About

History

Staff

Board

History of Focus Points

1994: Patti and Terry Lohman, long-time residents of Five Points, are recruited by the principal of Ebert Elementary to be community stakeholders in starting a family resource center.

Spring 1995: A grant application is written and accepted, bylaws are written and incorporated, and the Board of Directors is formed and hires the first Executive Director, who sets up office in Ebert Elementary.  JFM Foundation serves as fiscal agent for Focus Points.

1995 – 1996: Focus Points serves primarily African-American single moms living in East Village near Ebert Elementary. The majority of the staff and board members are African-American. The State Board of the Colorado Department of Human Services provides a yearly operating fund of $75,000.

Late summer 1996: The Executive Director leaves suddenly and the board asks Terry Lohman to sit in on an interim basis while the board searches for a new Executive Director. Terry discovers that Focus Points is no longer welcome at Ebert Elementary, is in debt and has no credibility in the neighborhood. The board asks Terry to continue because Focus Points cannot afford to hire a permanent Executive Director. Focus Points reaches out to the Latino population, the fastest-growing in Five Points.

Summer 1997: Focus Points moves to Central Baptist Church and stays for one year. Focus Points hires its first Adult Education Coordinator, Robin Waterman, to design and offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at Sacred Heart Church. Focus Points hires bilingual women to help in the office. Focus Points receives a two-year Violence Prevention Initiative grant from The Colorado Trust, working with Ed Guajardo Lucero.

1998: In collaboration with MSCD Family Center at Quigg Newton, Focus Points obtains a planning grant for an Even Start program. Robin Waterman and Blanca Mata visit 12 HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) families in a prototype effort. Focus Points moves to the Child Opportunity Program (COP) building at 2500 Curtis Street. The first annual Peace in the Streets summer festival is held in Mestizo-Curtis Park.

Spring 1999: Focus Points and MSCD receive a four-year Even Start grant. Focus Points hires Imelda Ortega and Eva Herrera as its first home educators (HE) and Annie Merz as the HIPPY Coordinator.

2000: Blanca Mata leaves Quigg Newton and joins Focus Points as a VISTA volunteer. Focus Points hires Ellen Polsky as the Adult Education Coordinator and Lisa Saldaña as the HIPPY Coordinator. Using the family-literacy model, Focus Points offers adult education, parenting and ECE through HIPPY and onsite at COP. Programming is very attractive to young, low-income, Spanish-speaking families and Focus Points grows rapidly.

2000 to Present: Focus Points enters into a positive relationship with the Urban Servant Corps.

2001: Blanca Mata becomes the HIPPY/PAT Coordinator. Eva Herrera leaves. Focus Points is supporting a quickly developing adult education program through two grants from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and one from Western Union. In addition, the home education program (PAT and HIPPY) grows enormously, and Focus Points struggles to open childcare in the former Mile High Even Start classroom in support of Even Start and other onsite services. Because of the significant growth in the program, there is significant turnover in the home education staff.

2000 – 2002: Focus Points capitalizes on its relevant, successful services to obtain grant awards from Rose, Buell, Colorado Children’s Trust Fund, JFM, Anschutz, Bloom and other foundations. State support for family centers has ended and the family centers form an association and hire Executive Director Bill Michaels, whose principal responsibility is to raise money for the association and individual family resource centers.

2002: Imelda Ortega leaves. The HE staff now consists of seven women and one man. Ellen Polsky leaves and Patricia Lew-Rassuli becomes the new Adult Education Coordinator. Focus Points obtains a second award from The Colorado Trust, the Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative (SIRFI). This award is a three-year relationship that brings significant technical assistance, including Patsy Roybal and Richard Garcia of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC), as project consultants. Another significant award, also involving technical assistance, is a two-year Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) award. Through CSPC, Focus Points offers Los Padres/Las Madres to extremely receptive families. Focus Points turns down a second four-year award from Even Start because accepting the grant would have caused the organization to change its structure and principles, including those concerning who is hired and what credentials are relevant.

