Maddie Robinson

Story by Maddie Robinson / The Hubbard School

When COVID-19 struck the Twin Cities in March 2020, resulting in mass closures of schools and businesses, Ann Gaasch, chief executive officer of social-services organization FamilyWise, said the nonprofit didn’t know how many changes it would have to make in order to continue its work.

With the bulk of the pandemic over, the impact on children, families and related social services has been unprecedented. According to the National Library of Medicine, families reported a “high degree of disruption” such as school closures, decreased family income and important family events getting canceled. 

Many of these impacts hit close to home in the Twin Cities. FamilyWise, which is based in Minneapolis’ Prospect Park neighborhood, has operated since 1976 and is still feeling  far-reaching implications from COVID, even as it rebuilds. 

For Gaasch, the work is just as much personal passion as professional responsibility.

“I think I do this work because I’m so appreciative of the people that supported my family, as I was growing up during our hard times,” Gaasch said.

Pandemic disruptions

FamilyWise provides services ranging from supervised parenting in cases of family separation or violence to early childhood education to peer-led parenting support groups, Gaasch said. Around 4,700 people in the seven-county metro area use its services in some way. 

According to FamilyWise’s 2022 Annual Report, 88% of the organization’s participants lived below the poverty level and 63% were from communities of color.

When the Minnesota stay-at-home order was enacted in late March 2020, Gaasch said the organization’s goal was to be completely shut down for as little time as possible. FamilyWise was closed for just over three weeks, but Gaasch said it had to innovate when reopening its primarily in-person services.

“We had to very quickly pivot and figure out how to serve families virtually,” Gaasch said.

More specifically, when FamilyWise’s family appointments moved to Zoom for a period of time, it required improvisation from staff members to keep kids busy, like Zoom tea parties and virtual Disney World visits.

However, providing services over Zoom also caused financial challenges. 

FamilyWise uses a payment system similar to a fee-for-service model, where staff are paid for the number of separate services they provide. Gaasch said it was harder to do normal-length family appointments over Zoom, so the organization cut down the length of appointments. This change resulted in the organization being unable to bill at full rates, causing a hit to the nonprofit’s revenue flow.

COVID also caused other financial burdens, similar to many social service organizations at the time. Rising costs of needed supplies, like thermometers and sanitation products, added more stress, as well as FamilyWise not receiving as much philanthropic support as other organizations, Gaasch said. 

While Gaasch could not place an exact number for any decreases in finances during COVID, she said in an email that the organization projected a financial loss overall. 

However, Nikolai Bjork, a development associate for FamilyWise, said this year is going well for the organization financially, especially with fundraising. Bjork, who considers donors and fundraising “an important part” of FamilyWise’s revenue, said its biggest funding sources are from contracts with Hennepin and Ramsey counties, as well as contributions from other foundations.

According to FamilyWise’s annual financial reports, there was a decline of over $300,000 in outside contributions after 2018, but those numbers bounced back in 2021 and continue to be relatively steady.

A slow, steady return

When it came to moving services back in person, FamilyWise’s daycare service was the first program to fully revert back, according to Gaasch. Although getting families to come back in person was a challenge, FamilyWise spent a lot of time assessing safety protocols and managing COVID exposure in the center to keep its services running. Gaasch said it took over a year for a COVID exposure to appear in its childcare center.

“Especially for our daycare parents, I mean, they very much needed that service, so it’s really important for them to have that,” Gaasch said.

Despite all of FamilyWise’s services being back in person, Gaasch does see lingering effects of COVID on the organization.

Gaasch said some of those effects are positive, such as having hybrid appointments with families after only having Zoom as an available option for a period of time. Being able to hold virtual appointments occasionally provides families with necessary flexibility that an in-person visit does not. FamilyWise’s newfound experience with Zoom appointments has helped improve its current virtual support as well.

“Yes, in-person visits are going to be the best, but we’ve got a lot more ideas about how to facilitate connection in between those in-person visits that we can help support,” Gaasch said. 

However, there are still problems because of COVID. 

Gaasch said children who use FamilyWise’s services missed out on “that very valuable social-emotional learning” due to being out of school. Gaasch also said she still sees anxiety surrounding COVID in participants, as well as a loss of routine that keeps families connected with their communities. 

“Routine was really important and the structures that the kids were in, like the support that they had from school was really important,” Gaasch said. “I still don’t think that families have recovered from that.”

Gaasch said FamilyWise is working to continue meeting the constantly-changing needs of families and highlighting them to the greater community despite the setbacks brought on by COVID. 

“I think our challenge is going to be to keep that conversation alive and keep that awareness around because I think, you know, you can’t parent well in isolation,” Gaasch said. “You need, as corny as it is, it truly does take a village.”