Education pilot criteria

Calm Clarity is a small start-up and given our limited capacity and resources, we have to be very selective and strategic about how we work with universities and other institutions. It is not feasible at this time to engage with all the institutions and students who would benefit from Calm Clarity. –

Also, there are costs involved in running pilot programs. As a new social venture, we are not in a position to fund raise or subsidize these costs for universities, schools, or other organizations.
–
The Essential Life Skills Program contains ten modules (each about 2.5 hours long) that are facilitated as in-person experiential, interactive workshops. We estimate the essential costs of delivering the program, in a way that is sustainable and enables us to build capacity, to be about $20,000. Increasing capacity requires building a team and developing a train-the-trainer program so that we can scale our services.
 –
Therefore, we would like to share expectations and criteria for collaboration with a university or other type of institution.
 –
Here are our initial thoughts on the criteria that an institution has to have in place for Calm Clarity to prioritize our limited resources to collaborate on a pilot:
–
  1. The institution has a strong commitment to supporting students from under-served backgrounds. Administrative leaders and faculty must be willing to take ownership for building a more inclusive campus support system & culture. (If this isn’t in place, then it’s very unlikely the other criteria will be met)
    –
  2. A well-regarded full-time staff person at the institutions who is willing to serve as an internal sponsor / champion. This should ideally be someone on the leadership team or faculty who is passionate about Calm Clarity’s vision for social impact and has the skills, credibility, and perseverance to navigate such a project through the decision-making hurdles.
    –
  3. A critical mass of students interested in participating in a pilot of the Calm Clarity Essential Life Skills Program (and if needed, be willing to take the lead in advocating to decision-makers to bring Calm Clarity to campus). The target size for a randomized controlled pilot study would be 50 or more total participants to test for statistical significance.
    –
  4. The institution has the financial capacity (or the ability to fund raise) to devote resources to implement a pilot. The institution must be willing to cover the costs for delivering the full Essential Life Skills program. Our discounted rate for a pilot study is $20,000 for 10 modules plus travel costs from Philadelphia. (For a wait-list controlled study, we would have to run the program twice, so that would be $40,000). Please note, this does not include the costs for a third party researcher to conduct longitudinal tracking to measure and evaluate longer-term outcomes (see #5).
    –
  5. We are looking to collaborate with a lead researcher, someone who has the expertise to design the pilot study to meet whatever IRB standards are required to make this type of study meaningful and the ability to seek grant funding. If there is such a researcher at the institution, that would be a big plus.
 –
Criteria 1, 2 and 3 are the most critical as a starting point because mission alignment, an internal champion, and strong student advocacy can move mountains.
–
We suggest anybody who wishes to learn more about the Calm Clarity Program, come participate in a weekend retreat to experience it for yourself. Please note: the Mindful Leadership Program is the first 4 modules of the Essential Life Skills Program. 
 –
Thanks,
Due Quach
Founder of Calm Clarity