Five Questions: Francine Pratt

Francine Pratt’s first day as executive director for Isabel’s House was March 15, but her new role was announced a week earlier at the nonprofit’s largest annual fundraiser, Oscar Night America. Pratt takes over for Gretchen Gambon, who is now director of development at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks. Most recently, Pratt was project director for Reston, Va.-based Maximus, a government services company. She takes over a Junior League of Springfield effort that served 300 children on a $680,000 budget in 2009.

Q: How long have you lived in Springfield?
A: Officially, I moved here in November 2007, but the company that I was working with, I actually worked in seven different states and so I was really home on the weekends, maybe a week during the month.

Q: You’ve owned a few businesses, including a restaurant. What type of cuisine did you specialize in?
A: I catered for different musicians, for different artists, so a lot of times you were catering based on what their nutritionists had in mind for them. I catered for Kenny G, who’s a macrobiotic vegetarian, which means he only eats grains and nuts. I’ve catered for Patti LaBelle, and then I’ve catered for several rap artists. For the catering it really depended on their needs. … The restaurant was a soul food restaurant. People used to say it was soul food with flair because I knew how to cook gourmet.

Q: Is a gourmet soul food restaurant in Springfield’s future?
A: My husband keeps telling me, “You need to start it up again.” … I’ve said I’ll do it for fun and throw a lot of parties. … My focus is on (Isabel’s House’s) children right now. I was a single parent for 14 years and did not have a support group. And when I look at what Isabel’s House has and I think, “Gosh, if I had that, how much easier my life would have been.” Every summer, I would drive seven hours down to southern California from northern California to leave my kids with their grandmother for two weeks, just so I could have a break because their father wasn’t in the picture at all. I just think what a wonderful benefit that would have been if I’d had something like that.

Q: What are the challenges you hope to overcome at Isabel’s House and what is your plan?
A: One of the challenges is outreaching to the people that need our help the most. If you were to tell someone that they were in a crisis, they may not even recognize that. They may think, “I’m not in a crisis, I’m just struggling,” not realizing that if they don’t have a support system around to help them, there is a support system to help them with Isabel’s House. …
Understanding this is the Bible belt and there are so many churches here, and most people feel most comfortable in their community, one of the efforts will be to work with the churches and actually see if they will let us come to church. It’s one thing to hand out flyers. But to be able to speak to people or have a booth set up outside of church, where people can feel comfortable in a private setting to come and say, “What about this situation?” That’s one of the key areas that we want to start. It has to be much more hands on now that it’s ongoing. It’s the same thing with the schools and with the hospitals. Where people go, where they feel comfortable, that’s where we need to be.

Q: Will you continue as president of the Springfield chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?
A: Yes, they asked me to continue in that capacity. … I’m glad I’m able to do that because one of the challenges I’ve had as the new president of the NAACP is helping the community to understand that we’re here for any ethnic background, any culture, any person.