Ballinger | Leafblad is pleased to conduct the search for a Chief Executive Officer at People Serving People in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

People Serving People is a dedicated leader in homelessness prevention and the largest and most comprehensive emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness in Minnesota.

People Serving People works with children and their families experiencing homelessness. The organization provides safe and secure shelter and nutritious meals, while offering wraparound and trauma responsive support, which includes educational services, advocacy services, and social support. People Serving People also works upstream to prevent the experience of family homelessness through both programs and systems change. This work is done with families, community partners, and volunteers. People Serving People’s ultimate goal is to build stability and see families thrive.

Located in downtown Minneapolis, People Serving People has a staff of approximately 85 FTE and an operating budget of $10.9M.

MISSION

We exist to see families thrive.

VISION

Healed families. Transformed communities.

SERVICES AND PROGRAMS

CRISIS RESPONSE & EMERGENCY SHELTER

HOUSING

People Serving People has 99 emergency shelter housing units for children and families experiencing homelessness. the units include a bathroom, beds, basic furniture, and a door families can lock behind them to feel safe. Three nutritious meals are served daily in the cafeteria, and diapers and other basic necessities are provided free of charge. After immediate basic needs are met, families are provided access to the following comprehensive Engagement Services to move towards stability.

ADVOCACY

Family Advocates use a strengths-based, client-centered approach while working one-on-one with families to address access to various social services. This approach empowers families on their journey towards stability as it builds supportive relationships and connects families to community resources for permanent housing, financial assistance, legal, medical, dental, and other services. Advocates also work with individual guests to explore employment, assess skills and work history, create resumes and cover letters, search for jobs, prepare for interviews, complete job applications, and connect guests to job training resources.

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

An on-site, licensed, 4-star Parent Aware rated and NECPA nationally accredited program services the youngest guests in three classrooms, providing developmentally appropriate curriculum and related assessments, and focusing on areas of development and kindergarten readiness.

FAMLY ACTIVITIES

Family Fridays bring families together to enjoy activities such as movies, board games, bingo, monthly birthday parties, or other special events.

FINANCIAL FITNESS

Healing centered financial empowerment curriculum with classes such as “Money on my Mind” expose adult guests to financial skills such as budgeting, savings, and credit with the opportunity to match dollars families save while in shelter.

K-12 PROGRAMS

After school and evening programs for youth including one-on-one tutoring, homework assistance, and enrichment activities that promote social, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth.

PARENT ENRICHMENT

This program addresses typical child development parenting resources, behavior management, and other related topics, and connect them with community resources.

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

Ten two-bedroom apartments provide affordable housing to families with multi-level barriers to self-sufficiency. Families can take advantage of many on-site programs and services.

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE CENTER

The Technology Resource Center fosters computer literacy and provides computer access for job and housing searches and personal communication activities, such as email and social media.

PREVENTION

FAMILY PREVENTION PROGRAM

The Family Prevention Program advances People Serving People’s mission by providing support for Hennepin County families to maintain housing stability outside of shelter with the goal of preventing the experience, or reoccurrence, of homelessness. Support for families can include financial assistance, ongoing case management, employment assistance, connecting to community resources, and other services.

CENTER OF EXCELLENCE PRESCHOOL AND LEARNING CENTER

The Preschool & Learning Center at People Serving People’s Center of Excellence provides continuity of services for families leaving shelter and enables People Serving People to connect with families in the community who are seeking high-quality early childhood education. The licensed center has a 4-Star Parent Aware rating from the State of Minnesota and is designated a Strong Beginnings site by Hennepin County. The organization is proud to have low teacher-child ratios and small class sizes.

EQUITY

RACIAL EQUITY

Over 90% of those People Serving People serves are Black, Indigenous and People of Color, communities that are overrepresented among families that experience homelessness.  People Serving People adopts a racial equity lens through which they pay disciplined attention to race and ethnicity while analyzing problems and seeking solutions.  This work is performed externally through issue advocacy and systems change, and internally through skill building in power, control, and comfort-seeking in organizations, which aims to address white supremacy norms.

