“To provide peer support and tools for families to help them work through unavoidable crises, build lasting relationships, create a harmonious home, and prepare children for life.”
Our Founder, Dennis Poncher, began the Because I Love You, Parent and Youth Support Groups, in 1982 out of a need to help his own family. Since then, Dennis has poured his life into helping other families in crises. Our support group meetings are attended by parents who have children (of all ages) with behavioral issues such as a negative attitudes, truancy, drug and/or alcohol abuse, running away, and verbal and physical abuse.
Our program works both parents and youth, offering support and guidance to improve communication, promote structure and cooperation in the home, and achieve our goal of family preservation. Meetings are run completely by volunteers, and they are a place where families can find support without judgment or feeling embarrassed by situations they may feel they have no control over.
The Because I Love You program produces positive results, all free of charge. Read the testimonials of parents who have attended the support group meetings at How B.I.L.Y. Changed My Life. For over 30 years, thousands of parents have attended our support groups and become “Success Stories” . . . We have seen runaways return home, truants return to school and graduate, children who were dependent on substances become clean and sober, and families that were experiencing crisis and separation reunite!
Now an international non-profit, more than 700,000 parents and families have found help and hope through B.I.L.Y. free of charge.
In 1981 my life was a crisis! I needed a place to go to talk with other parents who would not judge or blame, but listen, make suggestions and offer support. With the opening of my first Because I Love You (B.I.L.Y.) group in March of 1982, the light at the end of the tunnel was no longer a train. I was on a new course that would lead to personal success with my own children and ultimately, thousands of other families!
I learned early on that in order for my children to change, the first person that needed to change was me. In our weekly meetings this is passed on to other parents. What they are doing is not necessarily wrong, it just is not working. They come to group as part of the problem and it is our goal to make them part of the solution. Parents shortly learn that in raising children in today’s society, pain is inevitable but the suffering is optional.
"Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."
After the preservation of my own family, it became necessary for me to pay it forward. It became my mission to help as many families as possible, spreading B.I.L.Y. throughout the country and even to Canada.
With the support of our groups, I have witnessed hundreds of miracles and while on this journey have become convinced that it does take a village.   B.I.L.Y. offers that village . . .
Dennis Poncher, Founder
Because I Love You
The Parent & Youth Support Groups
Read about Dennis' journey in his books available in the B.I.L.Y. Program Store. He is available for speaking engagements or to help start up B.I.L.Y. Support Groups; please call or email us for more information.