1. Project Name: Build. Develop. Empower.
Project Lead: Charlie Wang and Sam Randall
Project Team Members (List individuals and/or groups): Charlie Wang, JHU
student; Sam Randall, JHU student
Summary:
Imagine training, resources, and opportunities built and integrated in such cohesion that future
financial stability is not only predictable, but also highly ensured. Imagine a program that
develops fundamental skills applicable and transferable across industries, opening doors for
years to come in the ever-changing economy. Imagine empowerment that transforms lives, both
personally and professionally. This is Build. Develop. Empower.
Inspired by data gathered from our research study conducted over months in the Baltimore
community, Build. Develop. Empower. innovatively tackles the core of the Commitment to our
Community challenge head-on. Build. Develop. Empower. is a 3-pronged parallel approach that
unlocks the doors to flexibility and adaptability in the changing world:
Prong 1: Build. Build a direct pipeline from participants through training to careers.
Prong 2: Develop. Develop general skills, including reading, writing, and mathematical abilities,
through a close-knit tutorial program.
Prong 3: Empower. Empower participants by enriching soft skills, such as critical thinking,
communication, and team-building, through seminars.
Build. Develop. Empower. leverages the breadth and depth of the Johns Hopkins community,
harnessing the uniqueness and expertise of individuals, teams, and departments across the
Johns Hopkins University and Health System. More details on the 3-pronged parallel approach
follow.
Details of the 3-Pronged Parallel Approach:
Prong 1: Build.
Part 1: Build a program to identify individuals for participation. The identification process will be
conducted with advice from Johns Hopkins, which has helped identify and hire up to 145
returning citizens each each for more than 10 years, and local nonprofits and education
systems. Also, we will work with city and state correctional agencies to identify the candidates.
Once identified, candidates will take the Accuplacer test, commonly used by community
colleges, to gain an understanding of how to best help the candidates.

2. Part 2: Build a partnership with proven educational programs to enrich technical (hard) skills.
These educational programs need to provide certification and/or degrees and have a track
record of placing graduates successfully into well-paying jobs. For example, Caroline Center is
a nonprofit vocational program that educates up to 180 women annually in Baltimore as a
certified nursing/geriatric assistant or pharmacy technician. 100% of graduates receive jobs
using the certification within 6 months time, many within 3 months time at Baltimore hospitals.
We will partner with these local institutions and extend their existing programs to encompass
men and/or women coming out of the prison system if the programs do not do so already.
Part 3: Build a partnership with organizations and corporations, opening positions in well-paying
careers with advancement opportunities. We will identify the anchor institutions in the Baltimore
community and open opportunities that would have previously been shut for those previously
incarcerated.
Part 4: Build an integrated pipeline from participants through training to careers. As an
intermediary, we will serve to identify available careers needed now and in the future at the
organization and corporations, bring together the educational programs needed, and identify the
participants.
When Prong 1 is first implemented, Part 1 and Part 2 will be the priority. When both Part 1 and 2
are running, a rudimentary version of Part 3 would be inherently realized. At that time, we will
simultaneously run Prong 2 and Prong 3 while Part 3 and Part 4 of Part 1 are fully implemented.
Prong 2: Develop.
Develop and implement a tutorial system for enriching the reading, writing, and mathematical
skills needed in the workforce. We will loosely model off the tutorial system in place over
centuries, first at Oxford and Cambridge, then at Princeton when it was first introduced there by
a Johns Hopkins alumnus. Participants will be placed in groups of 5-6 with a member of the
Johns Hopkins community based on the participants’ abilities according to the Accuplacer test.
Each group will have content tailored specifically to them while providing each participant the
needed personal attention to learn and develop. Through the tutorial system, participants will be
engaged with their peers, the content, and cultivated through the collaborative learning to
become leaders, thinkers, and doers.
The Prong 2 tutorial sessions will serve as an extension to existing educational programs
identified in Prong 1. The plan is to hold these tutorial sessions on the Homewood campus, at
one of the medical campuses, or on-site at the respective institution identified in Prong 1 on a
weekly basis. The project and funding will provide the needed transportation.
Prong 3: Empower.

