The Kiwanis Club of Homestead-South Dade (HomesteadKiwanis.org), one of South Florida’s most active community service organizations, has reactivated its involvement with Chapman Partnership’s Homeless Assistance Center in Homestead with a monthly dinner service for the clients at Chapman Partnership.
“Chapman Partnership has always needed volunteers,” said Air Force Captain Arnold Perez, president-elect and program chair of the Kiwanis Club. “And after the pandemic, that need grew tremendously as more people needed Chapman Partnership’s services. We’ve been involved with Chapman Partnership for years so once the facility reopened for volunteering, we immediately stepped up to help those less fortunate.”
Since its founding in 1995, Chapman Partnership has had more than 120,000 admissions including 25,000 children in Miami-Dade County. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Chapman Partnership—the private sector partner of the Miami-Dade County Homesless Trust—operates two Homeless Assistance Centers with 800 beds located in Miami and Homestead. The organization helps the homeless by providing a comprehensive support program that includes emergency housing, meals, health, and psychiatric care, daycare, job training, job placement, and assistance with securing stable housing. Chapman Partnership empowers homeless men, women, and children to build a positive future by providing the resources and assistance critical to growth and independence.
Director of Project Management & Business Intelligence, Anthony Henderson, was featured on CBS Miami Pause for a Cause to highlight Chapman Partnership's mission to empower the homeless.
For 27-year-old Chris Benham, working for a Miami food distributor isn't just a job, it's a life-changer. Only months ago, he was homeless and living out of his car.
"One of the hardest things that any homeless person goes through is the constant disrespect that they get from every person that is walking the street or driving. Yeah, it sucks being on the street," Benham told CBS News.
So he turned to Chapman Partnership, a shelter in Miami that is doing more than just providing a warm meal and a place to stay.
"I thought it was just going to be like every other shelter that I've been to, where they really didn't give a care about the people, but that was not the case," he said.
Chapman Partnership CEO Symeria Hudson told CBS News that providing warm meals, shelter and clothes is not enough.
"We do believe that once we settle on your basic needs, we need to give you more," Hudson said.
Like Benham, everyone who comes through the shelter is assigned a case manager to monitor their progress through classes for highly-skilled jobs.
Hudson said that 20% of the homeless there aren't jobless, but they can't afford to make ends meet, and more than 40% are families with children, who also attend classes including banking courses.
"Our goal is to make sure they don't come back as an adult," Hudson said.
The assistance does require an investment from the community. The Chapman Partnership's 800 beds and programs are largely funded by a county food and beverage tax. Hudson also fundraises, bringing her Harvard Business degree and experience in the corporate world to a cause that's also personal — her uncle, Billy Ray Bland, died homeless.
"By the time he came in from the streets, it was too late," Hudson said.
But it wasn't too late for people like Benham, who feels good about his future.
"The future is, hopefully, staying with this company and actually growing in it," he said.
The City of Miami is infusing more money into efforts to try and reduce homelessness, using $3.1 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The goal is to reduce homelessness in Miami down to "functional zero." What that actually means is in question.
“It really is a measurable end to homelessness, and being able to sustain that with the right systems in place. Certainly, that is a target and a goal," said Symeria Hudson, President and CEO of Chapman Partnership. "That's something that many have been working toward for quite some time."
The Chapman Partnership was awarded $200,000 to boost workforce training programs, as part of the funding breakdown.
But the decision comes after a string of recent restrictions from the city, including banning encampments, restricting where and how aid groups can feed people, and even creating a program where city residents can “adopt” people experiencing homelessness.
"In order for us to truly end homelessness in Miami, we must first stop the criminalization of homelessness," David Peery said. He is the Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board of the Camillus Health Concern community clinic, which serves the homeless population of Miami. He's also the Executive Director of the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity – or MCARE. He continued:
“Quite frankly, I'm not aware of what functional zero actually is. It appears to be something different than zero, and so there's somewhat of a misnomer in what it means. I would take that it is a well-intentioned, good-faith effort to end homelessness. But quite frankly, it's not at all clear as to exactly what it is, and the definition tends to vary depending on who you talk to."
