Heart-to-Heart is excited Philip Walker has joined our team as Reentry Programs Assistant. Philip has known Steve Tumolo for several years and was first introduced to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) through Heart-to-Heart’s online training sessions during the COVID shutdown. Philip says what he learned really resonated with his core value of making lives better.
Philip said he is “grateful for the opportunity to serve in a more formal capacity to impact the lives of those most marginalized in our communities and to see the broader impact Heart-to- Heart is having across multiple facilities.”
In his role, Philip will manage and support Heart-to-Heart’s current programs in three correctional facilities – Bayside State Prison (NJ), Pondville Correctional Center (MA), and the Boston Pre-Release Center – by being in communication with program facilitators at each facility, providing support and encouraging timely submission of attendance and feedback. He will communicate and build relationships with current and potential allies, as well as work collaboratively with Heart-to-Heart’s Assistant Director, Board members, and other team members.
In 2023, after being laid off from his engineering leadership role, Philip began volunteering at one of Heart-to-Heart’s reentry programs. Rather than putting his MIT Mechanical Engineering degree along with his technical and project leadership skills to work, he leaned into his interest to continue learning NVC. He has continued to practice his empathy and listening skills with the men in Heart-to-Heart’s groups at the Pondville Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA where the first 2024 sessions have begun. To continue to grow his NVC skills Philip is currently attending the Peace Leadership Academy’s 12-week program.
Philip said it was very rewarding when he heard the men from Pondville mention during the Fall 2023 session that prior to this program they didn’t really speak to one another in the facility, but that as the sessions were underway, they started acknowledging each other and speaking outside of the Heart-to-Heart sessions. Philip said that seeing the men making and sustaining positive connections with one another really underscored the value and success of the program for him.
