed the Chattanooga nonprofit since 2001, will be saluted during the 32nd annual awards program on June 7.
The First Things First CEO oversees a staff of 11, a 500-person volunteer roster and a $1.5 million a year budget. The group has raised more than $23.3 million under her leadership, having more than 3,000 donors contributing gifts from $20 to $300,000.
Carolyn Stringer, chairwoman of the Manager of the Year event, said Baumgardner has “the heart of a servant and the knowledge and attributes for mentoring tomorrow’s leaders.”
Chattanooga attorney James Hurst, senior partner in the firm Hurst & Cromie, said Baumgardner has the rare ability to act decisively and effectively while including everyone in the room in the process.
First Things First began two decades ago when the Scenic City was starting its comeback spurred by waterfront revitalization. Leaders at the Maclellan Foundation and others looked at issues such as racism, the family, education and economic development.
Baumgardner, who came to Chattanooga in 1987 to do social work at Valley Hospital, said research showed Hamilton County’s divorce rate then was 50 percent higher than the national average, and half of the births were out of wedlock.
They saw that children who grow up in single-parent homes are more likely to be at risk and struggle. They asked what could be done to get behind people and support them and efforts to build strong families, Baumgardner said.
“Over 20 years, what we’ve seen is people want strong healthy relationships,” she said. “If you give people tools … they do better. We can teach healthy relationship skills.”
Baumgardner, who came to First Things First as associate director after it launched in 1997, said it receives no federal, city or county funding, though it has a small state grant.
A counselor by training, she had seen a lot of people ready to “throw in the towel” in their marriages. She said they may have had “a perfectly good marriage, but didn’t have the tools or information to do things differently.”
Research shows that married couples will wait on average seven years for help, Baumgardner said. By that time, “there’s a lot of pain and angst.”
First Things First is prevention oriented and aims to teach people skills. While there’s a lot of support for mothers, there’s little for fathers, and research shows the importance of involved dads.
Baumgardner, who was born in Houston but moved to Oak Ridge, Tenn., when she was 9, said her parents divorced and her father left the family.
“I went 14 years without talking to my Dad,” she said. “I was very close to my father. That was painful. I can really understand that whole piece.”
For couples who come to First Things First classes, 83 percent make a decision to work on their marriage rather than follow through with divorce, Baumgardner said. “Some come with divorce papers in hand, and they’re stunned about how much they didn’t know,” she said. Empowered with new information and skills, they leave with a different outlook, Baumgardner said.
According to First Things First, Hamilton County has shown sharp drops in divorce filings and teen pregnancy and increases in father involvement. Some $8.5 million in taxpayer dollars has been saved due to its Dads Making a Difference class.
In terms of the organization’s future, Baumgardner said it’s “pushing the digital platform” with the content it has created. While there still be will face-to-face classes, “we have a lot of things brewing,” she said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.