BAKER INDUSTRIES INC

Goals for 2021: Our goals for 2020 were consistent with our history and mission. However, they were revised in March of that year to acknowledge the tremendous impact of the Covid-19 crisis. We halted our day-to-day production in late March, in alignment with state orders. During this hiatus, we continued to maintain our facilities, raise funds and most importantly - stayed deeply connected to our constituents - program participants, donors, and customers.
For 2021, our goals are as follows:
• Execute our mission statement
• Serve 150-175 participants.
• Support 25+ adults in achieving better employment, hopefully at a living wage level. As of 10/26/21 we have had 31 participants leave us for better employment.
• Continue to maintain health & safety protocols in accordance with CDC pandemic guidelines.
• Increase fundraising by 5% over prior year.
• Restore customer revenue to 90% of pre-COVID-19 levels.
• Continue to generate a modest surplus from our operations and investments.
We will measure our impact based on achievement of the above goals, with a focus on serving as many participants as possible and supporting as many job placements as possible. We remain ready to exceed these goals if the public health and economic environment improve sufficiently.

Our program strategy to meet our outcome goals (# participants served and # participants progressing to better employment) is to continue to refine our model of real work experience and job readiness support.

Our increased focus on job readiness support comes from decades of experience working with individuals who have often not held a “real" job in many years. Life skills are as important as work skills. Our newest program addresses capabilities like decision making, critical thinking, dealing with ambiguity and other factors that build resilience and confidence. On-site coaching and counseling provide 1:1 support as individuals navigate personal challenges. We also focus on the more tactical skills related to job search, interviewing and successful behaviors when starting a new job. Our goal is to improve our “batting average" and see a higher percentage of individuals who enter our program progress to better employment.

Our donor strategy is focused on continuing to earn the trust of existing sources while expanding our network of individuals and foundations that invest in our program. Our mission has never been more relevant as the Philadelphia community struggles to unlock the employment value in the very populations we serve. We are increasingly seeking civic and corporate partnerships to address the economic and social opportunities inherent in better integration of hard to employ adults into the workplace.

Finally, we are devoting significant senior management resources to our customer strategy of improved account management and new business acquisition to reach our budgeted revenue goal. Specifically, we are investing in stronger business partnerships with selected customers where we can provide excellent service and value in return for strong collaboration with our team. Because our participants face many challenges, we do best with business partners who work with us on process improvement, scheduling, work flow, etc. When these partnerships extend to temp assignments and job opportunities, it is even more of a win/win.

Our three-pronged strategy can be summarized as follows: improve the participant, donor and customer experience to expand our proven program to more hard-to-employ adults and create stronger communities.

We have a very strong management team that has come from the for-profit sector. We are a Social Enterprise, and while some tout social enterprise as the new, cutting edge approach to social services, at Baker Industries, we have been rather quietly operating a successful, self-sustaining workforce development program using business methods for over 35 years. We have two facilities with a total of 105,000 square feet. We currently have approximately 100 individuals in our program and could easily accomodate more than twice that amount if we had the work to justify them.

Recognizing the challenges that our participants face outside our program workplace; we continually seek to partner in the communities we serve. We have made a concerted effort to expand our network and partnerships in center-city Philadelphia. – in most instances, exposing our participants to an entirely new world. We believe in the power of partnership and will continue to build relationships that help serve our participants and our community. A partial list includes:
• The Philly Manufacturing Growth Network – “off the sideline – into the workforce” – a group of Philadelphia Manufacturers working specifically with Baker to provide employment opportunities for our program participants. (WWW.PHLMFG.com)
• Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce – we are actively participating in the Chambers Roadmap for Growth.
• Philadelphia Re-entry Project – we are a member and have participated in multiple panel discussions and working groups to improve the re-entry of returning citizens from incarceration to work and the community.
• Wilma Theater – creative partner with their Portable Studio in our new enhanced job readiness program.
• Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts & the Barnes Foundation – creative partners in our enhanced job readiness program.
• Philadelphia Works – working with CareerLink and other career planning services to support our participants in their search for employment.
• Philadelphia R.I.S.E. Program – working with them to promote the Fair Chance Hiring Initiative.
• Temple University School of Criminal Justice – partnership on research study on reentry.
• Connection Training Services – providing job search and networking support to Baker participants.
• Family Services – Montgomery County – providing opportunities for women transitioning from incarceration.
• Timothy School – students at this school for disabled young adults spend time at Baker gaining work experience.
• Corporate Partners – terrific volunteer and financial support from Bryn Mawr Trust, CubeSmart, Vanguard, OSI Soft, SEI, BNY Mellon, and Trident, Fox-Roach Charities.
• School & Alumni Groups – in normal years, we have multiple groups volunteer to work for all or part of a day from: Philadelphia Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumni Group, Malvern Prep, Friends Central, and Villa Maria Academy. 2020 was certainly not a normal year – 2021 is certainly better.

The need that our workforce development program fulfills continues to grow every year as there just are not enough programs available to reach out to the four segments of the disadvantaged vulnerable adult population that we try to assist.

We take great pride when Bakerites are able to move into the “real" workforce. Such a transition is not only a testament to the success of our training program but to the hard work, dedication and perseverance each individual has invested in themselves in an attempt to create a better life. However, although we consider these figures when evaluating the effectiveness of our program, we believe that the full impact of our mission is immeasurable. Every Bakerite we welcome to Baker Industries, each hour of work we are able to offer to them makes a difference to their lives and to the lives of people around them. The skills and the experiences with which Baker Industries provides each participant, not to mention the constant source of income, are the truly impactful elements of our program; benefits that are in some ways less tangible than counting the number of graduating Bakerites, but that are by no means any less valuable. Consequently, our evaluation process usually requires a consideration of all the different stages of our program, from participants' first days at Baker Industries to their final farewells.

Our decades long impact in the community is clear. Over 11,000 low/no/ income vulnerable adults have benefitted by participating in our program. Over 2,000 individuals have progressed to better employment and an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and dependence that has defined so many of their lives. Families and communities have been strengthened. Baker Industries changes lives.

We will continue to improve and expand our program - our staff has recently undergone extensive training in the principles of trauma-informed care as well as Mental health First Aid. We have also expanded our job coaching program to ensure that our participants are job-ready. In addition, we have recently hired an HR specialist to help us to get more individuals into our program