Supervisors Send $200K for Families Left Out by Nonprofit’s Collapse

BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com

Loudoun County supervisors have reallocated more than $200,000 to support families cut off by the abrupt closure of the nonprofit INMED Partnerships for Children, and a $102,453 grant awarded to INMED before it closed.

INMED formerly offered a range of programs from the Loudoun implementation of the nationwide Healthy Families early childhood program, to after-school support, tutoring, financial literacy and resources like diapers and clothing. It closed abruptly on June 7, with the staff and the families it served given only two days’ notice.

Supervisors on Wednesday voted to reallocate $200,000 from the ARPA Child Care Fee Reduction Program to Northern Virginia Family Service, to coordinate summer camps for up to 100 INMEDserved families.

Northern Virginia Family Service operates the Healthy Families program elsewhere across Northern Virginia, and since INMED’s closure has contracted four former INMED staffers with funding from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and 100WomenStrong, a fund of the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties. The four “transition navigators” will work with former INMED families to evaluate their needs and help with planning their futures, according to Northern Virginia Family Service.

“To say we were shocked and sad doesn’t just explain our feelings,” former INMED youth mentor and new transition navigator Andres Uribe said. “Every day we loved our job, and met and helped the families who depend on us. For weeks I have been sad and angry, but more than that, determined to make a difference. My team of staff never knew or had anything to do with the ending, and we only cared about the families. Over the last week, it has been heartwarming to see how many organizations gathered around to us to support us.”

“These are staff members that the INMED families have trusted and have developed a relationship with them,” Women Giving Back Executive Director and Loudoun Human Services Network Vice Chair Nicole Morris said. “So for

Northern Virginia Family Service to take on INMED is a great impact to the Sterling and Leesburg families that they’ve been supporting all these years.”

After INMED’s closure, the Community Foundation and Loudoun Human Services Network worked to rally nonprofits and philanthropists to bring those transition navigators to Northern Virginia Family Service. They also organized a fair attended by more than 130 families connecting them to other community resources and providing necessities like diapers, clothing, and fresh produce.

Nonprofit leaders also came to supervisors’ meeting Wednesday to urge them to reallocate that $200,000.

“What happened with the suddenness of INMED’s closure and the impact it had on the families they served is a sad and truly unfortunate event in our community,” Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties President and CEO Nicole Acosta told supervisors. “But if anything positive came out of this experience, it demonstrated the creativity, nimbleness and collaborative spirit of our nonprofit community, to make sure that we provide for those in need.”

Supervisors voted 8-0-1, with Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) absent.

“We rely on our school system instead of quality childcare,” Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-At Large) said. “We patch it together with our families. We have a lot of women who aren’t in the workforce because they don’t have affordable quality, reliable childcare. So, it is an issue that hopefully we are all now well aware of.”

“This closure really highlighted the need for us to have a bigger conversation regarding the gaps for childcare and services for youth in our community, and we look forward to working on that together,” Acosta said. “And second, I’m proud to live and work in a county where our nonprofits, government agencies and philanthropy all come together when there’s a need for the families in our community.”

“No one sector can fully address the childcare issue, but by working together in a collaborative, multi-sector approach, non-profits, the government and the private sector, we can make a difference for the families in Loudoun this summer and

INMED continues on page 9