Building a Workforce Model That Changed the Conversation Around Employment
“Humans have human needs, and wraparound services can’t be overlooked. We were running out of arguments for funding and Mike gave us language and brain science to navigate conversations about why human beings can’t learn if they are living in constant trauma.”
The Challenge
As a newly formed organization focused on closing Wilmington's racial wealth gap, our client faced a problem larger than workforce development itself. Leaders recognized that traditional employment programs were producing inconsistent results, despite most public funding remaining focused on job training alone. Missing from the conversation was a fundamental question: What conditions do people actually need to succeed at work?
The organization was searching for a way to help employers, funders, government leaders, researchers, and community organizations develop a shared understanding of the human factors shaping workforce outcomes.
How We Helped
As technical assistance providers, humanature brought together leaders from business, philanthropy, government, research, and workforce development to examine the challenge through the sciences of human development, learning, and performance.
Rather than beginning with programs or funding, humanature led collaborative sessions to support stakeholders in uncovering the conditions preventing existing investments from producing lasting, impactful results. Through structured dialogue and evidence-based learning, participants explored how chronic stress and trauma influence attention, learning, decision-making, and workplace performance, giving leaders a research-backed framework for conversations they had previously struggled to navigate.
Instead of simply validating existing assumptions, humanature challenged the coalition to rethink what successful workforce development actually required. The engagement helped participants move beyond training as the primary solution and identify wraparound supports, employer practices, and trusted relationships as essential components of long-term employment success.
The Outcome
Armed with a shared language grounded in neuroscience and human development, the organization was able to engage employers, investors, government agencies, and philanthropic partners in entirely different conversations.
As a result, the organization designed a justice-impacted employment model centered on an Employer Navigator—a trusted intermediary who supports both employers and employees for up to a year while coordinating the wraparound support necessary for long-term success.
The work also sparked new employer partnerships and influenced broader workforce strategies by replacing opinion-based advocacy with research-backed evidence that resonated across sectors.
Today, the organization is recognized nationally for its human-centered workforce model. By the end of 2025, the initiative had placed more than 465 individuals into employment, while maintaining an ambitious goal of 80% one-year retention by designing systems that support both workers and employers over time.
The greatest outcome was a permanent shift in how leaders understood workforce development. Rather than asking how to train more people, stakeholders began asking how to build environments where people could actually learn, perform, and thrive, creating a foundation for innovation that continues to shape the organization's work today.