Category: IMANI UNIDAD
The primary purpose of Imani Unidad is to provide HIV/STD and substance abuse prevention, education and advocacy through community efforts. We include HIV positive and African American community members in decision making, education, advocacy, service delivery, public relations, research and leadership. Imani Unidad provides community representatives to facilitate workable solutions through community partnerships; Teen Peer Education which offers comprehensive skills building activities and prevention information for youth to serve as a resource for one another; and engage in other activities that promote the overall goals of the organization.
Final Report- Business Model Canvas
Ethnography – Individual Interview with Kim Longan, CEO of Billing Dynamics
Ethnography Summary
Victoria Velasquez spoke over the phone with Kim Longan, the CEO of Kim’s Billing Dynamics in Moorpark, CA.
Date: 4/30/17
Type: Individual Interview 2
Location: Over the phone
Team participants: Victoria
User Characteristics: Kim Longan
Female, age early 50s
Owns a medical billing company in Southern California
Asks if applicants have been convicted of a crime on job applications
Is extremely generous and totally believes in second chances
Has a history of hiring individuals who live off of government assistance
Treats her employees like family
Will create a part-time employment opportunity for someone she feels deeply for and wants to help
Has had a number of bad experiences with former employees who were not ex-offenders
Is experiencing hard times in her business right now and wants to avoid any risks that could further disrupt her company’s performance
What is this person about – what drives him/her? Kim loves to give. She treats her employees extremely well by showering them with gifts and being very flexible with their personal and familial needs. She strives to make people happy.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Kim has a hard time saying no to people. She feels sorry for a lot of people and lets her guilt overcome her common sense and rationality.
Memorable quote from interview: “I give my employees keys to my business and my house. I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving that privilege to someone who has been convicted of a crime.” “I run a small business and I have been faced with expensive lawsuits by ex-employees that I fired. I don’t want to take that risk again.” “My employees are very close with my family and my three daughters. I wouldn’t want to put them in danger.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- Kim is a very generous person who tries to see the good in everything.
- She is very loyal to her current employees, her business, and her family. Her business decisions are driven by this.
- She is more inclined to offer employment to someone who has been affected by incarceration but not someone who themselves has been incarcerated.
Key Insight – (1) As an employer, she places a lot of trust in her employees and she isn’t sure she could do that with someone who has been previously convicted of a crime. (2) If her business was larger and harder to take down, she might be more open to giving ex-offenders a second chance.
Ethnography- Interactive collage
Ethnography- Individual 2
Ethnography Summary
Stephen Muldoon interviewed client of AIDS Ministries
Date: 3/7/17
Type: Interview
Location: LaFun
Team participants: Conducted interview over phone with group
User Characteristics:
Previously incarcerated individual with AIDS
Male, 20-30’s
Optimistic and in good spirits; young and vibrant
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Similar to the other individual, this man currently facing trouble finding a job and housing due to previous history. Medication for his AIDS is not supported by the government past prison and AIDS Ministries can only support past 2 months; he is also on house arrest. However, this younger man has the support of his family and thus has a place to stay with financial support.
Memorable quote from interview: “My family definitely helps, if I didn’t have them I would be homeless or probably dead. Staying clean is my main focus at the moment.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- Most of the people stricken with AIDS within the community get it from dirty needles
- No consistent help from outside; family a necessity
- Economic backgrounds of these individuals is a decisive factor between life and death
Key Insight – (1) Individual not really concerned with the future (2) Having the family completely changed the man’s outlook on his on life (3) Might not understand the gravity of his situation yet, in particular with the AIDS virus
Ethnography- Individual interview 1
Ethnography Summary
Stephen Muldoon interviewed client of AIDS Ministries
Date: 3/7/17
Type: Interview
Location: Lafun
Team participants: Conducted interview over phone with group
User Characteristics:
Previously incarcerated individual with AIDS
Male, 30-40’s
Very sullen and depressed individual
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Currently facing trouble finding a job and housing due to previous history. Medication for his AIDS is not supported by the government past prison and AIDS Ministries can only support past 2 months. He struggles most with what he is going to do wit his life.
Memorable quote from interview: “I’ve been stigmatized my whole life. It is what it is man. But with it [criminal record], I can’t get no job or no place to live. I feel like I have to live my life alone.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- Aids ministries and organizations alike only can provide medication and housing for a limited time; there are no permanent solutions.
- Different crimes can change the degree of which these people may live their lives
- The cause of the vicious cycle stems from the difficulty these people face with trying to leave it
Key Insight – (1) A support system can make it or break peoples lives that are afflicted by this disease and background (2) There is almost a systematic discrimination against these people to try and live better lives (3) There is almost an incentive to go back to prison as so much is taken away from these people
Expert Interview with Diana Hess
Ethnography Summary
Victoria Velasquez interviewed Diana Hess of Neighborhood Resources Connection.
