Frank Barnes

Frank is a Cambridge native and an unapologetic black man who has been rooted in activism on behalf of Cambridge’s disenfranchised communities impacted by structural inequality for over twenty-five years.  Under the leadership of Principal Robin Harris of The Fletcher Maynard Academy (FMA) he was on the ground floor working as a founding member of Qualls Academy. In addition, to his work with Qualls Academy he has worked closely with the highly revered and passionate Jill Seabrook as a Co-Founder with Sisters with a Dream. As a champion of equity and access Frank and others saw the need to engage youth basketball for girls and was one of the founders of the LITE Basketball League.

With an understanding and awareness of the importance of exposure he led the charge to teach children from Washington Elms and Newtowne Court in the Port-tennis a sport that is often an afterthought in communities of color.  As a retired mental health counselor who worked on the front lines at Arbour HRI Hospital in Brookline for over twenty years. Frank is keenly aware of incorporating systems that empower our youth to reach their greatest selves. Working with traumatic brain injuries (BTI), for children and adolescents at Cumberland hospital New Kent, Virginia, years later transfer to the adult population for brain injuries in Austin, Texas.

His expansive experience with empowering youth and defusing conflict has ranged from organizing and leading overnight retreats in partnership as an architect of the Man 2 Man program with two Former CRLS principals, serving on the Fletcher community school staff, working at the formerly known Area IV Youth Center (currently Moses) for twelve years, and changing the lives of youth from Providence, RI to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Frank spiritual growth came from the teaching formally called Apostolic Pentecostal Church of New England, under the leadership of pastor Aiden Ward (1966-1994), now under the leadership of his son Lawrence Ward, now called Abundant Life Church a non- denominational church located at 47 Howard St. Cambridge Mass.