Recognizing the necessity of early intervention with children and their families as a means to prevent the devastation that comes with intervention by the legal system, in 2000 he founded and until retiring in 2007 was the executive director of Friends of the Children of New York, a unique program based in Harlem serving highly at risk children from kindergarten through high school with paid, professional mentors called Friends. He has been a delegate to the Public Policy Council of the National Mentoring Partnership and served on its advisory committee for effective practice of mentoring programs.