Essential Work
Vincent Village’s Denise Anderson on change and leadership in the time of COVID
By Tabitha Ervin Of Fort Wayne Ink Spot
Consider this: nearly one-out-of-in six households in Allen County experience food insecurity. One-in-four children in Allen County experience food insecurity. Imagine filling up two War Memorial Coliseums every night with starving children.
Nonprofits continue to do a Herculaneum job in providing good, nutritious food to eat. There’s always a need for more.
Denise Anderson has been at the helm of Vincent Village since Jan 2020—just a few weeks before COVID-19 changed the world. With a strong background that includes project management, housing development and nonprofit leadership that spans more than 20 years, Anderson has led an agency that can’t remote work, much less separate itself from its clients.
Vincent Village owns 32 homes in the Southeast quadrant along with a shelter for families including the male partners. It's been supporting families in the community for over 30 years.
I recently sat down with her to discuss her time at the organization, leading through a pandemic and what's new on the horizon.
Tabitha Ervin: You started in Jan 2020 then COVID 19 in March 2020, tell me about the journey?
Denise Anderson: I found myself having to lean into my project management and Lean Six Sigma skills. As an organization, we had to pivot quickly and respond accordingly. With that, we had to start by selecting key programs that would still move families forward and could be implemented during a pandemic. Initially, our case management and family engagement became a virtual process. Maintenance work orders were limited to emergency work orders only. We had limited face-to-face.
I was also humbled and thankful to the staff and board who continued to care about the families we serve along with the community in many ways including financial support.
TE: Tell me about projects on the horizon?
DE: I'm excited about rebooting our face-to-face programming that we couldn't offer during the pandemic such as our financial literacy program, youth services and family strengthening (including family outings such as Y visits and zoo field trips). Gratefully, earlier this year we were able to restart after school tutoring with FWCS
We were doing some things virtually but that was very difficult with the structure of our programs for our families.
We honestly spent most of 2020 focused on safety with our families and each time there was an exposure or a quarantine we had to restart the process. It's been tough at times. Our families had travel limitations to school, work, and doctor's appointments. The good news is we were able to provide transportation throughout.
We've survived a tough year together despite the paramedic. We've worked through it all and are continuing professional development as well as the revision of policies and structure for
the overall success of the organization both now and in the future.
TE: Glad you brought up the future—let's talk about it!
DE: We have lots of good things coming, I’ll just share a couple and others will be coming soon!
We were one of six in the state selected to participate in the Supportive Housing Institute which provides support and training for the potential of a future housing project.
After being here a year, I have started to reassess our structure as well as take a deep dive into our strategic plan. With that, we will strategically align staff with programs that we want to offer as we look to continue to break the cycle of generational homelessness. We will have some new positions available to support the expanded structure and people can read about those online. We are excited to look forward as this organization has had over three decades of success and we will continue that success into the future!
For more information about Vincent Village and its services, go to www.vincentvillage.org.
