This issue, we conclude with the third and final forum on race. ‘Vital Bridges,’ the new organization formed by the merger of Open Hand Chicago, Community Response and the HIV Coalition, participated in this forum. CEO Debbie Hinde and Board President Rick Anglin were the spokespeople.
Next week, we begin our analysis of the forums, as well as final wrap-ups from the agency responses.
Opening Statement
Debbie Hinde, CEO: Open Hand Chicago, Community Response and the HIV Coalition merged, effective July 1, 2002, and with that merger we created a new multiservice AIDS organization that each year will help approximately 2,400 people in a wide geographic area. So it’s really 11 counties, which really is a lot different than any of us were singularly.
So it’s geographic diversity and all sorts of other kinds of diversity that you can imagine.
The merged organization provides a wide array of services, including food and nutrition services, case management, housing assistance, and prevention services. Over time, the goal is to have those services provided at our six program sites. Three of those program sites are in the city—in Edgewater, Humboldt Park and Englewood. Three of those sites are in the suburbs—in Elk Grove Village, in Oak Park and in Harvey.
Beyond those, we have partnerships with organizations, churches and other social service organizations to act as kind of delivery points, through which we can get food out to people who are literally a hundred miles away from us.
I think what the three merging organizations have in common is a couple of things. First of all, they all were born of volunteer action in communities. They all were highly dependent on volunteers—as the merged organization is now. Second, they are focused on providing assistance to people with HIV and AIDS, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age … you name it, but the focus is on AIDS.
I think at this point, what we’ve all experienced is a shift in who it is we’re serving. In the beginning, as AIDS service organizations, we were primarily providing services to gay white men. Over the past six or eight years that has shifted widely, so that now our clientele is, from a racial perspective, 60 percent African American, 20 percent Caucasian, 20 percent Latino, and we probably tweak a little bit for that ‘other’ category, but a really small one. And the other interesting statistic is that now only 38 percent of our clientele identifies itself as gay [or bisexual].
So that is a tremendous shift. What all of our clients have in common is that they have HIV, that they don’t have financial resources, and that they need help with all aspects of their lives, certainly medical help in order to treat the disease, but also, most often, they need help with basic needs, long-term housing, food, nutrition services, in many cases some counseling, so it has become a much more complex arena than it was initially.
The merger really had two goals. One goal was to be able to enhance and expand services for clients across this broad geographical area. The second goal was to really create an organization that had financial strength, and thereby could weather the economic trends, weather what is happening in the world around us, and be able to assure our clients that we will be there to provide the services they need. …
The vision over the next three years is to in each of those six program locations to be able to provide all of our services, so that a person could come in to get their groceries, they could also get help with housing, they could also get counseling, they could also receive prevention information. Our feeling about that is that food is the most utilized service, for obvious reasons, and so if we place the other services there they will be more highly utilized. A sort of a wrap-around notion.
I think the other piece that is really important about these organizations is the impact of volunteers. Volunteers are our primary workforce. On an annual basis we’ll use 900 volunteers. Any given week or month it is 500. If we did not have the volunteers, we could not provide the services. So having volunteers in the communities where our services are delivered is key to our success.
Question 1. Much is made of hiring racially diverse staffers, but little is said about how to retain minorities once you get them. Does your agency have any policies in place to ensure that minority staffers feel comfortable and supported? Do you have a minority retention program?
Debbie Hinde: I think that our approach to this is that we feel that we have policies and procedures in-house, board approved, that insure that all of our staff are treated equally, compensated fairly, and that good performance is rewarded. That they have access to coaching, and training, and support, so they can do their jobs, grow into their jobs, get better, etc. Also that they have adequate time off to celebrate whatever their traditions are, deal with their families, celebrate their families, attend to their personal health, etc.
I think retention is, in our service sector, a key issue for all staff, regardless of race, ethnicity or orientation, because they are difficult jobs, because the compensation is not huge, so I think retention is an issue regardless of race or ethnicity.
The other thing we do is with every single staff is we create a staff development plan, and have a conversation which helps an individual. … Then also we look at where do they want to go professionally, and how do we help do that.
Question 2. What policies do you have in place to attract and retain board members and volunteers of color? How diverse is your board and volunteer group?
Rick Anglin, Board President: Open Hand is fortunate to have a fundraising and governance board of directors which overseas the organization’s financials, policy development, and service delivery. Board members come to our organization with a diverse set of skills and capabilities, and must meet a certain set of expectations, including participating in our board meetings; fundraising, we have requirements; heading up committees that are very much involved in all the activities of the organization.
We also have a board development committee, which creates and implements our recruitment program. Each year this committee assesses the diversity of the board, in terms of ethnic and racial diversity, as well as skills diversity and community representation. Once a member is recruited, that person goes through an orientation, and they begin work with other board members on the various committees. Currently our board is made up of 84 percent Caucasian, 12 percent African American, and 4 percent Asian.
The second part of your question regarding our volunteer group—because our services are community-based and our volunteers are primarily our workforce, we recruit our volunteers from the communities in which we serve. So for example on the South Side, 99 percent of our volunteers are African American, 1 percent Caucasian. On the West Side, again, similar to the face of that community, 35 percent are African American, 40 percent Latino, and 25 percent caucasian. And this sort of relationship is true in the other communities which we serve.
So it is important that each site’s culture is reflective of the community in which they operate. In addition, we have had advisory councils on the South Side as well as the West Side so we are able to continue to monitor the makeup of our volunteer group to insure that they do represent the communities which they serve.
Question 3. Is it imperative that the service provider (agency) reflect the communities they serve?