Manuel Bojorquez at CBS News shares our national model of homelessness and how we are changing the way we deal with homelessness through innovative programs and community support.
CBS4 Miami shows our Hype Santas Block Party that was sponsored by the Hype Santa NFT to bring joy to our families over the holiday.
As she heads off to greet Anthony Henderson, the director of project management and business intelligence, to talk about new efforts to better collect, analyze and store client data, the bell rings again. “There’s more money,” Hudson says.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/living/helping-others/article255488441.html#storylink=cpy
MIAMI (MiamiHerald) –
Those who know Symeria Hudson, the chief executive of the Chapman Partnership, say she seems to have energy enough for two.
She brings “unbounded energy and a great attitude to her job,” says Allan Pekor, a longtime Chapman board member.
Here’s a look at a day in Hudson’s very active life.
5 a.m. — She awakens at her Fort Lauderdale condo. “I’ve always been an early riser, and this literally starts my clock,” Hudson says. While she dons a black pantsuit and gets ready for the day, her husband, Gary, takes off on a 20- to 30-mile bike ride.
She gets her turn at the gym in the evening while he takes care of Garrett, their 3-year-old son, and she’s a stickler about being there almost every day. A former marathoner, she now favors lifting weights and a gym routine that features squats and lunges.
6:30 a.m. — It’s time to get Garrett up and ready for his Montessori school. She’s already packed his lunch and snacks and most days prepares her own sack lunch.
7:30 a.m. — The whole family is out the door with Gary taking on drop-off duties for school. Depending on traffic, her commute can take 45 minutes to 1½ hours; she’s looking forward to a shorter trip when Brightline resumes service in November.
During the drive, she usually takes part in two to three conference calls and checks in with her husband to see if the drop-off has gone smoothly. During today’s drive, she chats with her administrative assistant about her calendar, talks with Chapman’s chief financial officer and places a call to the vice president for residential services.
8:35 a.m. — Hudson hops on to another conference call as she pulls into the parking lot of the Chapman Partnership, a sprawling gray building that occupies a city block along North Miami Avenue. There’s no sign out front — an effort to preserve the anonymity of some residents who are victims of domestic abuse and temper any stigma about living in a homeless shelter for kids who catch their school buses out front each day.
“Good morning,” she calls out to everyone she encounters — staff, residents, potential clients seated in the ground-floor intake lobby. “It’s so important for them to come through the door and feel some warmth,” she says. No one comes directly off the streets to Chapman. They’re referred by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
A few minutes later, Hudson arrives at her office and switches on CNN — without the sound. As she answers emails and takes calls, it’s a constant companion that helps her keep abreast of what’s going on in the world.
10 a.m. — Hudson chats with a reporter and Miami Herald photographer at a round white conference table centered with a pink orchid.
She says she kept coming into the office every day during the pandemic. “I don’t abandon my team,” Hudson says.
STRICT COVID-19 PROTOCOLS ARE WORKING
The Chapman Partnership developed a 200-page protocol to keep staff and residents safe during the pandemic and swung into action early, meeting in February 2020 as COVID-19 cases mounted in Europe.
“We created a war room in the cafeteria,” Hudson says. Masking is mandatory and donated N95 masks are available in the intake lobby for visitors.
The effort has paid off. Last year the positivity rate in Chapman’s facilities was under 2 percent, and this year, even with the surge in the delta variant, the COVID positivity rate stands at 2.8 percent, Hudson says.
10:30 a.m. — She begins a walk-around of the Chapman facility, which has 500 beds. Making the rounds is something she tries to do weekly or at least twice a month.
“It’s really about spending time with people,” Hudson says. “Sometimes people will tell me, ‘You make us feel like you’re one of us,’ and I say that’s because I am.” Every staff member at Chapman has her work and personal cellphone numbers, she says.
Even though Hudson treats everyone with dignity, she is still a strong and demanding leader, says Pekor. “She works very hard and when you see that at the top, it is very motivating.”