2003: Focus Points hires a father to conduct home visits and once again offers Los Padres/Las Madres curricula. Patricia Lew-Rassuli leaves and Mike Meyer becomes the new Adult Education Coordinator. With the help of CSPC, Focus Points hosts onsite ECE classes through the Community College of Denver. Maria Minjares and Elvira Rivera take on leadership roles in the PAT program and Ana Lilia Reyes offers significant leadership in the ECE.

2004 and 2005: Terry Lohman, leaves at the end of 2004 after nine years as the Executive Director of Focus Points. Cynthia Gallegos is hired as the new Executive Director. Mike Meyer leaves in March 2005 and Jolene Goerend becomes the new Adult Education Director. The adult education department receives expansion funds from CDE, allowing it to collaborate with additional sites to provide more ESL classes in northeast Denver. The adult education programs now provide services to over 800 adults each year. The PAT, HIPPY and ECE programs continue to thrive, providing Early Childhood Education to over 200 children from birth to five years of age.

2006: Due to overwhelming demand, Focus Points is now providing more than thirty ESL classes at ten sites in the metro Denver area. AmeriCorps member Vanessa Keener received the state of Colorado Home Educator of the Year award. In addition, Focus Points received a “Stellar” status award from the National HIPPY USA’s program accreditation. Staff members travel to Washington, DC and have a chance to visit with Ken Salazar, John Salazar and Diana DeGette. Carla Castillo is hired as a full-time assistant for the Adult Education program. An active participant advisory board assists with fundraising activities and hosts the First Annual Family Dance in January. Blanca Mata leaves in April and Crystal Muñoz is hired to coordinate the PAT/HIPPY program in August.

2007:  Focus Points moves into the Phillips Center facility. A full-time Partner-Up Coordinator is hired to provide important wrap-around services to families including nutrition, healthy relationships and mental health classes. The Participant Advisory Board changes their name to FEE (Familias Enfocadas al Exito/Families Focused on Success) and hosts the Second Annual Family Dance at Centro San Juan Diego. Focus Points’ Board of Directors and staff attend a strategic planning meeting to prioritize action items for the next three years. Through additional funding from CDE, Open Book Literacy merges with Focus Points in order to continue to provide high-quality literacy programming to adults in the metro Denver area. Brooke Wagenseller is hired as Open Book’s ABE Coordinator. Focus Points hires Stuart Steers as the Grant Writer and Alejandra Lopez as the full-time Office Manager.

2008: Focus Points is awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Social Responsibility Award as the 2008 Nonprofit of the Year. Focus Points is chosen as the project of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Denver program. Focus Points’ home educator Elvira Rivera is honored as the National PAT Home Educator of the Year at the PAT national convention in St. Louis, Missouri. The Open Book program begins including pre-GED classes in its curriculum. Enrollment increases and relationships with students and other organizations expand and grow.

2009: As part of the 2007-2010 Strategic Plan, Focus Points increased salaries for all management staff to the 50% percentile as reflected in the 2006 Colorado Nonprofit Association Salary and Benefits survey. Focus Points plans to unveil a new logo and tagline created by the 2009 Leadership Denver class. Funding from the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado will launch a website for Focus Points. A special fundraising event  is set to take place in April of 2009. Focus Points receives a major grant to expand the PAT program to be more inclusive of first-time fathers. This Responsible Fatherhood program is part of a national Circle of Parents/Partners for Kids initiative to find new ways to help low-income fathers stay involved in their children's lives.

With the support of the Colorado Health Foundation via the Family Resource Center Association, Focus Points has launched a major new initiative to help low-income families access the health care system. Focus Points is now working directly with dozens of families to locate public and private health insurance programs available to them, including the CHP+ program for children. Focus Points will also host the 9 Health Fair later this spring, giving families access to important health screenings.