Proposal: REDF Brain and Behavioral Science Pilot:

Background and Rationale for Request:

Over the last year, Women’s Bean Project has initiated a deep-dive look at our program approach, outcomes and challenges. This effort coincided with the arrival of a new Director of Program Operations and began with a thorough review and documentation of current program principles and practices. At the same time, the staff at WBP has attempted to manage a complex and rapidly changing external environment in Denver that has led to fewer women successfully completing the program, and has forced us to re-think our assumptions about our program services, the women we hire and the best role for WBP in the process of supporting lasting change for our participants.

With Denver’s unemployment rate at an extremely low level (2%), we have recently experienced a shift in the program applicants to the Bean Project. Prior to 2016 applicants were chronically unemployed and impoverished; i.e., unstable from an employment and income standpoint, but had the beginnings of stability in other areas of their lives, such as sobriety and housing. Today more women apply to WBP who are actively homeless, in current domestic violence situations (often concurrently), and whose sobriety is recent and tenuous.

With the layered and increasingly complex challenges faced by our participants, we are finding that our current approach of case management combined with supportive and skill-oriented programming is often not sufficient to move our participants toward lasting change. The recent breakthroughs in brain science illuminating the impact of long term poverty and trauma on executive functioning help us to understand where our current approach will likely continue to fall short. We believe that a brain science informed model of coaching that actively teaches and supports growth in problem solving, decision making, goal setting and daily prioritization of challenges holds tremendous promise for our women. What’s more, while our staff is small, we may be extremely well-positioned to employ this model with our existing 1:1 mentoring program already in existence.

To this end, Women’s Bean Project is requesting support from REDF to help us build our knowledge and capacity through a pilot program and begin the shift from case management to a scaffolded coaching approach utilizing Empath’s Mobility Mentoring framework.

Current Capacity and WBP Initial Steps to Increasing our Knowledge and Capacity:

WBP staff has participated in REDF’s multiple webinars in 2017 introducing interventions grounded in Brain Science Research. Exposure through these webinars to key concepts of coaching and motivational interviewing encouraged our program staff to begin studying motivational interviewing techniques through online video trainings and by reading the fundamental text Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick.

Our initial exposure to these approaches and our subsequent conversations have led WBP leadership to take steps towards shifting some of our organizational culture and practices. For example we are rethinking our morning meeting by considering adjustments to the frequency, content and structure. We have begun looking for ways to encourage more participation, influence, leadership and agency among the participants throughout their time with us and we are creating opportunities for learning and professional development across our staff. We have found a local expert practitioner and trainer in motivational interviewing and have planned a multi- session introduction and basic training in the concepts and techniques of motivational interviewing for WBP’s full staff, with additional training for the program staff and social work interns. This training is already scheduled to take place in January, 2018.

We are also planning to utilize staff meeting time to grow awareness and understanding of the physiological impact of long-term poverty and trauma on executive function and will introduce concepts and practices of a trauma informed environment. Through these conversations and ongoing staff learning opportunities, we hope to begin to create awareness that will lead to an overall cultural shift and sensitivity among our staff. Our intention is that these conversations will be the first step in creating a trauma informed safe and nurturing environment for all of program participants.

