The Hitchcock Center for Women: A Stakeholder Based Model for Transformational Outcomes

Proposed to Hitchcock a month ago and Open Roads Conference just a week ago - by Kade Social Ventures  (to assist realneo)

Introduction

This short-form proposal details the basic pieces to help achieve great outcomes for Hitchcock Center and all its stakeholders. The pieces include facilitated forums to induce a culture shift toward loving, serving behavior, a state-of-the-art, therapeutic and productive Memorial garden system [1], a value-added products facility, and inclusion of ongoing support mechanisms for residents of the center long after the six month term currently used as the key metric for success of the Center.

I’ve recently had the distinct pleasure of meeting Sherry through my colleague and associate Vernon Sweatte. Her story, having been one of those residing within your halls and since completing your hallmark program and achieving remarkable things - now as Special Assistant to the Mayor, and now a member of the Center’s Board of Directors, is inspiring and uplifting. As with correctional facilities, there is no match for having been one of those residing within the facility itself and experiencing all the programs afforded them have to offer. Not only is her insight and experience invaluable in helping bring strategic success and new opportunity to the Center, but as part of this Systems Theory Framework, she could play a tremendous role as a leader and mentor to the women going through their own personal transformations at the Center.

Step One: Culture Shift

So imagine the center as one system. The goal would be to energize and engage all the members of the center to connect and bond with one another and create a more loving and serving culture in the process. There may already be a good foundation for this at the center, but to move the center more in this direction, I recommend a facilitated forum – a workshop where ALL stakeholders of this system:

Staff, Security, Patients, Family of Patients, Alumni,  Volunteers, and Sponsors, for example would all be the stakeholders involved at Hitchcock – we want to create new opportunities and a better quality of life for all the Center’s stakeholders. All would be included in the forum, which would employ the very best of cutting edge, positive change methodologies: Gestalt, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, and World Café. This forum would be a chance for all the stakeholders listed above to air their authentic feelings about life in the Center, stories of success from those who have graduated out of the Center, and building on this positive core to reach new co-created opportunities that might not have been thought possible before. The end outcomes are actually derived by the process itself – but a physical outcome of action plans and commitments will ensure accountability on the part of all participant stakeholders. Ultimately we want to create a shared vision and stewardship of this collaborative culture created so everyone is informed about what is happening and why.

 

Step Two:  Productive and Therapeutic Garden and Building Design and Implementation

There are several cutting edge Therapeutic Gardens [2] in existence in the world, and we’ve been researching some of the best of these. Interestingly enough – two of the world’s leading centers for therapeutic garden design and design implementation are here in Ohio – in Columbus and Cincinnati.

Another excellent resource we have tapped into is the ASLA – American Association of Landscape Architects. This thought center is on the cutting edge of therapeutic garden designs for Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the Disabled, the mentally ill (i.e. dementia), and more specific to Hitchcock – the Chemically Dependent. But in the spirit of employing and engaging local leaders in the field we have recruited local foods guru Maurice Small as a key advisor and consultant to support our cause. Maurice helps to grow and distribute organic quality foods to our local businesses and through City Fresh – to the disadvantaged and poor in the form of affordable food packages (shares). For actual details of implementation and budget construction we need the following key pieces of information

 

 

 

 

Exact acreage available for growing and cultivating

Access to these locations for surveying and documentation purposes (photos, video):

Locations for value-added product creation

Locations for green design consulting on the facility

Locations for diverse growth styles – vertical farming , spin farming, aquaculture

Time and Access for soil and water quality testing – and alternatives (i.e. raised beds)

Assessment of the Water use plan currently used by Hitchcock – implementing Rain Water Barrels to reduce water bills

Assessment of the detailed schedule of and for the Center – determining how rotations will be filled to match optimal planting, tending, and cultivating times with Stakeholder availability.

Qualitative interviews of the key stakeholders involved.

The current Cost Structure for the Center – financials related to supply acquisition for all foods currently, and shifts to local production and vocational / therapeutic training to mitigate costs.

Roof and Building Structural details to determine if Green Roof and Energy Efficient Design are a good fit.

Exact list of key strategic partners of the Center – to determine new value partners and map the existing ones of the Center - these relationships should be cultivated for fundraising and event planning opportunities.

Organizational Chart of the Center, including Board, Trustees, etc – to understand infrastructure

Identification of the lowest cost providers and suppliers locally for

Fruit Trees

Mushrooms (Outdoor or Indoor Options) [3]

Aquaculture (If Pond available – or Indoor) [4]

Herbals - for both added value foods and medicinal / therapeutic use

Fermented forms of value added vegetation [5]- mead, tempeh, Kombucha, saurkraut

Other high value produce, and produce most needed by Center

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

After this information is collected a full proposal will be drawn up, including sources and uses of funds, exact budget, and detailed action steps for each of the above. There is a unique opportunity to generate wealth to all parties involved, in the form of a win to the nth power.  The wins include :  workforce development opportunity, environmental benefit, stakeholder connectedness, value-added vegetation entrepreneurship, intergenerational and diversity outcomes, educational outcomes, and of course, nutritional and therapeutic benefit to the residents of these facilities that serve the underprivileged.  Keep in mind that stimulus and/or grantmade dollars should flow to such a program from multiple spheres.

Those spheres fit the holistic quality of life enhancement framework that KSV employs as its core methodological approach [6]:  iteratively addressing issues of Arts, Education, Environment,  Economy, Health, and Technology, around a collaborative framework [7] that builds synergy within and between these spheres.  Stakeholders and Funders alike can be drawn to any of these spheres, or combinations of these, from all sectors of the civic space.  This magnifies the funding streams by a factor of Six.

Here we present a unique vision to transform correctional facilities of all types, VA hospitals, Centers for the disabled, the elderly, and so forth so new vocational opportunities are created to replace the level of crime and delinquency prevailing in this community. For this project , we would tailor our approach and design to best treat all these various illnesses at the source of many addictions.

 

 

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