Virginia Tech will recognize Erick King as co-recipient of the Ut Prosim Award during the Influential Black Alumni Awards ceremony on April 13. This year’s ceremony is held on the first day of Virginia Tech’s Black Alumni Reunion, which takes place every two years.

While coaching basketball teams for 13-year-olds in Northern Virginia, Erick King and his brother, Isaac King, noticed a growing problem. Many of the teenagers did not have fathers who were involved in their lives.

They decided to start the Fathers in Touch program, which supports fathers in the community and teaches them about parenting. The program has reconnected more than 750 fathers with their children.

“We wanted to have a greater impact than coaching basketball,” said Erick King, a 2000 Virginia Tech graduate and director of probation for the Arlington County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. “These fathers don’t have a lot of places you can go to talk about these issues. That’s what really keeps me going. It brings a lot of value to individual families.”

In 2008, the King brothers founded Capital Youth Empowerment, a nonprofit that oversees the Fathers in Touch program and other initiatives to help teenagers in the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County make healthy sexual choices.

Erick King holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and sociology from Virginia Tech.

“That’s what I have dedicated my life to doing is serving others, supervising and providing oversight,” he said. “Being of service to others is how I demonstrate Ut Prosim.

The Influential Black Alumni Awards ceremony will be held at 8 p.m. in Squires Student Center’s Colonial Hall. King will be one of seven alumni recognized.

Written by Jenny Kincaid Boone