EMPATHETIC MOTHER
Empathy, Hudson says, is in her DNA. It’s what she saw growing up in her mother, who raised five kids working as an accounting assistant after her divorce. If someone was in need, she said, her mother would give them odd jobs and feed them. It wasn’t unusual, Hudson says, to find a neighborhood teen who had been pushed out of home sleeping on her family’s couch.
It takes about 1½ hours for her to make her rounds. Beyond greeting everyone personally, she gets updates and hears concerns.
Hudson’s first stop is the office of Xiomara Alonso, Chapman’s vice president of human resources. They talk briefly about their upcoming meeting on putting Chapman’s values and guiding principles into action.
“Look at our fearless team,” Hudson says as she approaches the development office where four women are seated around a conference table discussing how to expand Chapman’s donor base.
“Go ahead, you can ring the bell,” Arlene Peterson, senior director of development, tells her. Hudson rings a bell that’s sounded when a donation or “incredible opportunity” comes in. This time it’s a $25,000 donation from Florida East Coast Industries that will support Chapman’s workforce trades program.
As she heads off to greet Anthony Henderson, the director of project management and business intelligence, to talk about new efforts to better collect, analyze and store client data, the bell rings again. “There’s more money,” Hudson says.
Renderings for the build-out of Chapman’s new Social Enterprise Academy, an effort to get residents the training they need to score better jobs and avoid homelessness, are spread across his desk.
“It’s hard to get a home if you don’t have a livable wage,” says Hudson.
The lack of affordable housing in the Miami area has become a real issue. To remedy it will require land, financing and expertise, Pekor said in a later interview. “We at Chapman are a component, but creating more affordable housing will take an effort by the community at large.”
Later, Henderson will meet Hudson across the street at a Chapman warehouse that is being converted into the new home of the Social Enterprise Academy.
But first he gives her an update on the Chap-App, a communications tool that was initially designed for Social Enterprise Academy attendees to stay in touch during the pandemic, but has been expanded into a platform for virtual case management.
“It’s a very efficient tool. It helps us see more clients,” says Hudson. “We literally wrote this program sitting in my office. Corporations would pay for this, and we did it for free right here.”
“Hello, hello,” Hudson calls out to Howard Rubin, the chief financial officer, before heading to the resident area downstairs where she’s joined by Ben Johnson, a former Marine who spent many years homeless on the streets of Miami.
He’s been with the Chapman Partnership for 19 years and does a little bit of everything, from serving as a guide to warmly greeting visitors and recently mulching and beautifying an interior courtyard.
“We call him the mayor of Chapman. He usually walks with me when I make my rounds,” says Hudson.
ALVAH CHAPMAN’S VISION
Alvah Chapman’s shadow still looms large over the organization that bears his name. Chapman, the former Knight Ridder chairman and CEO and Miami Herald publisher who rallied the community to take on the issue of homelessness, died on Christmas Day in 2008. He founded the Chapman Partnership in 1992, opening the Homeless Assistance Center campus in 1995.
“I really wish I would have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Chapman and Mrs. Chapman,” Hudson says. “He pulled people in because they trusted him.”
As Hudson and Johnson pause in front of a bust of Chapman in a small courtyard, Johnson says that when he was homeless, he lived under the underpass on the route that Chapman often took home in the evening. “I was the person in the hood down there. I didn’t know then that God was passing overhead and that he was seeing what was going on,” says Johnson. “
It was Mr. Chapman’s vision to put the Chapman Partnership in Overtown right around the corner from the drug holes,” says Johnson. “Now [Hudson] is going to do one hell of a job when I’m here and when I’m gone.”
“That’s why I walk with him — for the moments of inspiration and for the stories,” says Hudson.
10:55 a.m. — Hudson enters the cafeteria to see the cooks.
“I know if I don’t go back there, I’ll be on their hit list,” she laughs. Angel Cline, the chief of the back-of-the-house operation, comes from a culinary background and isn’t content to just put food on a plate, Hudson says. On the lunch menu that day: salad, chips, fruit, turkey subs and pumpkin soup.