ISSUE ADVOCACY

The lives and experiences of families are shaped by the interconnected systems with which they interact. Often, these systems create and perpetuate racial, economic and educational disparities, among others. People Serving People engages in issue advocacy and public policy discussions to help inform lawmakers on the barriers the community faces, helping educate the community on issues related to accessible and high-quality childcare, rental assistance, affordable housing, and childhood trauma and family healing.

WHOLE FAMILY SYSTEMS

People Serving People collaborates with partners in community to shift and realign systems to increase access to opportunities for African American and Indigenous children and families with significant racial, economic, health, and other disparities. They do this through a number of pilots, including:

• Fellowship initiative focusing on leadership and advocacy training
• Supportive employment initiative to build stable roots
• Internal capacity building to plant people and grow justice
• Prototyping internal culture shift training to build skills around power, control, and comfort-seeking
• Launching a culturally responsive early education curriculum

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Over 30 community partners work alongside those served, and we move forward with a racial and economic equity lens. People Serving People hosts community gatherings, welcoming partners and colleagues from government agencies, schools, and other social service organizations to share and collaborate on trauma-responsive approaches to its collective work in the community.

POSITION PROFILE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
This position is responsible for providing strategic leadership and ensuring the effective administration of all activities, programs and services of People Serving People, Inc. (PSPI), and People Serving People, Charities (PSPC) in accordance with goals and objectives mutually developed with the Boards of Directors.

The CEO is responsible for providing strategic leadership and ensuring the effective administration of all fundraising activities and services of People Serving People, Charities, in accordance with goals and objectives mutually developed with the Board of Directors.

MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

The CEO is ultimately responsible for overseeing the activities of all of the business functions of People Serving People. A total of approximately 85 professional staff work in the organization. Staff reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer includes Chief Operating Officer, Director of Development, Director of Equity, Director of Finance, and Executive Administrative Coordinator.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assures that the organization is making consistent and timely progress with regard to the implementation of its strategic plan.
• Provides leadership in developing programs, organizational and financial plans with the Boards of Directors and staff, and carries out the plans and policies authorized by the Boards.
• Provides leadership in developing organizational and financial plans with the Boards of Directors and staff, and carries out the plans and policies authorized by the Boards.
• Promotes active and broad participation by staff in all areas of the organization’s work.
• Serves as the organization’s lead champion of racial equity by modeling engagement through a high degree of authenticity, cultural humility, racial equity best practice, and alignment of strategies in fidelity to this core organizational commitment.
• Maintains a working knowledge of significant developments and trends in providing services to children and their families experiencing homelessness.
• Collaborates with the Development Director in setting annual income goals. Drives fundraising strategies and campaigns, to spur the future growth of the organization.
• Models leadership behaviors that lead to a sustainable, productive, professionally competent workforce in an environment respectful of personal well-being, inclusiveness, power sharing, equity, and cultural diversity.
• Encourages staff development and education, and assists program staff in relating their specialized work to the total program of the agency.
• Fosters a climate that attracts, retains, and motivates a top-quality, diverse staff and provides opportunities for advancement.
• Safeguards the fiscal vitality of the organization through monitoring and continuous oversight of budgets and capital assets.
• Works with staff, Finance Committee, and the Boards in preparing the annual budget.
• Ensures that adequate funds are available to enable the organization to carry out its work.
• Promotes the activities of the organization, its programs and goals.
• Establishes and maintains sound working relationships and cooperative arrangements with governmental bodies, foundations, community groups and organizations that impact accomplishing the mission of People Serving People, Inc. as well as People Serving People Charities, Inc.
• Represents the programs and point of view of People Serving People to agencies, organizations, and the general public.
• Evaluates services being provided based on goals and standards, recommends modifications and proposes new programs to meet current and anticipated community needs.
• Supervises development of clear, concise, and measurable agency and management goals and objectives for board review and approval.
• Is tasked with ultimate oversight of the operational effectiveness of the organization.
• Is accountable to the Boards of Directors and keeps them fully informed on the condition of the organization and all significant factors affecting it.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum of 10 years of executive management experience. Bachelors’ degree required, master’s or professional degree preferred.
• Demonstrates inspiring leadership and cultivates trust by leading with authenticity and integrity.
• Experience building and maintaining high performing teams and supporting a culture of staff growth and development.
• Experience in initiating and developing institutional, professional and community partnerships.
• Experience working strategically and collaboratively with a board of directors.
• Ability to foster a positive, collaborative, and equitable work environment; empower others; and share authority.
• Experience in all aspects of development and fundraising for nonprofit organizations, including capital campaigns.
• Experience managing complex financial matters and/or acting in a general management capacity.
• Cultural humility; successful experience leading in a diverse multi-cultural work environment; commitment to personal skill building in power, control, and comfort seeking in organizations.
• Skill and enthusiasm for public engagement and public speaking.
• An understanding of state, local and federal government funding sources and procedures.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Commitment and a passion for the mission of People Serving People.

