Community Magazine January 2017

Last year, when a cold front hit the city, Faulkner held a protest in one of the housing projects area. Within a day, Mayor de Blasio was on the phone with the TA President of the buildings, seeking assistance. Sixty workers came to the housing projects inside of a week to improve the situation. In a very tangible way, New York has benefited from thegrassroots support Michel has enjoyed, which continues to this day. “I’m not coming from a political background,” Faulkner says.“I have been helping communities and people, year in year out, trying to make a difference.” An entrepreneurial spirit has been present in Michel Faulkner since he was quite young. Reared by a single mother, his passion and determination led him to play a season of pro football with the New York Jets. Afterwards, armed with a Master’s degree in education and career counseling from Virginia Tech, he’d go on to put theory into practice in both fields of study. Specifically, he’d provide educational outreach within the religious arena, leading several congregations over his career, while counseling thousands experiencing distress in their lives. Currently, he is the leader of the New Horizon Church, which he founded in 2006. Not content with clergy work alone, Faulkner also involved himself in an array of boards, committees, and organizations, lending his expertise, and a much-needed hand, to those in need. In the past decade and a half alone, his community work has been legion. He has joined the Giuliani-appointed Police Community Relations Task Force and founded Over the Hump Resources, which provides working capital and management assistance to small and medium business worldwide. From 2002 to 2004, Michel served as World Vision’s Director of US Programs. A year later, he served as Regional Chaplain for New York State Office of Children and Family Services. In 2005, Faulkner founded the Institute for Leadership, a non-profit organization that develops leaders and leadership programs. The institute brings leadership principles to the attention of teachers, business leaders, government officials, public servants, sports coaches, and ministers. In 2010, the mayoral-hopeful made an unsuccessful congressional campaign to unseat Democrat Charles Rangel. Along the way, he amassed political experience and began the coalition building and canvassing necessary to reach for the mayoral position a half dozen years later. Also in 2010, Faulkner authored Restoring The American Dream , a book outlining how this country could – and should - change course in years to come. “I have always believed that my highest calling in life is to serve the powerless and to speak for the voiceless,” he writes in its pages. “We all see the unraveling the fabric of our society, and the pervasive corruption that is choking our nation.” For Michel Faulkner, these are “critical times with a critical need” to bring a new leader to Gracie Mansion – one who has the credibility, reliability, community experience, and understanding necessary to change New York City for the better. Faulkner #88 was a defensive end for the New York Jets in the early 1980s. Pictured here with Jets quarterback Geno Smith, Faulkner continues to provide support to his home team. Campaigning for Congressman Dan Donovan with State Senator Marty Golden. Though he is a pastor in Harlem, Faulkner has deep ties to Brooklyn’s Jewish community. TEVET 5777 JANUARY 2017 29