The recently remodeled cafeteria has been closed during the pandemic. As part of the pandemic protocol, residents just pick up grab-and-go meals and eat at picnic tables in a large covered patio. The Chapman cooks feed about 400 people a day because some of the food they prepare is sent to other facilities aiding the homeless.
‘SAFE HAVEN’ FOR RESIDENTS, CHILDREN
11:10 a.m. — Hudson heads to the Family Resource Center, where tutoring, computers for homework, and a library are available. It is here that Chapman’s young residents assembled last school year for virtual classes. Classes in parenting skills, typing and technology are also taught here.
Chapman’s students are required to do their homework but after 6 p.m., the center offers arts and crafts, movie nights and game tournaments. A point system has been established that rewards students who are ready for school on time, attend sessions with their tutors and do their homework. They may buy small items online with their points or bank them.
“This is part of our financial literacy program,” says Hudson. “Unfortunately, we see that homelessness is generational,” so the more children develop good money habits, the better their chances of getting jobs and staying off the streets.
Gigantic figures of current and former Heat players adorn the walls.
“I love the feel of this,” Hudson says. “This really is the heart of our center. We really want people to feel this is a safe haven.”
11:20 a.m. — Hudson passes a playground where kids enrolled in the Head Start program play tag. The on-site Head Start program is run by Miami-Dade County Public Schools and is open to both neighborhood kids and the children living at Chapman.
Her next stop is a large open room set up as the Mobile Closet where donated clothes, shoes, book bags and purses — both new and gently used — are arranged on racks and tables. Residents may pick out a fixed number of items per week.
“It’s organized so they can actually have an experience like going to a store,” says Hudson. “Let me know if you need baby clothes,” she tells the Mobile Closet manager. As her son outgrows clothing, she brings his togs in.
11:35 a.m. — It’s time to visit the case managers and their supervisor. “I’m hearing incredible things,” Hudson tells a new worker.
Residents usually meet with their case managers four or five times a week. During the day, the dorms are closed because residents are at jobs or school, working on trying to get a job or taking other steps toward self-sufficiency and more permanent homes.
The average stay at Chapman is 90 to 100 days; in the past year, the partnership has helped 1,200 people find jobs, Hudson says. About half of Chapman’s residents are employable, she says.
11:45 a.m. — She heads to a working lunch — a takeout chicken Caesar salad — in the conference room.
Alonso, the head of human resources, stops by to brief her on the final draft of Chapman’s new guiding principles. They emphasize kindness, collaboration, taking time to pause. “Where do we go from here in making this more broadly spread throughout the organization?” Hudson asks her.
12:30 p.m. — Henderson briefs her on the Social Enterprise Academy project. The 4,000-square-foot warehouse, which was stuffed with donations, is now about 70 percent cleared out, he says, and a contractor is expected to be selected soon.
A second-story, 2,500-square-foot mezzanine will be added, and classrooms will surround a central atrium where workstations will be set up.
NEW JOB-TRAINING PROGRAM IN HIGH DEMAND
The Social Enterprise Academy is Hudson’s baby. Classes in carpentry and electrical work began in January 2020 just as the pandemic was taking hold and the program, taught in partnership with Florida International University, quickly switched to virtual learning.
It’s already graduated its first class of 29 students. Hudson hopes to build on the construction trades program by adding training to help residents become nursing assistants and work in cybersecurity.
“If we’re building, we need to think about building for the future,” Hudson says. “The program was in such high demand that we couldn’t accept all the applicants who were interested.” Now the training is only available to Chapman residents, but eventually Hudson would like to expand it to community members.
It costs $7,300 to put a student through the 15-month certificate program, and Hudson is hoping that corporations and individuals will sponsor trainees. “Now they have the certifications they need when they work on a job site,” says Hudson.
The payoff for carpentry grads, she says, is a job that usually starts at $18 an hour — well above Florida’s recently raised hourly minimum wage of $10.
But Hudson has even bigger plans. “We hope to go all the way out to entrepreneurial training. That’s the next horizon,” she says.
1:30 p.m. — Hudson heads over to the COVID-19 testing site that has been set up in a Chapman parking lot. Staff members who aren’t vaccinated are required to test weekly and those who are vaccinated must undergo a test monthly. The testing site also serves the surrounding community.
