Page 50 - BusinessWest February 21, 2022

Change Agents
Judd told BusinessWest that,
while words can be used to sum up Roca’s mission and its importance
to the region, numbers tell the story effectively as well. And she has plenty of them at the ready. Here are some, courtesy of a recent study involving participants:
• While more than 85% of Roca’s young men come to the agency with a violent record, four out of five stop engaging in violent crime;
• Only 33% of Roca’s young men who served from 2012 to 2019 recidivated within three years, compared to the state’s recidivism rate of 47% to 56%;
• 54% who practiced cognitive
“What I like about Roca is that it’s there to not only advocate for these men, but
to support them and prepare them for the workforce.”
behavioral therapy (CBT) made measurable emotional-regulation gains;
• 74% who completed the first two years were placed in jobs, and 71% held their job for six months or longer; and
• 95% who completed the first two years were not reincarcerated.
As for the programming involving young mothers:
• 52% of open child-welfare (MA-DCF) cases closed;
• 85% demonstrated workforce- readiness gains;
• 74% who completed the first two years placed in outside jobs; and
• In Springfield, between 2010
and 2020, the program served
761 participants and boasts a 78% employment-placement rate; 82 of participants retained employment for three months or longer, 74% had no new arrests, and 88% had no new incarcerations.
Together, these numbers back up what Gulluni, Golden, Judd, and others said about Roca’s ability to make all-important change possible for its participants.
It does this, Judd said, through an intervention model that is rooted in evidence-based practices of community corrections, deep studies of behavior- change models (stages of change and CBT, among others), brain development, and three decades of critical data collection and on-the-ground work with young people.
The model, she explained, has five core components: relentless outreach, transformational relationships, tailored programming designed to withstand relapse and the comings and goings
TRUSSING PROJECTION
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50 FEBRUARY 21, 2022
BusinessWest