Amy Amador

Michigan Nightlight: What does being a leader mean to you?
Mercy Education Project Executive Director Amy Amador: Being a leader means developing a vision and plan for the future, learning from the past, and attracting people who can help support the mission. A nonprofit leader makes strategic decisions on how to fulfill the agency’s mission considering the community’s needs and assets and the agency’s capacity to address these needs in a sustainable manner. At Mercy Education Project, evaluating needs and capacity takes place with the input of staff throughout the organization as well as students, volunteers and other stakeholders. Bringing staff “on the bus” with diverse backgrounds, points of view and skill sets makes for a stronger organization and better decision-making.
 
What is your dream for kids?
My dream for our youth is that they will have the opportunities, skills, and confidence to choose their life’s path. The girls we

Through the hard work it takes to improve their skills and grades, the girls’ self-confidence improves and they begin to see themselves as learners and achievers.

serve come from low-income families where college attendance has not been the norm. In our community, over 50 percent of adults did not finish high school and 24 percent did not complete the 9^th grade. By coming to Mercy Education Project, our girls are learning that their academic work is important to their parents, their tutors and the staff of MEP. They are receiving help in filling in the gaps in their learning which may have arisen for a variety of reasons. Through the hard work it takes to improve their skills and grades, the girls’ self-confidence improves and they begin to see themselves as learners and achievers. Ultimately I want the girls to develop a positive sense of self and have the academic and life skills to succeed in post-secondary education and achieve self-sufficiency and fulfillment.
 
What is one concrete thing that could be done to improve the environment for social sector work in Michigan?
The social sector could use assistance in improving data collection and measurement tools within and across organizations. This would mean helping nonprofits improve their internal data management systems either through replacing outdated systems or enhancing existing systems. Even with systems in place, being able to drill down and ask the right questions of the data can be difficult for agencies. A pool of vetted data management professionals could be developed to help agencies, at affordable rates, build their internal capacity to get at the data needed to help improve programs and better measure outcomes.  Developing a system to access data across organizations, such as providing access to school attendance and grade records, would help nonprofits more quickly engage with their program participants when red flags appear.
 
How do you know you’re making progress?

We have high expectations for our students within a culture and climate of respect, compassion and hospitality.

At Mercy Education Project, we are data driven and the standardized pre- and post-test scores show that students in our youth tutoring and adult education programs are making progress. Additionally, many of our students in our programs are referred by current students and graduates. Word of mouth is the best kind of referral we could receive. It shows that our students value the services that they are receiving and that they want their sisters, neighbors, and friends to find the success that they have found.
 
What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the quality of services that Mercy Education Project provides.  We have high expectations for our students within a culture and climate of respect, compassion and hospitality. This balance of high expectations and support helps students thrive and serves as a positive behavioral model. Our students improve academically and develop positive relationships with their tutors and the Mercy Education Project staff.
 
From an organizational standpoint, I am most proud of our growth toward sustainability over the past six years. We have restructured, decreased staff turnover, doubled and diversified our revenues and expanded the number of people served and the types of services offered. We’ve developed new relationships and significantly increased the number of volunteers who assist weekly. We are embarking on our second strategic plan with a focus on enhancing our core services and addressing the questions of scalability and sustainability.
 
How has living in the community that you are working in affected your work with Mercy Education Project?
Living in southwest Detroit, I can appreciate the vibrancy of the community and its challenges. There is a family and community connectedness that has attracted me to southwest Detroit since moving here 15 years ago. I initially came to Mercy Education Project as a volunteer tutor in 1998 because I wanted to volunteer in the community where I lived. My background and experiences are different from those MEP serves. I grew up middle class in a small town in Tennessee and now hold two degrees. Yet my small town upbringing, where it wasn’t uncommon to run into teachers at the grocery or drug store, informs my belief that having a community where people of diverse backgrounds live and work and share a similar frame of reference helps to create a healthy community.