OUR HISTORY
FACT was born out of tragedy, inspired by the loss of a brother to addiction and determined to prevent others from suffering the same fate, our founder and president, Christopher Frenier, law enforcement and mental health professional, recognized the power of early intervention. FACT emerged as a platform for sharing real-life stories and equipping young people to navigate life’s choices with confidence.
WHO WE HELP
FACT recognizes that young people are the heart of our communities. We collaborate with schools, families, and community organizations to create a network of support that helps young people feel valued, heard, and supported in their efforts to create positive change in society.
History and Message from founder and President Christopher Frenier
This program was created by myself (Christopher) and others soon after my brother Michael passed away in August of 2013. Unfortunately, the poor choices he made early in life, significantly influenced his future. I knew that he wouldn't want his nephews or any other young person to choose his path and suffer as he did. I didn’t want Mike to be just another statistic, another forgotten soul. I wanted to create something good out of this tragedy and to give back, in his name. I decided to focus on middle and high school students because that’s where his problems really started to show. I wanted to educate and empower youth to be aware that their early decisions can significantly impact their futures; both positively and negatively. We address topics such as personal accountability, mental health, substance abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, respect, and suicide (to name a few). I knew that this message only coming from me wouldn’t be impactful enough. I felt that they needed to hear his story through others who experienced similar early life struggles. Fortunately, my employment offered me exposure to many people who had lived parallel lives. In 2013, I asked a few of those Justice-Involved Individuals to accompany me to my oldest son’s school to share that message- The response and feedback from the children, school staff, and parents were incredible, impactful, and inspiring then knew I had something...FACT was born. Since then and to this day, FACT has been speaking in schools throughout the State of Rhode Island.
My family, my speakers, and our audience had been always hoping we could do more. I wanted to but felt that I didn’t have the experience, time, resources, confidence, or influence to do it. This changed last month when my wife took the initiative to kick-start this organization. She worked tirelessly, 10-12 hour days for approximately a month to create the infrastructure of this organization and to make it public. She inspired all of us to think big so we could reach more children and to provide deserving youth with funds to further their education in the fields of Criminal Justice and Social Services. Thank you, Tina!
This is just the beginning. Our initial goal is to raise money to provide scholarships to students and youth who want to go into the criminal justice and social service fields. In addition, we want to expand our reach and do more presentations to RI middle and high school students. We also have assembled a group of intelligent, talented, and dedicate people that share and believe in our cause.
At the very least, please follow, like, and share this page and/or the content. If you can, please donate as every penny counts and will help us achieve our lofty goals. Thank you for taking the time to visit our page and contact us with any questions or concerns! I also want to thank you all on behalf of my parents, James and Jean – for keeping Michael’s spirit alive and turning this tragedy into opportunity to educate, empower, and assist the youth of RI and our future community leaders.
Sincerely,
Christopher B. Frenier
President
FACT