Founder of Roca receives prestigious Heinz AwardDate: 12/1/2020 GREATER SPRINGFIELD – On Oct. 13, the Heinz Family Foundation named Molly Baldwin, founder and CEO of Roca Inc., the recipient of the prestigious 25th Heinz Award in the Human Condition category.
The Heinz Award, which was established by Teresa Heinz in 1993 to honor the memory of her late husband, U.S. Senator John Heinz, celebrates the “accomplishments and spirit of the senator” by recognizing the achievements of individuals in the areas of greatest importance to him. There are awards for Arts & Humanities, Environment, Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, the Economy and Employment.
Roca, a program Baldwin began 1988, is a “highly effective intervention program that provides relentless outreach to young people impacted by traumatic experiences at the center of urban violence” and poverty, according to Roca’s annual report.
The program began in Chelsea, but has since expanded to 20 other Massachusetts communities including Springfield, as well as Baltimore, MD. According to a press release provided by Roca, Baldwin and her team’s mission is to disrupt cycles of incarceration, urban violence and poverty in the lives of young adults – primarily young men of color between the ages of 18 and 24.
Across these 20-plus communities, Roca workers track down young people in crisis by talking to their friends, scouting the streets, or going straight to their doorstep, according to the release. The program incorporates a focus on building trust, safety and relationships, employment skills practice, and long-term coaching. Roca’s trauma-informed curriculum and intervention program takes four years to complete, according to their annual report. Participants have the freedom to learn, “practice, fail, and practice again.”
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Baldwin explained that the idea of Roca stemmed from a teen pregnancy plan conducted by the former governor of Massachusetts, Mike Dukakis.
“When Mike Dukakis was governor, he thought that there were impediments that kept people from getting out of poverty,” said Baldwin. “One [impediment] was having babies as a teenager, and he created these initiatives.”
Dukakis created these plans to talk with communities across the state about how to help teenagers think about having babies later in life, and Baldwin was one of the people brought in to help initiate this teen pregnancy plan.
“It was a plan, but it was really driven by grownups,” said Baldwin. “And I was like, ‘well, I actually think if you want young people to think about waiting to have a baby, it has to be driven by young people.”
Through that experience, Baldwin was able to focus her attention on the young adults who were particularly involved in crime and violence, and who also did not want to participate in other programs.
“In a funny way, we are a lot like how we were in the beginning than the middle,” said Baldwin. In that we focus on young people who weren’t getting enough support…and we did lots of things over the years.”
Since its inception, Roca has also focused its attention on young mothers who similarly were not ready to take advantage of home visiting programs or education programs, according to Baldwin. Roca’s women’s program includes services for childcare and transportation, as well as additional mental health and domestic violence modules.
“We find that with the structure and with the support, and with the coaching, people are able to be much better supports to young people, and I think for the most part, feel a lot better about what they are doing,” said Baldwin, with regards to how her team upholds Roca’s message of support.
At this moment, Roca has about 100 staff of all different backgrounds and ages. Most of the staff works in the communities they live in, according to Baldwin.
“The key to our connecting is what we call this relentless outreach,” said Baldwin. “It’s where we go and go and go, until they [the young adults] get tired, and they just connect.”
One of the major ways in which Roca connects with its participants is through cognitive behavioral theory (CBT), a behavioral health approach that is grounded on what a human being, “thinks, feels, and does,” according to Baldwin.
“Based on what we’ve learned about the brain, is that unless you know how to take a pause between what you think, what you feel, and what you do, you are reacting out of your brain in a way that is not helpful at times,” said Baldwin. “This is based on seven core emotional regulation skills.”
Roca has made this theory highly accessible to youth workers, teachers, and career supervisors, so they can use these skills to figure out what is going on with regards to the brain.
“So essentially, you are practicing these skills to build the ability to take an eight to 12 second pause between what you think, feel and do,” said Baldwin. “And that’s what gives you agency.”
Throughout the years, Roca has also developed an Engaged Institutions component, where the organization directly works with the criminal justice system to confront injustice, and transform how police officers and agencies relate to the kinds of young adults Roca serves. Baldwin said that this is an important aspect, especially as our country deals with questions of racial justice and systemic racism.
“The very systems that people are engaged in aren’t set up in a way that is helpful,” said Baldwin. “So how do you build relationships, and partner with them so that you work with them to wrap around young people, and then also work with the systems to make changes.”
Within this component, Roca creates different kinds of spaces to look at what is really helpful and what isn’t, with regards to how officers engage with young people. This includes the idea that officers understand brain cells, trauma, and how people come together differently, according to Baldwin.
“Every day, it’s just a huge privilege to be able to walk in the world with young people, and staff, and partners, and try in some small way to create environments for healing,” said Baldwin.
There is currently a Springfield chapter of Roca that serves Springfield, West Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee. The city has worked with Roca for a decade. In total, the organization has served 697 participants, 185 per year on average. According to a statistic report, Roca youth workers completed over 130,000 outreach efforts, with 70 percent of them being successful. Eighty-two percent of young men who worked with Roca for two years had no new incarcerations, and 73 percent had no new arrests. Seventy-eight percent of young men who finished Roca courses were placed in jobs throughout the Springfield area.
“Collaboration and public safety go hand in hand to give opportunities to avoid negative routes, and create positive pathways towards redemption,” said Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, with regards to Roca’s engagement.
The work done by Roca was made more challenging due to COVID-19, but Baldwin said they have been able to adjust accordingly with virtual programs for participants. They have also created a social distancing outreach so Roca workers can still get out into the community in a safe manner with added structure.
“From March through June, we worked on the quality of our CBT work and other programming,” said Baldwin. “Beginning in August, we incrementally upgraded all the staff computers, and are helping all staff be able to access different platforms.”
They are also working on getting a tablet and a hotspot out to young people at a pace that they can begin to work with staff, according to Baldwin.
“Some things we’ve actually been able to connect with young people better on,” said Baldwin. “But it is challenging, because we are a highly in-person, engaged model.”
For now, Roca continues to looking at their coaching methodologies, and find ways in which they can convert them to digital learning. So far, Baldwin said, the structure has worked for the most part.
“There are other organizations that are doing outreach, which is great, but they are not working on long-term behavior change,” said Baldwin, with regards to how Roca differentiates itself from other outreach programs. “We’re really for the group that is not ready to show up (to college, or a job).”
Prior to Roca, Baldwin did a lot of work for prisoners’ rights and women’s issues, and at one point volunteered against the death penalty. She said that she learned a lot from these experiences, and took them with her while developing Roca.
“I’ve had great mentors and teachers,” said Baldwin. “I think that it is important that we’re hopeful that change is possible. The brain science is very empowering …We’re only going to bring about change in our country if we are loving, fair, honest, and if we’re hopeful.”
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