Practical insights for emotional resilience, meaningful connection, and generational healing in men and families
Featuring: Kurt Francom & Chris Bennett
DESCRIPTION: This summit is designed to give hope and direction to men and families, addressing the pressures men and families face today. Stress, emotional overwhelm, fractured relationships, shame, addiction, and generational patterns shape us and determine how we live and relate. Presenters will share practical tools to strengthen mindset, emotional regulation, connection, and resilience.
February 20, 2026; 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Tri-Cities Convention Center
Cost: $20 per ticket - each ticket good for you and a guest
- Tickets also available at the door -
PROGRAM:
Introduction - Why it Matters: Roland Thompson
Hope: Chad Mitchell
Addiction & Heart: Chris Bennett
Connecting Across Generations: Lee Ostler
Awakening a Man’s Heart: Kurt Francom
Introduction - Why It Matters: Roland Thompson
Roland is the founder of the Heart of the Fathers movement, dedicated to inspiring and empowering grandparents to have a meaningful, positive influence in the lives of their families—especially their grandchildren. As a grandfather to over fifty grandkids his deepest learning has come through walking beside, listening to, and truly knowing the rising generation. By shifting from expectations to connection, his focus is now on helping grandchildren feel accepted, loved, and whole, and supporting them in discovering their own purpose and potential while bridging generational divides with wisdom, humility, and hope. This mission has also inspired his work to help grandparents and parents become more intentional in accepting and nurturing their families by investing in personal growth and deeper connection. He is co-author of the book Grand Connect.
His professional training in accounting led to a career working in financial services and financial planning. As a gifted connector and networker, he brings people together with the understanding that true success includes personal growth, strong families, and a lasting positive influence. In troubling times, these are things that truly matter!
Hope in a Tough World: Chad Mitchell
Chad is a coach, teacher, mentor, and father who has spent more than 30 years working side-by-side with youth, seeing firsthand what happens when they find their footing and lead with integrity. His message is simple and urgent: teens don’t need permission or a title to lead. They already have the power to impact their peers and shape the world for good - giving them hope, clarity, and purpose.
When he’s not working with students, Chad is an attorney and the CEO of Summit Law Group in Seattle. He is the Board Chair for the Boys & Girls Club of Benton & Franklin Counties, and coaches boys high school lacrosse. Chad’s experiences with youth inspired his book Change Your Game: Empowering Young Leaders to Ditch Doubt, Find Their Voice, and Impact the World, a practical, story-driven guide for youth to be leaders now.
Addiction & Heart: Chris Bennett
The battle for heart is central to life as well as to matters of addiction, recovery, suicide, and mental/emotional health. This presentation explores these matters through the lens of the human heart. Drawing on deep, lived experience in long-term sobriety and years of mentoring others, it reframes recovery and stability not as a single breakthrough, but as daily, intentional choices to live awake, connected, and free. The message addresses the inner battles men (and all people) face: shame, isolation, and disconnection. It invites participants to step into aliveness, where healing, courage, and lasting change become possible. It offers hope, practical wisdom, and a vision of recovery as a life of purpose, adventure, and wholehearted living.
Chris has been passionate about helping men and women in recovery for more than 12 years. With a degree from the Univ of Utah, he works with individuals to heal the wounds that are keeping them in their addictions, push past limiting beliefs, and to show up in the world in new ways. He helps people find their true identity instead of suffering with hopelessness and disappointment. He is on staff with the Warrior Heart Bootcamp and works with the Unashamed Unafraid podcast. Chris speaks at large and small private events, corporate events, and with his wife, Autumn, at firesides for church gatherings.
Connecting Across Generations: Lee Ostler
This presentation explores how parents and grandparents can become steady, connected guides in a rapidly changing. Grounded in Grand Connect principles, it focuses on secure attachment, emotional regulation, and the power of presence in shaping resilient children and families. Participants will gain practical insight for personal transformation, identifying unhealthy generational patterns, strengthening relationships, and fostering connections which supports the family’s emotional and spiritual growth.
