Understanding Hopeworks N Camden

Hopeworks is a non-profit that focuses on skill development and job experience for at-risk young professionals. What makes them different from other non-profits is that they do so in a trauma informed approach that reduces the stressors of improving yourself in a new environment. At Hopeworks, there is no judgment, just a safe environment for young professionals to be encouraged to share how they’re feeling through morning meetings (Huddle), learn how to navigate growing as a professional with Career Readiness Coaches, and have opportunities to land a job in the tech industry. Hopeworks has multiple businesses and my position lies within the Web Department. The Web Department operations integrates with Hopeworks mission and hires young professionals who excel through the training to give them real job experience.

The What, Why and How:

Web Director Annie Rose sought a Lead Developer to solve a long needed problem; manage a team of junior developers through a trauma informed approach and create a system that our team could thrive in. The Web Department needed an uplift in its current processes in project health management, team building and community and task delegation. My first week, I went straight to work on providing a thorough presentation on how data informed practices could bring awareness to underlying problems and how we could scale on what was working.

Approach

I picked 3 main focuses that pertained to my duties and 3 focuses that could scale the operations of the Web Department.

Junior Developers needed:

• Formal training
• Assessment of their knowledge prior to joining the Department
• Checkpoints throughout their Developer life cycle

Project Workflow needed:

• Automation
• Milestones
• Hand Offs

Research and analyzing our PM software, Asana, allowed me to realize we had all the tools at our disposal, however, we just needed an upgrade to our software. I created a mockup through Asana’s free business trial to seek approval from the Web Director and my hard work was approved. Due to my research and framework, Hopeworks Web Department was able to meet deliverables 30% faster than previously. Also, suggesting and implementing data informed practices allowed us to understand our junior developer teams needs and raised our team capacity from 4 junior developers to 8.

Importance of Team Synergy

One-on-Ones (Supervision)

If you understand the plights of underserved communities, you can gauge what is needed in a work culture to help those who did not have a chance to understand the importance of professional communication and punctunctuality exist. The Web Director had a solid system for one-on-ones (Supervision) which included how they felt about their work, their successes and blockers, and how they practiced self care. I adapted this method and also included icebreakers in our sessions. Learning to succeed in an environment that is unfamiliar is stressful, but it can be less stressful when someone cares that you are an individual that has emotions, personalities and hobbies.

Team Sessions | On Call

Creating a place where Developers can come into a Dev Session to talk about issues they’ve had on a project, collaborate with teammates and contribute to announcements on opportunities throughout the organization or events in the area. Dev Sessions has been proven to increase engagement amongst peers and encourage asking questions.

Brain Break

One of my favorite times of the month is engaging in team building activities with my team. Brain Break was initially created during the beginning of the pandemic as a way to keep our team bonded while dealing with the stressors of the pandemic. Over time, it has become a favorite among the team and allows us to bond through more genuine interactions.