Focus Forward
SERVICE DESIGN · NON-PROFIT
Designing systems for long-term participant support, alumni visibility, and sustainable growth at Focus Forward Project
Client
Focus Forward Project Inc.
Role
Service Designer — Blueprint mapping, service ecosystem mapping, service intervention design
Timeline
6 weeks
Team
5 Designers – Research and Service Design
OVERVIEW
Designing Long-Term Support and Measurable Impact for Focus Forward
The Focus Forward Project is a nonprofit organization that runs a 13-week educational program for individuals under pretrial supervision who have been charged with federal offenses but not yet sentenced. The program focuses on life skills, emotional resilience, financial literacy, and reentry planning.
While the program creates meaningful change for participants, FFP faced two key challenges: tracking graduate outcomes and scaling through stronger donor engagement and public awareness. Our service design engagement addressed both through research, co-design, systems mapping, and intervention design.
"When someone is sentenced, it can feel like life has ended. Like everything you were and everything you could be has been taken away."
—Focus Forward Alumni
THE PROBLEM
The Focus Forward Project creates meaningful relationships but the service effectively ended after graduation. Yet, there was:
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No longitudinal tracking system, no alumni infrastructure,
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No structured communication process,
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No way to demonstrate long-term impact to funders.
This created two critical organizational challenges:
CHALLENGE 01
Measuring Impact
Develop a way to track participant outcomes during and after the program, including post-release progress and recidivism, to better understand the program impact.
CHALLENGE 02
Scaling the Program
Identify strategies to attract higher value donors and expand the program to new municipalities, enabling broader reach and long-term sustainability.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The Pretrial Period Is Underserved and High-Stakes
The pretrial period is one of the least-supported moments in the justice system. Participants are awaiting sentencing while managing fear, uncertainty, and the long-term consequences of federal charges.
FFP intervenes at a critical moment by helping participants build skills, find community, and plan for what comes next. But without a system to stay connected after graduation, that support disappears precisely when participants need it most.
MY ROLE
Mapping the Service to Reveal Gaps and What Happens After Week 13
My role focused on understanding the service as a connected ecosystem and translating that complexity into visual artifacts. I contributed to:
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Service blueprinting
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Cross-channel systems analysis
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Co-design synthesis
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Ecosystem loop mapping
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Service intervention design
A key part of my work was helping visualize where the service was active, where it dropped off, and what systems would be needed to support participants after graduation.
PROCESS
From Mapping the Current Service to Designing Interventions
Our process moved through four phases:
Discover & Map
Mapped the current service from pre-enrollment through post-graduation.
Analyze
Created a cross-channel systems map and evaluated the service through the Good Services Scale.
Co-Design
Ran a 75-minute virtual workshop with 18 participants, graduates, facilitators, and staff.
Intervene & Synthesize
Developed interventions and ecosystem loops based on service gaps and co-design outcomes.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Seeing the Full Service From Pre-Enrollment to Post-Graduation
We created a service blueprint to map the full FFP journey across six stages: pre-enrollment, enrollment, onboarding, the 13-week program, graduation, and post-graduation. The blueprint captured:
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Participant actions
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Front-stage facilitator actions
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Backstage actions
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Support processes
The Key Finding: Post-graduation was a missing system. There was no longitudinal tracking, no outcome data collection, and no follow-up platform for graduates. The service effectively ended at Week 13.
CROSS-CHANNEL ANALYSIS
Identifying Where the Service Drops Off Across Channels
We mapped the channels through which FFP delivers its service, including participants, staff, the website, mobile communications, print materials, on-site environments, data systems, and shared assets.
This revealed a consistent pattern: the service had strong activity during enrollment, onboarding, and the 13-week program, but dropped sharply after graduation.
The post-graduation gap appeared across every channel:
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Participants had no structured follow-up
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Staff relied on occasional check-ins
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Website and digital media had no follow-up platform
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Shared assets had no alumni or outcome-tracking infrastructure
SERVICE EVALUATION
The Good Services Scale Confirmed Three System-Level Weaknesses
We evaluated FFP’s current service using the Good Services Scale. The service received a score of 38/60. The three areas of greatest struggle were:
Dead Ends
The service stopped at graduation with no clear continuation.
Inability to Respond to Change Quickly
Systems were fragmented and manual.
Not Agnostic of Organizational Structure
The service depended too heavily on individual facilitator initiative.