3. Empower participants by enriching soft skills, including creativity, problem solving, critical
thinking, and communication, through seminars, a original Hopkins innovation. Participants will
cultivate the underlying structure for the soft skills, which translates to increased logical
reasoning, effective team-work and communication, and greater flexibility and adaptation on the
job and in new situations.
Seated around one table in a room, the participants will be led in seminar discussions with
individuals selected from across the Johns Hopkins system (students, professors, faculty, and
staff) who will bring expertise and knowledge to the table. Also, Johns Hopkins University
students will help serve as facilitators and will foster and cultivate the collaborative seminar
format between the participants and the experts. The discussions will revolve around case
studies, loosely building on the case method by Harvard Business School, to guide the
participants through real-world examples. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect and
discuss life and job cases.
Further benefits include:
- Participants will develop the courage to take ownership of their individual opinions and views
while seeing their voices and ideas heard.
- Participants will have the freedom to contribute to the discussion developing in the room. For
some, it will be the first time in their lives to have people recognize their contributions.
- Participants will not only reflect on the concepts that they have learned, but they will also be
able to apply and develop new knowledge with their peers.
- Participants will enrich their communication skills while building a network and community
among their peers.
Prong 3 will be run in conjunction with Prong 2. Thus, the Prong 3 seminars will take place at
the same place as the Prong 2 tutorial sessions.
Explanation of the Problem to be Solved:
Many Baltimoreans leaving prison are smart, capable, courageous, and self-motivated. But
many of these same individuals have many things working against them, including criminal
records and inadequate prior education. Career opportunities are limited, if at all available:
research by the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute state that those formerly incarcerated lack
the skills for all but the most entry-level positions*.
Drawing on the knowledge acquired from our research study, we recognize that there are many
existing institutions, including nonprofit organizations and educational programs, that provide
strong curriculums in developing their student’s technical skills. However, these same programs
do not directly help students cultivate many of the soft skills relevant in the workplace today,
such as critical thinking. Also, students enter and come out of the existing programs with gaps in
their reading, writing, and mathematical skills.

4. Build. Develop. Empower. is an innovative solution that minimizes risk while maximizing the
impact of every dollar. Build. Develop. Empower. is built on having 100% of the grant awarded
in this challenge directly invested in the participants. Build. Develop. Empower. not only
integrates existing solutions in an innovative fashion, but it also has the potential to scale and
reach beyond Baltimore.
* Mayor’s Office of Employment Development. "Baltimore Citywide Ex-Offender Task Force
Report and Recommendations." (2003). Dec. 2003. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Key metrics by which the success of the project can be measured (enter 1 - 3 metrics):
(1) Student Surveys: anonymous periodic surveys that asks students to rank on a scale of 1-10
what they think of the program, the content that is being taught, and how much they have
developed. There will be space to write in feedback about the program. These evaluations will
continue post-graduation for at least 12 months assuming that they are still reachable
(2) Teacher Surveys: surveys that ask for how teachers have seen their students grow
differently than from those in the past. This provides a window into seeing the impact of the
seminars.
(3) Employer Surveys: anonymous surveys that ask employers to contribute feedback on those
employed and have graduated from the program. The surveys will consist of questions on a
scale of 1-10, and there will be space to write feedback about their ideas/recommendations.
Brief Budget Summary:
(1) Transportation - $6,000 (Statistically, the neighborhoods with the highest rates of
incarceration are located in places that are underserved by public transportation. Thus, this
money will help fund the Hop Van rentals and other modes of transportation to serve the
students)
(2) Life/Educational Subsidies - $10,000 (Individuals may have children or dependents that they
need to care for. This forces some to obtain jobs to care for the dependents, and they are
unable to commit to a vocational education program. The subsidies will be approved on a case-
by-case basis and will serve to only support a yet-to-be-determined percentage)
(3) Career Preparation Subsidies - $4,000 (There are many costs involved in obtaining a job,
including clothing/uniform, grooming, access to printing for resumes, a phone number, etc. The
subsidies are to help lessen the financial costs of obtaining the career students have been
preparing for)
Amount Requested (10x20: max $20K, DIG: max $2.5K, Acorn: max $2K):
$20,000
Estimated project completion date:
12/31/2017