MICHAEL DISANDRO, senior vice president and team leader of New England commercial banking for Wells Fargo Bank N.A., was recently named chairman of the Children’s Friend board of directors. DiSandro has been a board member for 14 years and succeeds William J. Allen as chairman, slated to serve a three-year term. Children’s Friend is a Providence-based nonprofit offering healthy development for vulnerable children in Rhode Island.
What initially drew you to wanting to help Children’s Friend? I was attracted to the history and mission. Children’s Friend began in 1834 as a home for abused children and has evolved into an innovative human-service agency. The health and well-being of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable children and their families is at the core of its mission and I felt compelled to help.
What initiatives have you helped create for Children’s Friend during your time on the board? My business expertise has come to bear as one of the authors of a new strategic plan for the organization. That document reestablished the agency’s mission, principles and strategic priorities while providing measurement tools to gauge the effectiveness of agency programs and services. Of all of my board contributions, I am most proud of being involved in the decision to pursue Head Start grants for Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. By securing these federal dollars, we have magnified our impact on these underserved communities by adding two new programs and increasing the number of children and families that we serve by over 50%.
What do you feel is still needed in order to help vulnerable children around Rhode Island? Social-service agencies that serve vulnerable children and families here in Rhode Island need to collaborate more frequently and advocate more effectively. There is too much redundancy and a united lobby doesn’t exist. We need to work together so that the voices of vulnerable children and their families can be heard at the state and federal levels.
What are your plans for the organization as board chairman? We need more collaboration with complementary agencies, stronger relationships with elected officials and we need to be sure that new and expanded programs are consistent with our strategic priorities. Our new Center of Excellence is a great example of how that strategy can work. Full-day pre-K schooling is now available for 120 kids in the West End because we secured congressional assistance, obtained a Head Start grant, fundraised and then transformed an abandoned building into classrooms and community meeting spaces with an accessible playground. In year one, we project that 500 low-income individuals and 50 moderate-income families will have accessed child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, mental health services and other programs.
