Large-Scale Prison Entrepreneurship – Harnessing A Force For Good
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Large-Scale Prison Entrepreneurship – Harnessing A Force For Good.
Prison systems are designed to segregate – to minimize the negative impact of inmates on society. We believe the right question to ask is: Why are these able-bodied, resourceful, determined individuals not making a positive impact instead?
Society pays to lock its best entrepreneurs away. 78% of inmates consider self-employment a serious career option, yet too few can even explore the possibility while in prison. Of those that get basic training, 3-year recidivism can be slashed from 67% to almost 10%. In addition, they even end up creating jobs for others.
We envision a systemic change, from condemnation to contribution - harnessing their skills to create value through business. We want to make access to entrepreneurship education a core provision for all inmates everywhere.
About You
About You
First Name
Kelvin
Last Name
Ho
http://twitter.com/#!/MyOwnBizInc
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
My Own Business, Inc
Organization Website
Organization Phone
(562) 463 1800
Organization Address
13181 Crossroads Parkway North, Suite 190
Organization Country
United States, CA, Los Angeles County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Innovation
Entry Form title
Large-Scale Prison Entrepreneurship – Harnessing A Force For Good
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Prison systems are designed to segregate – to minimize the negative impact of inmates on society. We believe the right question to ask is: Why are these able-bodied, resourceful, determined individuals not making a positive impact instead?
Society pays to lock its best entrepreneurs away. 78% of inmates consider self-employment a serious career option, yet too few can even explore the possibility while in prison. Of those that get basic training, 3-year recidivism can be slashed from 67% to almost 10%. In addition, they even end up creating jobs for others.
We envision a systemic change, from condemnation to contribution - harnessing their skills to create value through business. We want to make access to entrepreneurship education a core provision for all inmates everywhere.
What are the primary activities of your project?
We have created a course for start-up entrepreneurs called “Starting My Own Business”. It is designed to be self-facilitated. The curriculum is a step-by-step guide to starting a business written by a board of experienced small business owners, professionals and academics. It has been used and constantly refined since 1992, to its present form comprising 15 structured sessions covering all the basic and important factors to consider when starting a business. The curriculum has been taught in schools, colleges, seminars, and business development centers around the world. It has also been taught successfully at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institute for the past 4 years.
Our objective is to make this educational material a standard part of all prison libraries and resource centers.
The task will involve the following:
• Production of materials – Textbooks and business plan templates to be provided to all prisons. A software version of the material to be created for installation on prison library computers.
• Education – Introduction of materials and advocacy to prison officials and re-entry officers. Raising awareness among inmates of availability of such resources.
• Distribution – Collaboration with State and Federal Departments of Correction to make the resources available in prisons.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
This is the first initiative to feasibly target 100% penetration of prisons across the US. It is much more robust than job-training programs, which leave inmates at the mercy of employers and susceptible to industry trends. It is much more scalable than current entrepreneurship programs in select prisons, which have proven effective, but are extremely resource-intensive. Individuals privileged enough to have access to these programs benefit greatly, but that still leaves a vast majority of the population entirely unserved.
The key to this initiative is sheer cost-effectiveness and scale. Three factors contribute to the project’s success, and each lends itself to making this solution extremely sustainable and scalable:
• An Information-Based Product – The product is a proven curriculum successfully implemented for years with people of all backgrounds, including prisoners. The value is in the information and presentation, which can be replicated and disseminated at virtually no cost and unlimited scale.
• Time Investment – Success relies on heavy investment of time by each entrepreneur. This works out well because time is exactly what inmates have plenty of while in prison. That time, at no incremental cost, will be invested in creating value upon release.