CO-DESIGN WORKSHOP
Designing With Participants, Graduates, and Facilitators
To move beyond assumptions, we ran a 75-minute virtual co-design workshop on Zoom using Miro. Participants included:
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6 current participants
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6 graduates
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6 facilitators and admin staff
The goal was to better support participants through and beyond program completion while strengthening community ties, post-graduate connection, and FFP’s long-term donor and stakeholder ecosystem.
CO-DESIGN INSIGHTS
Insights & Gaps Surfaced During the Co-Design Workshop
INSIGHT 01
Fear of losing community
Graduation felt like the end of Focus Forward for some participants. They mentioned no one understood them the way their peers and facilitators did.
INSIGHT 02
Desire to give back
Graduates expressed a desire to mentor current participants and give back to the program. They were eager to get involved in alumni events and fundraising.
GAP 01
Facilitator check-ins are inconsistent
Post-graduation contact depends on individual initiative. No system, no template, no expectation for participants on what communication to expect after graduation.
GAP 02
Donors can’t feel the impact
Funders receive data but not stories. Without narratives and outcome evidence, making the case for bigger donations is extremely difficult.
ECOSYSTEM LOOPS
Designing Self-Reinforcing Systems for Support and Funding
Loop 1: Tracking Participant Success
Graduates opt into post-program communication, alumni share lived experiences, facilitators track milestones, and leadership uses outcome data to demonstrate impact to funders and courts.
Loop 2: Donor Expansion
Graduate stories build awareness, public engagement increases donations, and leadership uses impact reporting to attract new donors and expand reach.
SERVICE INTERVENTIONS
Interventions to Support Tracking, Communication, and Visibility
INTERVENTION 01
Content Creation Toolkit
Video/visual editor for social posts to highlight alumni stories and build community
INTERVENTION 02
Facilitator Engagement Toolkit
Templates and structured check-in guidance to support consistent connection
INTERVENTION 03
Alumni Communication Hub
Newsletter and website section to share updates and strengthen alumni visibility
INTERVENTION 01
Content Creation Toolkit
Turning Alumni Stories Into Donor-Facing Content
The Content Creation Toolkit helps FFP turn long-form alumni stories into short, social-media-ready videos with captions.
This reduces the workload required to maintain a social media presence while making alumni stories more visible to donors, advocates, and the wider public.
INTERVENTION 02
Facilitator Engagement Toolkit
Making Post-Graduation Contact Ethical and Structured
The Facilitator Engagement Toolkit supports ongoing communication after graduation. It includes:
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Informed consent forms
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Check-in communication templates
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An engagement log
At graduation, participants can choose whether they consent to ongoing contact from FFP. This ensures follow-up is ethical, wanted, and designed around participant preference.
INTERVENTION 03
Alumni Communication Hub
Creating a Low-Pressure Alumni Hub for Ongoing Connection
OUTCOME
From a 13-Week Program to a Long-Term Support System
Together, the interventions create a more connected service model. They help FFP:
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Maintain post-graduation communication
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Track participant outcomes and recidivism
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Reduce facilitator burden
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Make alumni stories visible
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Build donor trust
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Support expansion into new municipalities
The biggest shift is that graduation is no longer treated as the end of the service. It becomes the start of a longer-term relationship.
CONCLUSION
Presenting the Final Design and Key Takeaways
SERVICE DESIGN & SYSTEMS THINKING
This project strengthened my understanding of how service design can reveal gaps that are difficult to identify through interviews or isolated touchpoints alone.
Creating the blueprint and systems maps helped visualize where continuity broke down and how operational systems, communication, and participant experiences were interconnected.
COLLABORATION & CO-DESIGN
Working closely with participants, graduates, facilitators, and administrators reinforced the importance of designing with communities rather than around them.
The co-design workshop surfaced emotional and systemic insights that directly shaped the interventions and reframed the project toward long-term support and continuity.
CLIENT FEEDBACK & IMPACT
The final presentation received highly positive feedback from the Focus Forward Project team, who shared that the depth of the systems thinking, research synthesis, and intervention proposals exceeded their expectations.
The work helped provide clearer direction for how the organization could support alumni engagement and demonstrate long-term impact beyond the program.
Our team presenting the final outcome to the stakeholders at Focus Forward Project
Contact
© 2026 Shayla Singh