FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 19, 2021) – Better Together, a voluntary, community-driven alternative to foster care, has named Christian Spilker to its board of directors.
Spilker is the senior vice president of land for Collier Enterprises, a family-owned company headquartered in Naples. A biologist by training, Christian guides the company through the sensitive environmental permitting process for its land holdings and works to build positive relationships with conservation organizations, state and federal regulators and local government officials. Spilker is also the senior vice president of Collier Resources Company, the largest private oil and gas company in South Florida. In his free time, you’ll find Christian outdoors with his family -wife Kelli and four college-age children camping, backpacking, fishing, star gazing and enjoying other outdoor adventures.
Spilker joins five other board members including Tarren Bragdon, founder and board president, who is president and CEO for the Foundation for Government Accountability and has founded seven different companies, including three not-for-profit organizations; Dr. Alise G. Bartley, board director, Clinical Assistant Professor/Director of the Community Counseling Center at FGCU; Doug Campbell, board director, who serves on the board of Healthcare Network and has been a Guardian ad Litem for 20 years; and Lee Wyatt Jr., board director, who is the former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Fortune Brands.
The board supports Better Together in furthering its mission to keep families together through two programs – Better Families and Better Jobs. Better Families is an alternative to foster care that empowers parents to keep their families together, and Better Jobs addresses the root cause of the problem, connecting people to stable employment.
“We are grateful for the support and understanding of community leaders with diverse experience and knowledge to us achieve our mission,” said Megan Rose, CEO of Better Together. “Strong business leaders with strong families understand the need to strengthen parents to be able to succeed as families.”
Since its inception, Better Together has provided temporary homes to more than 2,500 Southwest Florida children. Both programs are 100% privately funded and volunteer-driven. Better Families has a 98% success rate of reunifying children with their parents, and through Better Jobs, serving more than 30,000 job seekers with one out of four people receiving an offer on the spot at job fairs.
ABOUT BETTER TOGETHER
Better Together is a nonprofit organization that helps parents going through a hard time keep their kids out of foster care, find work and address the root causes of their struggle so that they can reunite as a family with the tools and support system to thrive. A privately funded and professionally supported organization, Better Together is made up of volunteers who believe helping people help themselves is the best way to restore dignity and bring families together. Through the Better Families program, families are offered a preventive alternative to foster care while they get the help they need. To date, the program has kept 98% of children served out of foster care. The Better Jobs program was created to address the 76% of families that come to Better Together because of economic hardship tied to unemployment. In addition to community job fairs, the program offers job seekers coaching, guidance, support and encouragement through local church partners. For more information, visit BetterTogetherUS.org.