• Career Fit – The best entrepreneurs encompass certain traits and characteristics, such as ambition, tenacity, resourcefulness, and creativity. Inmates have been shown to possess these same traits, and so are conveniently self-selected for higher chance of success as an entrepreneur.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
There are currently just over 2.4 million individuals incarcerated in US prisons, or about 1 in 100 adults. They are about 93% men and 7% women. The most common reasons for incarceration are non-violent crimes involving material possessions such as burglary and larceny. Upon release, they face multiple struggles including financial instability, family issues, societal stigma, and importantly lack of economic opportunities. Former inmates find jobs hard to find because of lack of paper qualifications, lack of recent work experience, and not least reluctance of employers to hire convicted individuals. Because of the obstacles facing them, it is a far greater challenge for this population to make ends meet than for the average person. Within 3 years, up to 67% of them will find themselves back in prison, completing a cycle that not only further damages their lives, but also comes at a huge cost to society.
Each year, about 650,000 inmates are released and will have to support themselves financially. They will be replaced in by an equal number of new inmates, many from the population of about 9 million who cycle in and out of prisons.
Current attempts at boosting employment prospects include job training, as well as entrepreneur mentorship programs.
• Job training is the traditional form of aid. It involves teaching inmates a specific vocational skill with the intention of placing them in relevant jobs post-release. Typically these jobs are low-skilled, low-wage employment. Sometimes the vocational training and job placement is paired with personal case management, counselling, assistance obtaining housing, clothes, food vouchers, and healthcare.
• More recently, entrepreneurship programs have been implemented in a number of prisons across the country. They provide training in basic business skills, paired with personal business mentorship, access to capital post-release, networking opportunities, along with housing, medical, counselling, and other relevant services.
The latter approach has been the more effective of the two. The job training programs are able to place inmates in jobs, though they have suffered during a bad job market. They also leave the inmates with a less flexible skill set. The entrepreneurship programs have been very effective in providing both adequate employment and financial stability, as well as in reducing recidivism significantly. However, they rely on numerous resources to support the individual inmate and ensure he or she is provided with all the support necessary to thrive. As such, the programs have been inherent difficult and costly to scale, resulting in the large majority of inmates unable to benefit.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Phil Holland is an experienced entrepreneur. He has started and run businesses in equipment manufacturing, construction, restaurant franchising and real estate management. Most significantly, he founded the Yum Yum Donuts chain, which recently took over Winchell’s and is one of the largest and most successful donut chains in the country.
In 1992, the Los Angeles riots devastated several neighborhoods in the city. Phil wanted to help rebuild those communities, lives and economic situations through teaching business creation. The first free classes were held in Compton, CA. What started out as a one-man crusade grew into the non-profit organization known today as My Own Business, Inc. (MOBI), the most comprehensive educational resource for small business owners.
Given the success of the curriculum, MOBI’s current challenge is to keep finding new populations that can benefit from the lessons and inspiration of experienced entrepreneurs. Prisons represent perhaps the biggest untapped opportunity in this regard. We recognized that over the years we’d built up a resource capable of making a real difference to the cycle of prisoners’ chronic difficulties in finding employment. This project is an attempt to apply a proven solution in a new way, in a new context. The solution itself is simple, yet the issue of unemployment facing prisoners is far more complex than any organization can address all at once. But because we can leverage the very scalable nature of the solution, we know we can make a significant dent in the problem even with limited time and resources.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
There are two measures of success – the efficacy of our curriculum in aiding entrepreneurs, and the metrics used to measure this prisons initiative.
We measure the efficacy of our curriculum through surveys of users – a reflection of how much they feel the lessons they’ve learned have helped them. In the most recent survey, conducted in April 2011, 76% indicated the course was a very important factor in the success of their business, with 26% going on to emphasize that their business would have failed without those lessons. This is an important metric because the key to stable jobs are stable businesses – self-employment is an extremely robust method of creating jobs that in turn create value, but too often they fail because of avoidable mistakes. Through this we know that we are eliminating those mistakes and ensuring the jobs created stick around and create more jobs as the businesses grow. 72% of those surveyed also said that MOBI’s materials are better than any other resources they have come across. Another metric for success that we monitor is user numbers. We do no advertising at all, so all users either find us through searching or are recommended by someone else. Through linking and word of mouth alone, we reach about 5 million per year who use our materials. This gives us third-party validation that people who know us have found us useful and are telling others.
