Unsung Heroes

Program Mission Statement:

(self-reported)

Unsung Heroes is a support and self-renewal training program for nursing home, hospice and home health care workers. Unsung Heroes provides a wide range of faith-based spiritual, stress, and coping techniques for rural healthcare workers including often minimum wage employees like hospice and healthcare aids, housekeeping staff, cooks and custodians.

Self-awareness and resiliency training by CTI staff, clergy, social workers and physicians to give medical care and support staff ways to deal with the stressful environment of overburdened rural healthcare, and coping with their own minimum-wage personal budgets and stress-related nutrition concerns. Rural health workers don’t receive this training elsewhere.

Score Summary

Overall Score:	Excellent
Practice Principles:	Excellent
Faith Related Elements:	Better
Outcome Measures:	Excellent
Change Process:	Better

Program Facts

• Paid (FTE) Staff Working: 2
• Program Participants Last Year: 50
• Meets about 2 time(s) with each participant per month
• Participants remain in the program for 12 months

Board Activities

Funding Overview

(self-reported)

	This Program	This Organization
Organization Budget: $98,700 Program Budget: $14,000
Foundation Grants	40%	33%
Government Grants/Contracts	0%	0%
Individual Gifts	40%	17%
Business/Corporate Gifts	20%	10%
Congregation/Denominational Gifts	0%	15%
Dues/Fees/Income	0%	0%
Other	0%	25%
	Average Program Funding From All Samaritan Programs	Average Organization Funding From All Samaritan Organizations
The next charts display the average funding sources for all programs currently in the Samaritan Guide for your comparison. Average Organization Budget: $3,820,907 Average Program Budget: $480,643
Foundation Grants	24%	18%
Government Grants/Contracts	3%	8%
Individual Gifts	36%	33%
Business/Corporate Gifts	9%	8%
Congregation/Denominational Gifts	9%	10%
Dues/Fees/Income	7%	9%
Other	10%	11%

It is important to maintain diverse income sources for your programs and for your oganization as a whole. Doing so provides long-term financial stability to your organizations and programs. It is also important to note that government funding often comes with stipulations and restrictions. More information is available in the Raising Resources Toolkit - pdf.

Score Details

Program Focus
Program Mission	Clarity and specificity of the program's mission statement.	Excellent
Target Population	Clarity and specificity of the programs target clientele.	Excellent
Eligibility Criteria	Clarity and specificity of the program's eligibility criteria.	Good
Program Requirements	Well defined requirements for client participation.	Good
Referrals From Other Organizations	Do other organizations recommend this program to their clientele.	Good
Referrals to Other Organizations	Does this program recommend other programs to their clients?	Excellent
Volunteer to Staff Ratio	Are volunteers effectively incorporated into the program?	Good
Past Participant Recruiting	Are past program participants recruited as volunteers?	Excellent
Evaluation and Practice Princples
Practice Principles	How supports and resources are provided to increase outcomes.	Excellent
Outcome Measurement	The ability to measure stated program outcomes.	Excellent
Change Process	Specific and measurable statement of the program's goals.	Better
Faith Related Elements	Integration of faith related elements.	Better
Measurement Frequency	Frequency of measuring client outcomes.	Excellent
Program Evaluation	Level of the budget allocated to measuring client outcomes.	Excellent
Institutional Stability
Organization Age	A measure of the organization's durability.	Excellent
Board Oversight	How involved in the program are the members of its board?	Excellent
Program Duration	Average duration of a clients participation with a program.	Better
Finances
Budget Diffusion	Diversity of the programs funding sources.	Excellent
Government Funding	Does this program accept little or no government funding?	Excellent

Program Score Details

---

---

Outcomes & Measures:

(self-reported)

Scoring for this section is based on the organizations ability to provide at least three clear and specific outcomes with corresponding measures in which a relationship is shown between outcomes and measures.

Outcome 1: Increased self-awareness and empathy skills for nursing home, hospice and home health staff

Measure Used:
Written evaluations of training experiences by participants.

---

Outcome 2: Increased effectiveness of staff interactions with colleagues and patients.

Measure Used:
Three and six month evaluations; Measurements and observations by supervisors on site

---

Outcome 3: Increased resiliency and health education in areas of diet and stress management.

Measure Used:
Feedback by participants, blood pressure readings and history, weight control measurements, self-reporting of exercise

---

Outcome 4: Continuing education opportunities, scholarships for conference participation.

Measure Used:
Annually five participants attend conference on grief, bereavement and patient care. Documentation on attending these classes/seminars and reflection essays.

---

Outcome 5: Educational components on personal financial management for staff workers on minimum wage scales

Measure Used:
Participants complete personal model budgets focusing on credit risks and savings strategies.

---

Change Process:

(self-reported)

Scoring for this section is based on the organizations ability to provide clear, measurable, client-focused stages of change based on participant participation.

Participants learn ways to cope with the personal stress of an overburdened, underfunded rural healthcare system that’s stretched to the maximum in areas of supplies, patient needs training, conflict resolution, compassionate care.

These healthcare, hospice and home health employees and support staff are also dealing with their own financial and dietary stress due to a minimum wage pay.

CTI staff, clergy, relaxation experts and others teach coping skills and provide spiritual education that the participants use to provide better patient care and a improve relationship with co-workers.

Participants prepare personal budgets and healthy menus with information from diet, health and budgeting experts and learn how addressing these issues makes other areas of their life more enjoyable.

Participants also learn from each other by describing their own concerns and/or conflicts in a wide range of duties from home health, to end-of-life care, to veterans needs through projects for Veterans Administration employees.

Five of those attending Unsung Heroes are annually given scholarships/grants for continuing education thanks to support for the project from the Marquette Community Foundation. Those who receive grants report back on what they have learned and how it appliers to their medical jobs. Financing for the additional training is not readily available from their own employers due to the economic hard times facing Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that economists have described as the “Second Appalachia” due to the highest unemployment and lowest household income in the state.

End Notes

Incomplete Applications

Significant decreases in certain scores may indicate failure to comprehensively complete certain sections of the Samaritan Award application. Please be sure to fill out every question in the Samaritan Award application.

Relative Scoring

Total program scores are partially computed against other programs from within the same pool of applications and so are not cumulative.

Additional Reference Material

More information on scoring and methodology may be found on the Samaritan Guide and Award website.

Acton Institute Relationship

The Samaritan Guide and Samaritan Award are projects run by the Acton Institute. Inclusion in the Guide does not signify endorsement by the Acton Institute. More information on why the Acton Institute runs this project is available online.