The on-site testing began at the Miami facility on Sept. 13 and in Homestead on Sept. 23, and Hudson wants to meet the staff from Curative, which operates the site. “Is there anything you need or that we can help you with?” she asks. While she’s at the testing site, Hudson does her own test for October. The tests are sent to a lab every night and results come back in two days.
2 p.m. — It’s time to see the progress on the Social Enterprise Academy firsthand and chat with the architect.
There are still packages of donated disposable diapers, paper products, a Star Wars pinball machine, boxes of clothing and even a giant teddy bear that need to be located to other Chapman facilities, but with the building almost cleared, it’s time to concentrate on what it will become.
Ground-breaking on the project is expected in November. “Send invitations to [Mayor Daniella] Levine Cava and [Miami-Dade County Schools Superintendent Alberto] Carvalho,” she instructs a staffer. “We will need landscaping here too.”
“At its core, Chapman is always going to be shelter, but we’re building out services too. We just have to make sure we’re providing the right services,” says Ed Joyce, the new chairman of the Chapman board.
“We’re so proud of the work that Symeria has done on this,” says Joyce, who has stopped by to see the progress on the Social Enterprise Academy.
In selecting Hudson to lead the partnership, “we did go outside the typical nonprofit mold, but we thought we needed someone with her skill set. We knew it was time to do something different. The financial side of it is so important these days.”
Joyce has been involved with the Chapman Partnership since its inception.
At the beginning of his career, Joyce says, Alvah Chapman always encouraged him to be involved in the community — an effort Chapman said would help his career and help him personally.
After explaining his idea to help the homeless, Chapman gave Joyce, who spent 37 years at Northern Trust, an assignment: Go out and introduce the idea to wealthy people in the community. “Alvah really challenged business leaders to be community leaders,” he says.
HER LEADERSHIP SHINED THROUGHOUT PANDEMIC
After Chapman’s health began to fail in his later years, there was a void in community leadership, says Joyce. “We’re so happy to have Symeria and her team. We had to change quickly [during the pandemic] and the leadership she has brought has really shined in a very difficult environment.”
3 p.m. — Hudson catches up on office work.
3:45-4 p.m. — She stops by the Family Resource Center to chat with 18-year-old Sharena Harris, who took part in Chapman’s paid four-week internship program for young adults. As part of her project, Harris learned to produce and did interviews for a podcast that featured Pierre Hosang, the coaching director of the Miami Krew soccer club, and track star Michelle Atherley.
“What was the lesson that grabbed you?” Hudson asks her. “Pierre made it through, and I’m making it through, too,” says Harris. “Everyone encounters good things and bad things, but that is life. It’s a journey.”
Harris’ mother used to be a Chapman resident, but she has moved out. Harris, who is still in high school and works nights at Wendy’s, stayed. But she tells Hudson she has found housing and will be moving out soon. “Let’s find a time to talk again before you leave,” Hudson tells her.
4:20 p.m. — Hoping to beat at least some of the rush-hour traffic, Hudson steers her SUV toward her Fort Lauderdale home, but traffic on I-95 is snarled.
6 p.m. — Hudson usually heads directly to the gym from work, but today she goes home because a reporter and photographer are visiting. The new condo has contemporary furnishings in soothing tones of gray, black and white, designed by Gary. (Design is his hobby, he says.) The couple is into tech, and Hudson admits to having eight televisions in their home.
7 p.m. — Garrett’s babysitter leaves and he comes upstairs to visit with his parents and eat chicken nuggets for dinner. Her husband usually cooks, and she helps assemble the meal.
“My husband is so supportive,” Hudson says.
Hudson does bath time with Garrett and then from 8 to 8:30, she might do flashcards with him and read to him. “We may do three or four storybooks a night,” Hudson says.
But tonight, Garrett is getting a special treat because he has been so well-behaved while his parents have hosted the visitors. His father takes him to the parking garage, where he drives a miniature Jeep a friend from London sent. His father controls the vehicle with a remote control.