As for metrics specific to the prison initiative, there are three key factors. First, we’d measure increase in percentage of incarcerated individuals with access to entrepreneurship education. As stated before, the goal is 100%. In addition, we’d monitor reduction in recidivism rate of inmates who’ve gone through our course and started their own business. The current average is about 67%, and initial estimates show that entrepreneurship training can result in this dropping sharply to almost 10%, saving society a lot of resources and preventing numerous social problems. Finally, we would continue measuring efficacy of our materials on inmates years after they have left prison. We keep in touch with all our students to monitor their progress, and prisoners would be no different. We’d measure how many of their businesses are growing and how many are still healthy 2, 3, 5 years into the business.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We aim for 100% penetration of US prisons. We will strive to introduce our materials to a significant portion of prisons, and the rest can adopt them based on recommendations and feedback from others. This is especially relevant in the prisons system where safety and security are valued far more than innovation – prisons are much more likely to adopt a practice already in place at another facility. The challenge is to overcome the initial inertia.
Once the critical mass of pilot programs has been put into place, our efforts will shift to the cycle of constant assessment, improvement, and replication of the program. Eventually we'll look to replicating the model in neighbouring countries, with attention paid to cultural differences.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Slow Implementation –
Prisons, because of the focus on safety and security, are understandably cautious when it comes to new or innovative proposals. Even if a program sounds good and needed, many prisons would shy away from being the first to implement it, preferring to replicate a program that has already been safely proven elsewhere. However, the relative autonomy given to prisons when it comes to stocking of resources, as well as the simple ask (just make our materials available), means that there will always be a few more adventurous and ambitious officers willing to take a chance on an initiative that promises to be better than what they currently have. Reaching out to these officers will be key to overcoming the initial hurdle of inertia in the prisons systems.
Funding –
While our solution is very cheap to implement per person in comparison with other employment programs, the current funds we have will not be sufficient to see us through to 100% penetration. However, they will be sufficient to give us a good headway. Eventually, we would need to tap into other sources of funding, including the prisons’ own budgets, to reach the ultimate goal. When prisons see the value and cost-effectiveness of such a solution, we would warrant that they make the investment themselves to implement our materials in their own prisons. It would be a validation that they see value in what we can offer. In this way, the initiative becomes fully sustainable, with implementation costs borne by the prisons who use it, and provision of the intellectual material at no cost to us.
Tell us about your partnerships
Over the years, My Own Business has relied on just a few key partnerships that help us leverage important areas and capabilities.
The World Bank has been a long-term partner, using our material around the world as a core part of their SME Toolkit. Because of the World Bank, our course material is available to help entrepreneurs in 33 countries across 4 continents. They also help us with translation into all the relevant languages.
Cisco Systems is another key partner. Their global initiative, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute, conducts an array of business courses for entrepreneurs in developing economies, and more recently in developed nations too. Our original course “Starting My Own Business” is the most popular course in the Institute. We provide the educational materials that have been refined over many years, which Cisco lacks. In return, Cisco implemented them on their mobile learning platform, using their resources and technological expertise to help our materials attain a reach that would not have been possible without such a large corporate partner. Cisco also provides financial backing for My Own Business.
Locally, MOBI partners regularly with numerous organizations and institutions that make use of our course material to build economic opportunities. Examples include the State of Mississippi (Mississippi Development Authority), Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institute, and the California Disabled Veterans Business Alliance.
Lastly, we regularly leverage in-kind support from organizations that share our mission and beliefs. Two of these are Knobbe Martens Olsen & Bear (pro bono legal services), and A Very Nice Design Studio (pro bono design services).
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$250,001‐500,000
Explain your selections
My Own Business is supported through a mix of sales, website revenue through relevant ads, licensing agreements, and individual and corporate donations. At present, earned income streams account for just under 60% of annual costs. Over the next 2 years, we aim to hit 100% financial sustainability through earned income, operating as a fully-sustainable social enterprise. This will be achieved through further licensing agreements, website growth which provides greater ad value, and increased product sales because of geographical expansion. The key to this model is that these revenue increases all require hardly any corresponding cost increases on our end, so our operation still remains lean and cost-efficient.