Lee has a dental practice in Richland WA and enjoys researching and writing about health related topics - and grandparenting. His most recent book with co-author Roland Thompson titled Grand Connect, describes the importance of personal transformation, acceptance, connection, and positive influence in the world of parenting and grandparenting. Most importantly, he adores his family — now five children, twenty-one grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren (and counting).
Awakening a Man's Heart: Kurt Francom
This presentation explores why so many men feel restless, isolated, and stuck in modern life, and how faith can both heal and sometimes unintentionally wound their journey. We will dive into the core desires of a man’s heart—strength, belonging, and purpose—and examine how religious culture can support or suppress those God-given longings. Drawing on experiences gathering thousands of men in the wilderness, Kurt will share stories, practical frameworks, and specific resources that help men shed shame, encounter God more personally, and return home more present, wholehearted, and spiritually grounded.
Kurt is a leadership content creator from American Fork, Utah, who has been producing faith-based leadership resources since 2010. He serves on the executive team of Warrior Heart, a Christian non-profit that hosts men’s retreats designed to help men disconnect from the world and focus more intentionally on their relationship with God. Kurt and his wife, Alanna, originally from Blackfoot, Idaho, have been married for 20 years and are the parents of three children and a dog, which keeps their home lively and full of connection.
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FAQs
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Who is this summit for?
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This summit is designed for families and especially men from older teens to grandfathers. It is especially meaningful for those who sense stress, emotional overwhelm, disconnection, addiction, or who have inherited patterns that shape their character and relationships, and who want to improve.
Is this a mental health conference?
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No. While the summit addresses real-life challenges such as stress, shame, and disconnection, it is not a clinical or diagnostic event. The focus is on recognizing cultural and societal forces that diminish our resilience, emotional regulation, and relational connection. It relies on practical insights, lived experience, research, and values-based wisdom rather than labels or therapy models.
What topics will be addressed?
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Presenters will explore themes such as emotional regulation under pressure, relational connection, stress resilience, shame, addiction patterns, generational wounds, faith and values, mindset, and rebuilding trust and presence in families and communities. These topics are approached with honesty and hope, emphasizing growth, self-awareness, repair and restoration.
Is this event faith-based or open to everyone?
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The summit is values-anchored and faith-aware, drawing on spiritual wisdom where appropriate, but it is welcoming and respectful of diverse backgrounds. Attendees do not need to share a particular belief system to benefit. The emphasis is on shared human experiences, personal growth, and strengthening connection in homes and communities
Both. But with a strong emphasis on practical and personal application. Presenters offer frameworks, tools, and resources useful to improve emotional steadiness, communication, and relational presence at home, at work, and in the community. Building this understanding, community, and connection is central to the idea of how shame is defeated, and connection and regulation are achieved.
Participants hope to gain clarity, encouragement, and practical tools to strengthen emotional resilience, deepen relationships, recognize and change inherited patterns, and stay grounded and connected—even in a fractured world.
No. While it focuses on important battles that are fought in and for a man’s heart, the truth is it has broad application for both men and women, single or committed, and for all mature ages.
The Heart of the Fathers Foundation and Warrior Heart Ministries unite to strengthen men and women, parents and grandparents—fighting for heart and connection by addressing generational wounds, addiction, suicide, and promoting resilient, developmentally healthy families and relationships.
Is there a disclaimer?
Yes. The Winning the Battle for Heart and Connection summit is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only. Topics may include addiction, suicide prevention, generational trauma, parenting, emotional resilience, and personal growth. Presenters share personal experience, research, and practical perspectives; however, no presenter is acting as a licensed mental health professional, and this program does not provide nor is it a substitute for professional diagnosis, counseling, or therapeutic treatment. Those experiencing significant distress are encouraged to seek help from qualified mental health providers or local emergency resources.