Date: 4/4/17
Type: Expert
Location: Diana’s office in Downtown South Bend
Team participants: Conducted interview alone
User Characteristics:
Female, age 50s
Director of South Bend non-profit Neighborhood Resources Connection; member of the St. Joseph County Council
Sits on various committees in the South Bend community, including the committee for homelessness
Victoria met her when working on a project for NRC in her Project Management class
What is this person about – what drives him/her? Diana is driven by her selflessness and her desire to make this city a better place to live. She is very involved in the community and wants to empower people to better their neighborhoods that they call home.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? She has a hard time convincing people in the community that the work that she does with her non-profit is valuable and worthy of their donations.
Memorable quote from interview: “Most neighbors want protection in their neighborhoods.” “Housing is a big issue for everybody.” “Some landlords are purely horrible.” “It’s always the same neighborhoods that end up with the short end of the stick.” “People get used to not being heard, so they have trouble trusting people who want to help.” “Most people end up doing petty crimes as a way to belong.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- No matter who you are, you want to live in a safe community.
- There’s a lack of affordable housing in the South Bend community.
- Community members use neighborhood associations to discuss and address problems of homelessness and crime.
Key Insight – (1) Community members in low-income neighborhoods are discouraged and aren’t optimistic about improving their communities. (2) Young people living in at-risk communities need to be busy and involved in their communities so that they don’t resort to committing crimes and doing things that will land them behind bars.
Activities:
- Arrived at the Downtown South Bend offices
- Walked upstairs to Diana’s office
- Entered her office after knocking and hearing her say, “Come in!”
- Sat around her desk and asked questions about NRC
- Shifted the conversation to NRC’s Tapas and Tango fundraiser
- Exchanged goodbyes and headed out of the building
Environment
- Afternoon on a Thursday
- Downtown South Bend offices, which are located upstairs above the Pigeon and the Hen Pottery
- The Downtown South Bend offices were a bit busier than they normally are with almost all of the offices being occupied with someone working at a computer
- The environment was a bit tense as Diana was stressed with all that she had going on
Interactions:
- Victoria arrived at Diana’s office and knocked on her door to her office
- Diana cleared off her desk a little so that Diana and Victoria could sit down
- Diana answered Victoria’s questions about NRC and its role in promoting neighborhood safety
- Diana and Victoria concluded by talking about another project that Victoria is helping Diana with—Tapas and Tango, a fundraising event for NRC that Victoria and her team were developing marketing materials for
Objects:
- Diana’s computer
- Pictures of neighborhood associations
- Stacks of papers, folders, and binders scattered across Diana’s desk
Users:
- Diana
- Victoria
- Other people working in their offices in the Downtown South Bend building
Immersion Ethnographic Research
Ethnography Summary
Victoria Velasquez immersed herself in the life of a guy named T’Andre whom she met at a Peer2Peer Group meeting at Imani Unidad.
Date: 3/8/17
Type: Immersion
Location: Imani Unidad office space downtown
Team participants: Grace, Wen Cong, and Wendy were also in attendance but Victoria talked to T’Andre alone
User Characteristics:
Male, age 20
Released from incarceration four weeks ago
He was locked up for committing an armed robbery
He was 14 years old when he first got locked up
He has friends who have also been sent to jail and some friends who have died from gang violence
He faces some uncertainty in his life as this girl he was seeing is pregnant but she’s not sure if he’s the father
What is this person about – what drives him/her? T’Andre is driven by his younger brothers. He didn’t have a fatherly figure growing up or a good role model from his older cousins, so he wants to be that figure for his siblings. He makes sure they do their homework and makes sure they are getting to sports practice after school.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? He has a history of incarceration and cannot secure a job. He has applied everyday for the past two weeks and has not heard any positive news back.
Memorable quote from interview: “I was never good at sports so I wasn’t interested in any of that.” “I couldn’t get home at 3:00 am so I just stayed out and walked the streets.” “I know this sounds weird, but I’m glad I went away for four years. I needed that.” “I have plans A, B, and C and when they don’t work out I just try again.” When told that he should be proud of the way he is trying to turn his life around he replied, “Thank you. Ain’t nobody ever told me that before.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- He’s the oldest sibling and wants to be a role model for his younger siblings to give them someone to look up to, which is something he never had.
- Because he didn’t think he was good at sports he quit and got involved in bad activities on the street (drugs and crime).
- He has been in and out of jail since we has 14 years old.
Key Insight – (1) People get involved in bad things because they don’t know any different and they don’t have good role models to look up to and see the way a teenager should really be behaving. (2) Had he not gone to jail for four years, he would’ve had no motivation to change his life around.