9 p.m. — It’s time to get Garrett ready for bed, but Hudson’s day isn’t over. “I like to do the prep work for my next day at work and answer any emails I wasn’t able to get to during the day,” she says.
11 p.m. — It’s lights out for Hudson. It’s been a long day, but she says she often put in longer days in the corporate world. “Now I’m putting more priority on my family,” she says. But she quickly adds, “I love working because I’m passionate about what I do.”
Source: Miami Herald
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD SPECIAL TO THE MIAMI HERALD NOVEMBER 07, 2021 6:00 AM
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A South Florida nonprofit that operates successful programs which get the homeless off the streets and into gainful employment is facing a budget crisis.
The pandemic has put a crimp in a major funding source which is tied to Miami-Dade’s food and beverage tax.
The nonprofit Chapman Partnership operates two homeless assistance centers in Miami and Homestead with a total of 800 beds.
Chapman Partnership is a private sector partner of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. Not only do they offer shelter, but education.
“We empower our residents to gain self-sufficiency back into the community, everything from medical support to behavioral support,” said Chapman Partnership President and CEO Symeria T. Hudson.
Then came the pandemic and with it a major change in cleaning protocols, social distancing, masks, and no more self-service meals in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
“We had to modify how we interacted with clients, we didn’t compromise services and programs,” said Hudson.
She notes that one of their most important programs, the Workforce Trades program, continued unabated.
“Because of the resilience of our staff, employees and residents we were able to continue this program. We graduated 19 individuals from our carpentry and electrical program,” said Hudson.
The nonprofit’s assistance centers are owned and funded by the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust. The Trust receives part of its funding from the county’s food and beverage tax which saw sharp declines during the pandemic.
“We have had some months where the food and beverage tax revenues were off by more than 65 percent. When you put consecutive months, which we had ten months, plus of, these large double-digit declines, it is a ‘gut punch’ to our ability to maintain the programs at the success levels we’ve had,” said Homeless Trust Chair Ron Book.
The hope is with more people getting vaccinated, and we don’t see another wave of coronavirus infections, the funding will return to higher levels.
“We have had to cut budget dramatically. We are just hoping at the end of the day there is an uptick in people eating out in our restaurants and the food and beverage tax decline gets cut and starts to go back up,” said Book.
He added that the Chapman Partnership workforce trades program is important for the community. He notes that the placement and success rate for the formerly homeless graduates of the program hovers around 70 percent.
Source: CBS 4 Miami
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Marile Lopez sits down with one of "People En Espanol's" most powerful women
BY MARILE LOPEZ IN FEATURES
Philanthropy and charity are both wonderful but they’re not the same. While each generous, performing a charitable act involves shorter term support for an immediate demand. Philanthropy is about creating fundamental change, focusing on an entire cause for a long duration in hopes of making a permanent and lasting transformation. Organizations, private donors and foundations – including The Marile & Jorge Luis Lopez, Esq. Family Foundation, which focuses on causes, not organizations — are on the front lines of philanthropic impact. Through innovative fundraising and new funding models, these independent but interconnected entities will empower and effect community and global changes.
In Miami, Chapman Partnership embodies positive transformation. Chapman serves homeless residents by providing empowering services that motivate them to become self-sufficient and build positive futures. One of the organization’s many outstanding support resources it the Social Enterprise Academy, which incorporates comprehensive workforce and job skills training. Chapman Partnership collaborated with FIU to launch – in the vision of Chapman president and CEO Symeria Hudson – the recently completed Chapman Partnership Downtown Miami Center for Social Enterprise Academy Workforce and Trade. It is a 14-week program teaching the construction trades and providing graduates with nationally recognized certificates and support for job placement. Lucy Morillo, Esq., President of LM & Associates provided ongoing consulting when it came to the project’s development.
Morillo is an attorney with 25 years of experience in institutional advancement and nonprofit management who’s led many successful and innovative public and private fundraising initiatives. In 2016 People Magazine -People En Espanol named Morillo as one of the 25 Powerful Women in the US. As a nonprofit consultant, she’s a strong advocate and committed supporter providing her over 20 clients with the essential strategic tools and industry best practices.