Debbie Hinde: A core philosophy of Open Hand has been community-based services. And that we locate and staff our services in response to clients’ needs. So the result is that our staff is fairly diverse—25 percent are African American, 55 percent Caucasian, 10 percent Latino, 10 percent are Asian. And the volunteers, who are really our workforce, are reflective of the communities in which we operate.
I think from our perspective the most important thing is to understand that we work in communities, that we need to be part of those communities, and that, as we work in those communities, we need to not only engage but also reflect those communities as well. We do that in hiring and in recruiting volunteers, but also just by being involved, whether it’s in churches, health fairs, involved in relationships in those communities, doing business in the community. So I think that reflecting the community is really about growing the services in kind of an indigenous way in those communities.
Question 4. How do you balance the quest for the best talent and leadership with making sure your agency mirrors the community it serves—on the board or staff level?
Rick Anglin: Open Hand is committed to seeking the most qualified individuals possible for staff positions. And in many positions being able to engage the community in which they serve is a key competency measure for us—we believe being from that community is key to that success. So therefore, in a sense, being from the community is part of being highly qualified to be a staff member in our organization.
Question 5. How does race impact your delivery of service or program offerings?
Debbie Hinde: I think from the beginning, Open Hand, ‘the merged organization,’ separately or together, has been committed to helping low-income people impacted by HIV and AIDS, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. So wherever the epidemic would go, is where we would go. That has been the history and that has been how the organization would go. And when programs were developed, and are based in communities, I think we develop them reflecting upon the culture of that particular community. What that means, for instance, would be in the food arena, which type of food? Where should you locate? Where is the community likely to go? What kind of facility are they likely to be comfortable with? What days and hours of service are they most likely to utilize because of their own community patterns? So those kinds of decisions occur based on each community’s cultural values, personality. The community advisory groups come up with these answers.
From that point on, we do satisfaction surveys, with clients. We find out, is this working? Or should we change something, whether it is the food, whether it is the hours, whether it is the distance which they have to go. … When you start a program, you start form the community, up. As you run the program, you have to keep soliciting feedback.
Question 6. What has been your greatest challenge with regards to race relations in the LGBT community?
Rick Anglin: As you know the people that we serve come from a diverse background as well as community. While Open Hand was born in the gay community, and has served those with HIV and AIDS in the community for 14 years, we believe our mission is defined by the epidemic, not necessarily by the community in which we serve.
However, over to the years, we have been very much involved in and have served the gay community. We are involved in many events including Gay Pride, and we’ve done that also on the West Side and South Side, being involved in their pride events. Since we are volunteer driven, we feel it is important for us be in those communities, to recruit volunteers. … So I think our challenge is to meet the needs of our clients, regardless of the culture or orientation, and basically to keep the awareness alive and the services we are committed to alive.
What about the merger of the three agencies would be of interest to the public? [They have now been officially re-named Vital Bridges.]
Debbie Hinde: The merger became effective on July 1. The boards of the agencies voted in April and then over the next couple of months we spent structuring and building how the board would work and all. By June 1, all of the board members were on board, the leadership was elected, all of the staff were hired—which really means that they hired to Open Hand Chicago … and some of the basic infrastructure was put in place like Human Resources policies, some of those things. And an operating plan, so we had a map of where we wanted to go over the next 12 months.
The goal on the program side is service integration. The first piece to be addressed was to initiate a grocery center at the Elk Grove location, and begin to get some equipment in place. Also, to extend the number of hours at the Oak Park pantry, so that the first step was to begin to get more people into the grocery center model, to move the number of meals up, so it was equivalent to what the city clients were getting. We have located a new site in Harvey, which we hope to activate (this month). …
We also have had clients who live in Evanston or Skokie, who come to North Side grocery. The next step in the food piece is to expand the amount of food they get on delivery. In suburbs, most get a monthly drop. We want to expand that to be the equivalent of the grocery experience, and in terms of adding perishable products. That’s going to take longer. One reason is geography. Some may be too far away. …
What we’re hoping is that by the end of June, our first fiscal year, we would have gotten to the point where the majority of clients getting food get the same experience as our city clients. We are also initiating basic prevention services at all six sites. At least once a month having a prevention specialist, and to begin integrating that piece of programming into those centers.
Later on in the year, we will have housing specialists, and case managers go and at least do triage for clients. What often happens, at least with our experience in the city, a client will come in and because they have this ongoing relationship, say to a food coordinator, ‘I’m going to be kicked out of my housing in a week.’ The food coordinator really doesn’t have the experience or resources to respond to that. However, housing specialists and case managers do. …
It’s not simple, and it’s very challenging financially, especially now given the economy. But I think the staff has gained a good understanding of where we’re trying to go, and has really bought into that, and is excited about it. … it means we have to recruit even more volunteers and do more training. It’s a challenge as well as exciting.
Rick Anglin: We talked about how our communities have changed, where today we have only 38% who are gay, and 25% of our clients are females, the services we provide also have to change. One of our key goals is how do we simplify our client’s lives. … This was the genesis of this merger. We have started the integration of these services. … The second major asset of this merger is how do we bring financial stability to the organization, which is very difficult in this economic environment. We believe, with a larger board, with a more diverse board, and the board geographically has greatly expanded, our ability to raise funds … we’re very excited about where our merger is today.
As a merged organization, by the end 2002 we will have provided over 720,000 meals. We’ll provide 55,000 nights of housing, 6,500 counseling sessions, and over 2,000 prevention interventions. [The former Community Response had a residential facility; but most of the housing is through vouchers or other funding mechanisms.]
Debbie Hinde: I think a strength of the organization has been that we do respond when things change. Things will continue to change. We may see that statistic with regards to gay clients change. And we will be poised to change to meet that. A strength and imperative of the organization is that we view change as a constant in our way of doing business. We know we will have to keep reinventing and changing.
Next week: Analysis and charts.