Ultimately, we know that we generate real value for people and businesses, and they should be able to pay for that value. We will continue to solicit for donations for special initiatives such as this, but for regular day-to-day operations, we are on course to fund ourselves like any other business.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We will continue to strive for 100% penetration of prisons and all inmates across the country to have easy access to entrepreneurship education. Subsequent to that, we hope to replicate it internationally too. Recognizing that an initiative like this can only impact one aspect of the complicated lives of this population – by teaching them how to create their own job – such a scale is the minimum required to even make a dent in the larger problem. We would not settle for anything less.
The project will go through an ongoing cycle of:
Implementation -> Assessment -> Improvement -> Replication
This is how we have refined our educational materials from 1992 till their current effective form, and this is how the prisons initiative will also be strengthened over the next three years and beyond.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of access to information and networks
SECONDARY
Underemployment
TERTIARY
Lack of skills/training
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Prison inmates, for all their inherent talents and drive, face chronic employment difficulties upon release because of lack of education, lack of work skills, and inability to improve that situation while they are in prison. Moreover, those that do seek a job face the stigma of employers unwilling to hire ex-convicts.
So, given the chronic lack job opportunities, we offer a solution suited to their situation and character – creating their own job.
It is our objective that every inmate has a job waiting for them the day they leave prison, independent of economic fluctuations, employer attitudes, or the government’s success or failure at job creation. It will be a job they truly believe in and will work hard for, because they created it themselves.
This is our solution.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Repurposed your model for other sectors/development needs
SECONDARY
Leveraged technology
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Global
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
This prisons initiative is part of repurposing our existing model for the economic needs of post-release prison inmates. We are also using our model to impact other populations that can benefit particularly well from it, namely veterans and youth.
Globally, we work through partners who already have a global reach, such as the World Bank. However, we also operate directly through the internet and local partners. Some countries impacted are India, Mexico, UK, Kazakhstan, Ecuador, and South Korea.
Technology has always been a part of our growth, from a classroom in Compton to reaching millions each year through the web. We are now publishing our courses in ebook format and as interactive software. We plan to now leverage social media to create an active community around our resources.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
We collaborate with organizations that can provide us with some capability or functionality which don’t possess in-house, be it technological capability, access to populations, business services, etc. Crucially, we must also be able to add value to them, so that it’s not just a one-way transaction.
These strategic collaborations have helped us impact more people, and in a much shorter time, than if we had just grown organically, or tried to build up our capabilities in-house.
 | 45 weeks agoKelvin Ho said: It's a pleasure to hear from you, and we are honored to have you putting in so much time and effort for us! This is a great question. ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 45 weeks agoKelvin Ho said: Thanks Ricardo. You make some good points. Definitely agree with what you're saying. In our current society, those with a criminal ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 45 weeks agoinder kalra said: First of all, I would like to congratulate you and the firm for this effort and secondly for letting me be a part of this group to help ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 45 weeks agoRicardo Basmagi said: Kelvin, It is amazing that we have people like you taking action on issues like this. We live in a very unforgiving society. If a ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoKelvin Ho said: Thanks Bahiyah. Yes, you're absolutely right. Collaboration has to happen. The major problems tackled here are too complex for any ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoKelvin Ho said: Alan, Thanks for your comment! In fact I completely agree with you that a simple curriculum is by far not a comprehensive enough ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoBahiyah Yasmeen Robinson said: This is a great innovation that targets one of the most marginalized and discarded populations in the US. I encourage you to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoAlan Harlam said: I just noticed that PEP is an entry for this competition - perhaps you should connect with them to share ideas and/or best practices: ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoAlan Harlam said: Congratulations on your project! Recidivism is a HUGE issue - and starting businesses among prison populations has been proven to be ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoKelvin Ho updated this Competition Entry. |