Challenge and Opportunity - Supporting Stronger Goal Setting and Attainment When women arrive at Women’s Bean Project they have typically experienced a lifetime of poverty, trauma and hardship that has taken an incredible toll on them and their families. They have stories of tremendous loss and challenge that would bring any of us to our knees. The multiple layers of obstacles they face make it incredibly difficult, despite their clear determination and desire, to tease apart the problems and find a clear path forward, addressing one obstacle, one goal at a time. Over and over again, w e see that their histories of scarcity have also depleted or denied them the opportunity to develop executive function skills that would help them to meet life’s challenges. Making decisions today that support a brighter future one to two years from now is a lot to ask when she has experienced no example of long term reward. Immediate challenges so often become overwhelming and time and again we see our women making a short-term choice that contradicts their long-term goals and dreams. EMPATH’s individualized coaching model, which relies on a true partnership between participant and mentor could hold promise for our women. Our hope is that the framework of the “Bridge to Self Sufficiency” could provide WBP staff, mentors and participants with a structure and pathway that supports clear and deliberate goal setting building on a participant’s Executive Functioning strengths. Using the frameworks five pillars: (1) family stability; (2) well-being; (3) education and training; (4) financial management; and (5) employment and career management, we would learn to use the “Bridge” to help participants assess their current circumstances and to set goals for the future. Women’s Bean Project staff and mentors would learn to employ coaching techniques to help individuals achieve their goals. Pilot Idea and Timeline: WBP would like to invest in this work and overall program re-design by dedicating the time and energy of the Director of Program Operations to this task. Utilizing the REDF Incentive Funding we intend to hire a contractual staffer to take on many of the daily program operations and case management tasks so that Pam can invest her time in training, program design and implementation strategies. WBP would like to utilize the additional funds from REDF to support the cost of training of the current staff as well as the support of an EMPATH consultant in the design and launch of a program re-design integrating and employing the EMPATH Mobility Mentoring model into our current practice. We would begin this work with intensive training and development of key program staff and the simultaneous introduction of these concepts to the full staff in January, 2018. The work would continue with program redesign efforts and implementation. Timeline: January 2018- Motivational Interview training for program staff and introduction to the concepts and techniques for full staff at Women’s Bean Project January 17th and 18th – Pam Brier, WBP Director of Program Operations and Erin Eggland, Career Advisor and Mentor Coordinator will attend Empath’s tier two Mobility Mentoring® Essentials Training in Boston. February 2018- Introduction to trauma informed principles for full staff presented by partner from DU School of Social Work and Director of Program Operations. February-April -Program redesign work to integrate Mobility Mentoring approach with Women’s Bean Project program and mentor design. Spring 2018- Train the Trainer efforts begin to introduce mentors to techniques and approach of Mobility Mentoring. June 2018- Initiate new Mobility Mentoring coaching model with new cohorts, with a goal to bring model to full implementation by end of 2018. Key Partnerships in the Pilot Women’s Bean Project is excited to have Mile High Workshop as a peer learning partner as we undertake our program redesign and pilot. In addition to being neighbors in Denver, our programs share many similarities in terms of the transitional employment goals, timeline, structure, and challenges. Mile High has already taken some initial steps to adapt EMPATH’s “Bridge to Self Sufficiency” in their case management approach. We discovered during the REDF retreat that we were both interested in employing the EMPATH model fully to better support our participants. As a result we reached out to EMPATH together. EMPATH is excited to expand their work in Denver and to include two social enterprise organizations in their portfolio. Mile High and Women’s Bean Project have shared program resources in the past and have are excited to continue sharing ideas, best practices and offering peer support as we manage similar challenges in our daily work with our participants. We believe we can achieve some cost efficiencies through resource sharing and WBP has already invited Mile High to participate in our onsite motivational interviewing staff training. We hope that our shared experiences can create greater learning for both organizations. Leadership and Staffing: With the full support and investment of Tamra Ryan, WBP’s CEO, the primary staff members involved in the project will be Women’s Bean Project’s program team which includes Pam Brier, Director of Program Operations and Erin Eggland, Career Advisor and Mentor Coordinator. Both will attend the Empath Mobility Mentoring Training in Boston in January and will have additional training locally to support motivational interviewing and trauma informed care skill development. We anticipate that as part of the program re-design WBP mentors and social work interns will play an important role in the mobility mentoring model delivery. We hope to engage Empath staff in assisting in the design orientation and training of the mentors and interns. Pam will take the lead on the program redesign work and will shift her daily activities accordingly to accommodate this change in focus. To allow for this reallocation of her time Women’s Bean Project would like to use the flexible funding award from REDF to hire a contract social worker to fill in for Pam in the daily program operation responsibilities. Additionally, an understanding and appreciation of the rationale and research behind brain science informed practice will be important organization wide if we are to have buy in and full support of a new approach to program delivery at Women’s Bean Project. To this end, Tamra Ryan, WBP’s CEO, will take the lead in demonstrating her support and buy in by providing opportunities for engagement of the full staff to make this shift in our service delivery. The full staff will receive education and training around Trauma Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing and the framework for Mobility Mentoring. We have already identified a local Motivational Interviewing Consultant who will run a two day workshop for the full staff in January and a volunteer from DU’s school of social work who along with Pam will offer a trauma informed care workshop for the full staff and mentors. Definition of Success: A successful pilot project will include the redesign, documentation and launch of a new program model at Women’s Bean Project which incorporates the EMPATH model and integrates many aspects of a trauma informed environment into daily practice. Ultimate success will show tangible change in terms of a trauma sensitive environment and approach at Women’s Bean Project and demonstrated improvement in goal setting, program completion and long term goal attainment and stability for our participants. As a tier two organization in EMPATH’s portfolio we will track our work utilizing Mobility Mentoring and share participant data and goal attainment progress. Concurrent Program Discovery Process While we are looking into better addressing participant needs through a lens of coaching and goal setting rather than traditional case management, we are also reflecting on other programmatic assumptions and looking for answers about recent challenges. Our program redesign and learning process with the pilot will influence the way we resolve these questions.

One area requiring further explanation is a recent change in referral patterns to the organization. We believe that the strong local economy, low unemployment rate and dearth of affordable housing are contributing factors to the increased fragility of the participants in our program. However, we have also observed that some of our historically strong participant referral sources, such as halfway houses and recovery programs are sending fewer women our way. Often women from these referral sources arrived with more external structure and support in terms of housing and sobriety that allowed them the opportunity to focus on goals related to employment while they were with WBP.

We are uncertain what is causing the decline in referrals from the traditional sources and we are reluctant to attribute the entire shift to environmental factors. To the extent that these changes in referrals are due to perceptions of Women’s Bean Project in the community, we would like to address those perceptions proactively. To this end, we have submitted a proposal to the Barton Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise to enlist a group of graduate fellows who will conduct research for us within our community. By interviewing program participant referral sources, gathering information about any shifts in clientele they are also witnessing, along with their perception of WBP, we anticipate gathering information that will be useful in the program redesign. Focus groups with program participants and clients from the referral sources may also be incorporated. Informed by this research, the team will develop a renewed referral strategy, including messaging, communication tools and outreach techniques for future program participant referrals. If awarded this support, Women’s Bean Project will have a greater understanding of the challenges we face and some concrete steps and strategies to address them.

WBP is also questioning our historic practices and assumptions in other key areas and to ensure that we are best meeting the changing environment and the needs of our participants.

Questions and areas for further exploration include:

1. Who are we best able to serve? Should we narrow our target population (focus on re- entry) to ensure we are recruiting those who we are best able to help? 2. What relationships do we need to develop to better recruit this population? 3. What changes in organizational culture need to take place to make sure we are all unified in our mission, priorities and approach? 4. What changes in staffing and structure might be needed to make these programmatic changes?