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Leadership – Able to translate goals into specific assignable tasks and to motivate others. Has the presence and capacity to be People Serving People’s face to the public (partners in the field and advocacy for the organization) while cultivating strong connections internally (staff and guests).

Interpersonal Skills (Relationship Builder)- Is effective at developing and maintaining relationships in authentic and genuine manner and centers the dignity of and strength of staff and families served by PSP. Maintains confidentiality; listens to others without interrupting; remains open to others’ ideas and tries new things.

Communication – Listens and gets clarification; responds well to questions; speaks clearly, effectively and persuasively in positive or negative situations. Writes clearly and informatively. Able to tailor communication style to the needs of different audiences.

Team Builder – Demonstrates a commitment to principles of collaborative leadership. Balances team and individual responsibilities; gives and welcomes feedback; contributes to building a positive team spirit; puts success of team above own interests; supports everyone’s efforts to succeed. Contributes to building a positive team spirit; shares expertise with and mentors others.

Decision Making – Able to identify and prioritize issues which affect agency needs, to evaluate alternatives based on gains and risks of each and to act decisively.

Operates with Integrity and Ethics – Treats people with respect; inspires the trust of others through words and actions; works with integrity and ethically; upholds organizational values.

Holistic and People Centered – Maintains self-awareness about personal wellbeing and practices self-care to prevent burnout. Demonstrates an understanding of similar needs amongst staff as well as guests in the trauma informed work and setting of the PSP community.

Budgeting – Budget development and financial control, staff management and development, strategic planning and policy making, as well as strong interpersonal and communication skills are essential.

Program Management – Able to manage programs in a productive manner, implementing the policies and philosophy of People Serving People, Inc.

Technical Skills – Assesses own strengths and weaknesses; pursues training and development opportunities; strives to continuously build knowledge and skills; shares expertise with others.

Fundraising – Able to build repertoire and relationships with individual and institutional philanthropic partners. Comfortable soliciting philanthropic support from prospective donors.

Dependability – Responds to, and forwards directives, from the Board; takes responsibility for own actions; keeps commitments; commits to long hours of work when necessary to reach goals. Completes tasks on time or notifies appropriate person with an alternate plan.

Analytical – Synthesizes complex or diverse information; collects and researches data; uses intuition and experience to complement data.

Planning/Organizing – Prioritizes and plans work activities; uses time efficiently. Completes administrative tasks correctly and on time. Attuned to personal and organizational capacity and weighs them when setting direction.

Adaptability – Able to adapt to changes in the work environment. Manages competing demands. Changes approach or method to best fit the situation. Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.

Quality – Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure quality.

Problem Solving – Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; gathers and analyzes information skillfully.

Project Management – Communicates changes and progress; completes projects on time and on-or-under budget.

Compassionate Accountability – Balances compassion for others with accountability for performance.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
The salary range for this position is $190,000-$220,000. Compensation includes participation in the comprehensive benefits plan.

PEOPLE SERVING PEOPLE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

People Serving People is an equal opportunity employer. Opportunities for employment are available to all persons, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, marital status or status with regard to public assistance. People Serving People’s facilities are accessible. Individuals who have experienced homelessness are encouraged to apply.

TO APPLY

Inquiries may be directed to Lars Leafblad, lars@ballingerleafblad.com

Applications will be accepted until August 25, 2023 or until the position has been filled, which may be earlier. There will be an immediate and ongoing review of candidates, so we encourage and appreciate early applications. All inquiries will remain confidential.