I sat down with Morillo and asked her a few questions:
Marile Lopez: How was the Social Enterprise at Chapman originated?? What was the process/collaboration like with Symeria and her team?
Lucy Morillo: As a consultant, nothing is more exciting than supporting social impact projects such as this one. The Social Enterprise Academy is part the new vision taking shape in the last two years, at Chapman Partnership. The organization truly serves as a model for serving homeless individuals and fast-tracking them to self-sufficiency. We supported this concept by creating a sustainable philanthropic business paradigm to encourage individuals, corporations, and foundations to support the effort. The process has been incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. Social enterprising is a promising approach to fulfilling unmet needs while at the same time seeking social impact, financial and environmental sustainability. It is a win-win for all.
M.L.: These are uncertain times for nonprofit organizations. How has your fundraising model(s) pivoted to adapt?
L.M.: Many consultants focus on best practices/industry standards and develop a “one size fits all” approach to their clients as a result. Then COVID-19 hit, and all best practices went out the window. Without a clear playbook, LM&A Consulting had to take an individual approach to each one of our clients and assess each one’s own unique challenges and opportunities. Helping each organization lean into their mission and communicate their impact and responsiveness has been pivotal to our clients’ fundraising success during this period of uncertainty.
While we often think of “first responders” during crisis moments, there are many organizations providing vital secondary and tertiary services. Chapman Partnership, for instance, provides vital services to individuals experiencing homelessness due to loss of employment or eviction— that’s an important secondary response to this crisis. Consider the many arts organizations who are creating beauty to inspire us during this challenging time— that’s vital to recovery.
M.L. Your firm has provided essential tools, strategies and guidelines for many organizations in our community -what has been the most challenging yet rewarding?
L.M. In March of this year, LM&A Consulting worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami to provide strategic leadership during a particularly challenging time for their organization, as they faces staff transitions and simultaneously planned for their largest fundraiser of the year. LM&A Consulting was able to help provide an objective, steady hand to support volunteer management, fundraising strategies, while maximizing their events bottom line for the organization. LM&A Consulting helped to turn a challenging situation into a beautiful and lucrative event in four short months. Talk about impactful change!
M.L. You and your firm are highly regarded as leaders in nonprofit consulting-what is one key element of your success and of your clients’ successes?
L.M. We are living in an on-demand, highly individualized culture, so why should any client accept a cookie-cutter approach from their consulting agency? Because LM&A Consulting is a boutique agency, we have the flexibility to change and adapt to client’s needs quickly, and tailor our approach to the unique needs of each client. Furthermore, there is a pervading misconception that smaller, boutique consulting firms like LM&A Consulting lack the resources to adequately support clients. To address this misconception, we have a remarkable team to support almost every aspect of for-profit and non-profit strategy, from financial services, to marketing/communications and beyond. This individualized but expert approach has resulted in high-level client satisfaction and retention.
Nonprofit are also asking government for help. Chapman has a well-known collaboration with MDC-Homeless Trust.
M.L. What would you as an experienced leader and past President & CEO of one of MDC largest children’s hospital like to see government do to further assist nonprofits??
L.M. It is important that lawmakers think beyond the immediate impact of proposed policy and consider the ripple effects of their actions. For instance, the Homeless Trust is funded largely by tax revenues from restaurants and tourism. Regardless of where you stand on re-opening businesses and dining, lawmakers need to consider how to mitigate the impact of this loss of funding and its subsequent effects on the homeless population in Miami-Dade County. Honest, open communication and partnership, along with reasonable guidelines for non-profit accountability, will help to strengthen the relationship between the public and non-profit sectors and effect lasting change.
Source: Social Miami
*Impact numbers are updated at the beginning of each fiscal year and will be updated annually.
As the private sector partner of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, Chapman Partnership is another step in the continuum of care. Any person or family who is homeless, about to be homeless, or assisting someone facing homelessness, and requiring emergency assistance must first contact the Homeless Helpline administered by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. Homeless Helpline Toll Free Number: 1-877-994-HELP (4357).
