Executive Director of Alexandria’s Child & Family Network Centers
Lissette Bishins is a child of hardworking immigrants. Born in the United States, she stayed home with her abuela while her parents went to work. It wasn’t until kindergarten that she learned to speak English. But it wasn’t this lot in life that led her down the career path of the nonprofit world, looking for ways to bring much-needed services to at-risk children; it was her family’s “intrinsic value of giving back.” We spoke with the new director of Alexandria’s Child & Family Network Centers, a nonprofit that provides free preschool and social services to children in need, about her new position and how she and the organization are “actively working at prevention and really changing the trajectory of someone’s life.”
You’ve only been in the job for nine days, but what goals do you have for 2015?
Sustainability. We’ve been around for 30 years, which is amazing when we see the amount of faces and families we’ve touched. We’re in this beautiful new headquarters building with two classrooms; the other classrooms are all in the community. Right around where our families are is where we want to be. … Some preschools are in garden apartments where the kids come downstairs from their apartment to their classroom. We are that localized. … I always say “no margin, no mission,” so our biggest goal is sustainability to pay off our building, making sure we have money in the bank so we can take the 140 kids we have on the waitlist, and the thousands more we see that need our services, and be able to serve them. In order to grow, and in order to serve, you’ve got to grow smartly.
How many do you serve now?
We have 175 children and 140 on a waitlist. And so many more—truly thousands—that we have identified as needing services.
Coming from Carpenter’s Shelter, what do you see as the similarities and differences?
The level of poverty is the most prevalent. When I started at Carpenter’s Shelter, the families had more in common. Today, because homeless services have really evolved, you’re seeing a different population coming into the shelter—mental illness, substance abuse, real emergency services. The thing that rings true is a cycle of poverty, a cycle of low-wage jobs, a cycle of a lack of education getting into a better job, all living in a very expensive area. While most of our families [at CFNC] are not homeless, all of the families we serve are at risk just because of where they live and where they’re at on the poverty scale.
Are the majority immigrants?
It’s a very large piece of our population but not 100 percent. It’s the working poor with a language barrier living in an expensive area. You also see in the children that they haven’t been to preschool. Most of these working parents can’t afford to send them, so our preschool is free. They haven’t been exposed to a classroom. If they reach school and haven’t attended CFNC, they’re behind the curve. They haven’t gained their English skills. They haven’t learned their ABCs, their colors and their number skills that so many students start kindergarten with.
What was your personal drive for getting into this career path?
It was intrinsic in my family life to give back. I grew up serving at a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving because my father was grateful for this country to take him in. He was a political prisoner and made his way to the states on a boat with 13 men. He always wanted to give back to this country. It immediately fed this value that I grew up with, that you give back.
What legacy do you want to leave?
That we’re solvent. That we’ve got money in the bank and we’re responding to the needs in each and every community. We’re an example of not just [providing] education for the students but [bringing] the services to the mom and dad so they are involved in their child’s education. My hope is we create that example and help other areas in need replicate it.
Living in an affluent area, is it harder to get the residents to understand that there are still those in need?
No, actually. When I span from the last eight years I’ve been in Alexandria City, as a general rule, Alexandria is [one of] the most involved, most giving communities I’ve worked in. There is a lot of affluence here, but the level of involvement and giving back and volunteerism … we had 1,000 volunteers at the shelter. It was insane. —Lynn Norusis
(March 2015)