At YCCF, we know that our organization’s success is due in-part to our amazing Board of Directors. To show our appreciation, we’ll be highlighting two members each month for the remainder of the year.
This month, in honor of Black History Month, we’re featuring two board members who exemplify Black excellence and true leadership.
Today, we’d like you to meet, Timothy R. Warfield Sr.
Tim was born and raised in West Philadelphia in a Black, low-income, and working-class neighborhood.
Tim’s story: The approximately 10-by-10 city blocks I grew up on turned out to be fertile ground for a number of people who went on to attain fame and success in sports, arts, and culture. I spent my first 20 years in Philadelphia, before leaving for Valparaiso University in Indiana to study political science and sociology.
I met my wife, Justine, a native of York, PA in Indiana where she worked as a schoolteacher. Upon my graduation, we moved to York because we thought it would be a great place to raise children. We raised two sons.
Even though I moved here in the middle years of the civil disturbances during the mid-1960s, I thought York was a manageable community with a good public school education system and easy access to events of interest here and in other surrounding communities.
My first job in York was as a caseworker with the York County Assistance Office
And after several other positions, eventually became the executive director of the National Association for State Community Services Programs.
I also spent a considerable amount of my spare time volunteering with several local nonprofits. I worked with youth at Crispus Attucks, the United Way, Martin Library, the Human Relations Committee, and since I was lucky to have married into a welcoming, hardworking, and understanding family, I subsequently became deeply involved in voter registration, and an early version of a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
While I’ve spent time as a volunteer, I’ve gained more as a person for having given a little back to the community where I live, because our community is only as good as we each make it.
I’m now retired, but still volunteering and still want to learn and contribute until I can’t.
My hobbies include music, reading, good conversation, and keeping up with a few friends and family around the world. I’ve remained a member of the Pennsylvania Community Development & Finance Corp which I started; the Community Initiatives Development Corp, a small national community development organization; the William C. Goodridge Freedom Center advisory board and the York County Community Foundation boards, all of which are active and effective.
I hope to eventually pass my membership to others. That’s important. And I want to see productions, including movies, made about lesser-known people in history, especially Black people like William C Goodridge.
Thank you, Tim, for your service to YCCF and to the York community!