Activities:
- Got to Imani Unidad in Downtown South Bend
- Looked around for Debra and found her in the basement
- Went upstairs and found the Peer2Peer group meeting
- Joined them for dinner but didn’t eat
- Started talking to two young men but one wasn’t very interested in talking, so only carried out the conversation with one of them
- Talked with T’Andre for 30 minutes
- Transitioned into group circle
- Shared with the group something that I had accomplished in the week and something that was holding me back
Environment
- Wednesday evening
- Room had chairs and tables, which were then moved to form a circle of chairs
- The room was loud during dinner and conversations
- The room had an uncomfortable feeling because there were a lot of new members to the Peer2Peer group and there were some obvious outsiders
- The meeting was a safe space, which made people more comfortable sharing details about their lives
Interactions:
- At first I was only talking to the other members of my team (Wen Cong and Grace)
- Then I started talking to another familiar face—intern Andy
- I walked around and tried to listen in on some people’s conversations amongst themselves
- Eventually I introduced myself to two young men
- I sat down at a table to the left of their seats
- One of the guys was much more open to talking than the other one, so I carried on a conversation with that one
- Debra came in and got the group meeting started
- Each person in the circle had to speak in front of the group
- After each person spoke the group clapped for them
Objects:
- Tables and chairs
- Notepad and pen
Users:
- Debra, Baye, Andy
- Some other counselors
- Peer2Peer group members spanning a lot of different ages and a mix of men and women
- Another ND group with about four students
- Grace, Wen Cong, Wendy, and Victoria
Analogous Immersion
Ethnography Summary
Wen-Cong Toh investigated the effect of having a disciplinary record at Notre Dame on job or graduate school applications. To do this, I talked to a few medical school deans and looked at different consulting and finance job applications for entry-level positions.
Dates: Throughout March and April
Type: Analogous Immersion
Location: In Hesburgh Library or in Jordan Hall of Science (speaking with medical school deans after presentations)
Employment/Graduate School Options Investigated:
- University of Chicago Medical School: The dean said that she normally asks the medical school advisor here at Notre Dame about the severity of any violation before coming to a decision about it (giving the advisor a chance to vouch for the applicant’s character or explain if Notre Dame is just really strict in a certain area). However, the dean also stated that it always plays some role in the final admission decision, especially between similarly qualified applicants, as it shows immaturity and irresponsibility.
- Loyola Stritch School of Medicine: The dean here said similar things to the one from the University of Chicago, and made it clear that disciplinary records are judged on a case by case basis. She said that the severity of the violation, the year it took place, changes the student has made, and character references in letters of recommendation, would all be taken into account. However, a student with a clean record would still obviously be viewed better in that aspect compared to a student with community standard violations.
- Triage Consulting: No where on the application did it ask for my disciplinary record. They only asked if I had been convicted of a crime. When I asked the recruiter why this was, he said that serious violations that result in suspension would be observed in the transcript. In those cases, they were unlikely to accept the candidate, regardless of other qualifications.
- Health for America Fellowship: They asked me in the first round interview if I had any academic or conduct violations on my record at Notre Dame and if yes, to describe what happened and how I learned from it. If I had answered yes, it would have probably made me feel very uncomfortable and the interview quickly turned to feel more like an interrogation.
Top Learnings:
- Graduate schools seem to weigh conduct violations much more seriously than employers. This may be because you would once again be in an academic setting, and representing the school as a student (less freedom than a regular job).
- Like the housing search immersion as an ex-convict, this whole process was generally vague and ambiguous, and the deans/recruiters were reluctant to discuss it. It is a very discretionary process with no objective guidelines or benchmarks being used. The school and company websites were no help as well, so many times, the applicant would be applying blind, with no idea how their conduct violation would affect their chances.
Key Insight – While it is obviously very different from being formerly incarcerated, asking about and explaining conduct violations game me a very similar feeling to the immersion I conducted. I felt uncomfortable, awkward, and embarrassed, as none of these schools/employers I spoke to gave a signal that they would embrace the idea of giving second chances. If I had a serious conduct violation on my Notre Dame record, it would have definitely made the job searching process much harder and even more stressful.
Ethnography- Analogous Immersion
With the direct immersion experience dealing with the actual struggles faced by the individuals of whom our project is directed towards, this analogous immersion serves as a parallel to the similar struggles faced but with more relevance to peers. As explained in the immersion work, individuals are faced with the hardships of not being able to achieve certain things that may better their lives. Something analogous to this might be the school experience. Many children start school but many with different backgrounds. To parallel the situation of the individuals for our project, let us assume that we can experience the struggles of a child from a poor background in a public school.
No matter how hard the effort put in is, classwork may still and the teachers aren’t necessarily of the highest caliber to help me achieve. As a result, school might not be the biggest focal point, especially with the economic struggles of the family. As a result, activities that are easy to make quick cash might be an option to help out the family to even eat, as the direct benefits of school are hard to quantify or even see at this point. This could happen to many good kids, as they aren’t given many options to achieve highly if it is not in sports. So, selling drugs might be the quickest and easiest option to help out.
The school or police might find out and catch me. Being a child of low economic backgrounds, the penalty would be high. Expulsion from school might be a real threat and criminal charges might also be brought to the table. With this, how can one achieve? It’s not like selling drugs is where a kid like this wanted to start doing, but there aren’t many other routes or options. As a result, any goal to go to college is thrashed and even getting a job might prove very difficult. It is this cycle that can be closely mirrored to what is happening to the individuals that our project strives to help: dealing with hardships leading to dangerous options that are hard to arise from due to the economic standing.