Mindfulness
Noticing a trigger before it becomes a reaction. Participants practice the pause that protects a paycheck: the breath between a supervisor's tone and a reply.
Chicago & South Holland, Illinois
Getting hired is the doorway. Staying is the work.
Chicago has employers ready to hire returning citizens. What is scarce is people who stay. S.I.P. is the clinical thinking-change layer between the offer and the career.
IThe gap
Chicago does not have a job-listing problem. It has a retention problem.
The transit authority, the hospitals, the city and a long list of employers will consider a person with a record. Safer Foundation, Cara and Greencorps get people ready.
Then comes the part no one is paid to work on. Workforce programs and employers describe the same pattern: people rarely lose a first job for lack of skill. They lose it to stress, to reactivity, to thinking patterns formed long before the job.
That is clinical territory. S.I.P. works there.
IIThe layer
One missing layer between placed and retained.
1
Release & reentry
Return to the community, with record-aware rights under Chicago's Fair Chance Ordinance.
Office of Reentry · IDOC
2
Readiness
Intake, job-readiness workshops and case management.
Safer · Cara · Greencorps
3
The offer
A paid role, a conditional offer, a first day.
CTA · City · health systems
4
The first 90 days
The window every program is measured on: 30, 60 and 90-day retention.
Where jobs are won or lost
5
A lasting career
Permanent positions, union trades, advancement.
The outcome
S.I.P.
The retention layer. Clinical thinking-change work that runs alongside the offer and the first 90 days.
·The landscape, as reported
~3,000
people served by CTA's Second Chance Program since 2011
CTA
900+
hired permanently by CTA, some rising into management
CTA
75–80%
of Greencorps graduates placed into jobs in recent years
City of Chicago
500+
formerly incarcerated people employed at Sweet Beginnings since it began
Block Club Chicago
Figures are as reported by the programs and local news, and they change each year. They show how many doors are open. They are not S.I.P. results. S.I.P. is at the pilot stage and publishes its own outcomes only when it has them.
IIIThe method
Three practices, one discipline of thought.
Self-Improvement Philosophy rests on a simple claim: change how a person thinks, and the decisions follow. The cohort teaches that in three connected practices.
Cognitive restructuring
Examining the story a person tells about a moment, and rewriting it with evidence. Self-awareness, vocabulary and critical thinking grow together.
Motivational interviewing
Participants name their own reasons for the job, the apprenticeship, the life they are building. Commitment that is spoken aloud outlasts commitment that is imposed.
IVThe measure
If it cannot be counted, it cannot be bought.
Funders and employers ask for numbers. Every cohort records the same four program measures at the start and end, and tracks the employment outcomes that agencies are judged on.
Self-awareness
Recognizing one's own triggers, patterns and effect on others.
Vocabulary & expressive speech
Words for feelings and needs, so conflict becomes conversation.
Reactivity
How quickly a trigger becomes an outburst, a walk-out or a no-show.
Critical thinking
Weighing evidence before choosing, under pressure.
30day retention
60day retention
90day retention
VThe pledge
Three promises we will not bend.
Never a fee to the participant.
Employers, agencies and funders pay for the program. A job seeker is never charged for services, for placement or for a referral.
Always by choice.
Participation is voluntary and never a condition of hire or continued employment. Anyone may step away at any time without consequence.
Counseling stays private.
What is said in session stays in session. Partners receive aggregate, de-identified results, and attendance only with a participant's written, revocable consent.
·Leadership
Paul Kelly
MA, MHS, LPC · Founder & CEO
Illinois licensed professional counselor. Founder of Self-Improvement Philosophy LLC, South Holland, Illinois.
·Fair Chance Directory
35 entities that hire returning citizens in Chicago.
A searchable, sourced directory across nine sectors, from transit and healthcare to CDL training and hospitality. Free to use, for job seekers and the people who support them.
·The practice
TAKE A S.I.P. OF LIFE.
Individual, grief, couples and group therapy, stress management, depression therapy and personal growth, with an evidence-based and compassionate approach.
For employers, agencies and funders
Bring the retention layer to your program.
A pilot is ten to fifteen participants, ninety days and an honest set of numbers at the end.