Profile and Executive Director Q&A
Families First of Minnesota is a multi-faceted nonprofit organization that facilitates access to quality childcare and early education for families with children from birth to age five. It also supports and provides education to childcare providers in Southwestern Minnesota.
Families First provides Head Start early learning at four locations in two counties. This is a federally funded program for children of families below the poverty line. In 28 Minnesota counties, Families First distributes Early Learning Scholarships. Funded through the state, these scholarships provide up to $7,500 or $10,000 per year per child depending on priority status to attend a high-quality Parent Aware rated program to better prepare for kindergarten.
“Each year, we see about 500 children on the waitlist for scholarships,” said Sara Stebbins, Families First Director. “As the need increases, we hope to see this program expanded at the state level.”
The nonprofit also has a crisis nursery that provides temporary, short-term care for children while families address a crisis situation.
Through the Child Care Aware program, Families First helps families find child care. Within the Child Care Aware program umbrella, the Parent Aware program gives families the tools they need to identify and search for quality child care and early education. Along with criteria that include hours and location, parents can search and select providers based a rating system.
For providers, Families First offers professional growth and educational opportunities which helps them improve their ratings within the Child Care Aware rating system and increase capacity to provide care to more children. With the help of a Child Care Consultant, Families First coaches providers to build a business out of childcare and become more business-minded. In 2020, Families First added 19 licensed care providers, achieving care for about 190 more children.
Helping with the capacity shortage, in 2019, Families First started its own childcare facility called Family Circle Learning Center.
“As we see the need for our services increase, I am amazed by our employees’ passion for overcoming barriers to care for children.”
Families First Executive Director Jon Losness.
Q&A with Jon Losness
Jon Losness joined Families First of Minnesota in January 2016 as executive director. He serves on the board for Cradle to Career, a community endeavor seeking to improve literacy and school readiness. He also serves on the executive committee of the BRIDGE Collaborative of Olmsted County and on the board for a non-profit consortium in Rochester.
From 1999 to 2002 he served on the Families First board. He’s also served on the boards of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Area Economic Development Inc., the Salvation Army of Rochester, and the Rochester Area Foundation. Losness came to Families First from the Kenosha (Wis.) News, where he served as editor for six years. He previously was executive director of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research for 2.5 years and also worked 24 years for the Post-Bulletin newspaper in Rochester, including four years as its editor and publisher.
What has been your biggest source of pride as executive director?
Working with the employees of our agency and learning about the passion they all have for helping children and families. Most of the families we work with face a number of challenges. Helping them navigate complex systems and providing quality early education opportunities is rewarding work.
What are a couple of big accomplishments in your career as a nonprofit leader?
Collaborating with other non-profits has been a rewarding part of my work. We’ve built relationships with the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester, the Jeremiah Program, Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association, and other agencies that are beneficial for all of us and the individuals we serve. We’ve also navigated a flood that closed our main office for nearly three months in 2019 and the pandemic in 2020. It’s amazing how resilient our employees have been during these challenges.
What are the dominant challenges that you see nonprofit organizations facing and what do you think would be viable solutions?
We have a serious problem recruiting new employees in the non-profit sector. We’re not unique in that challenge but it is difficult when the number of qualified applicants doesn’t match the number of job openings. We also face uncertain grant funding as local, state, and federal governments seek to balance their budgets during and after this pandemic.
How do you see the organization changing in the next two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
The Covid-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way we staff our office and the way we interact with our employees. We’ve known for quite some time that employees value flexibility. Since the onset of Covid, flexibility has been a necessity for many employees dealing with evolving school schedules, child care issues, and health stresses associated with the virus. After closing our office in mid-March, we learned that many of our employees can work effectively from home. We expect that even after the pandemic passes, we’ll have employees working at least part of the schedule from home. That means coming up with new systems to ensure good communication, high productivity, and happy employees.
