An Ansonia man will receive an award from the state’s Commission on Children recognizing his years of work as a volunteer in local schools and a leader at a Bridgeport community organization.
Saleh Hanaif, founder of the Dad’s Club at Prendergast School and coordinator of the Teen Fathers Program at the Greater Bridgeport Area Prevention Program, will receive the Robert Haller Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Service.
The award is named for Robert Haller, a retired insurance executive who served in many philanthropic roles, including chairman of the commission’s Parent Leadership Training Institute, before his 2006 death.
Hanaif will receive the Haller award next Wednesday (June 17) in Hartford during the annual graduation ceremony of the Parent Leadership Training Institute, which helps parents become advocates for their children through education, in the atrium of the state capitol’s Legislative Office Building, at 6 p.m.
The Commission on Children chose Hanaif to receive this year’s Haller award because he’s on the front lines working toward that goal — teaching parents how to be better advocates for their children.
“Over the past eight years, Saleh has facilitated nearly 300 Teen Fathers Groups, focusing on teaching young fathers the importance and significance of their presence in their children’s lives,” the Commission on Children’s event program for Wednesday’s ceremony says.
Click here to read a 2011 Valley Indy story about Hanaif’s work at GBAPP.
A New York City public school teacher from 1998 to 2001, Hanaif has also presented at the Annual New England Fatherhood Conference, and is a facilitator for the Parent Leadership Training Institute, Family for Life, Teen Leadership Institute and Making Proud Choices.
Locally, he’s president of the Prendergast Elementary School’s Dad’s Club, a youth soccer volunteer, as well as vice chairman of the Economic Development Commission.
Click here to read a story about the Prendergast Dad’s Club.
Hanaif said he was gratified when he received word in March that he would receive the Haller award this year.
“It is such an honor to be placed in the same category as people I hold in the highest regard and esteem,” Hanaif said. “To be the only one in the entire state of Connecticut to be selected for this prestigious award in memory of Robert Haller is an honor that I simply cannot put into words. My predecessors are pioneers in their fields and in life. They are the epitome of outstanding service men and women and I hope that I can follow in their footsteps.”
