Wine Country Times

Women’s Recovery Services does not just mitigate the effects of addiction but creates long-term solutions. The work WRS does empowers families to be economically stable. With the help of Walt Flom, a volunteer statistician, WRS has been tracking outcome data since 2016.

There is a societal system of poverty, addiction, neglect and homelessness in which people are trying to survive. WRS replaces that with a system where mothers and their families can thrive. It meets early stage needs, stabilizes them and develops a system of self-reliance.

Walt Flom has 32 years of experience as a statistician in the high-tech industry. He currently volunteers at WRS to leverage his skill set to give back to the community. 

"WRS has an important mission, is in my community and has a strong need to become more data-driven," Flom told Wine Country Times. "I enjoy helping WRS visualize and learn from data and trends that were previously hidden."

Flom says that before he started working at WRS, much of the organization's critical data wasn't even recorded and was just memorized by some of its members. He helped put in place a system to record and collect the data so it could be used in meaningful ways.

"We implemented a combination of check sheets, surveys, and spreadsheets to feed data into the analysis," Flom said. "This enables the organization to more efficiently collect data and use the analysis results to secure grants and donor funding."

The challenges of working with a small organization compared to a tech company required Flom to make some adjustments. 

"A small organization like WRS does not have the resources for a sophisticated, enterprise-wide database like a hospital or hotel might have. We must be creative in developing practical and simple ways to collect and store data," Flom said. "Additionally, a challenge for me was transitioning from the high-tech corporate culture to the non-profit WRS culture. Helping WRS apply for and receive grants based on, my data analysis is very satisfying."

According to Flom, nonprofit organizations like WRS benefit from a data-driven, business-like approach rather than the typical emotional approach. 

"It is critical for non-profit organizations to use data to monitor and improve their business processes and not rely on gut feelings," Flom said. "In addition, data provides a foundation for the trust of donors and grant organizations and their support of WRS and its mission; the crucial key is the ability to provide quantifiable evidence of impact in the community."

Flom's work has helped WRS to better present meaningful data to prospective donors to help secure donations and grant funding.

“We believe that the data Walt generates and enables us to provide to donors has been crucial to gain donations from both individual funders as well as foundations,” said Jody Edwards, past WRS board president and chair of the Fund Development Committee at WRS. “We have heard feedback from foundation grant administrators that our outcome data is strong and in some cases together with the narrative responses to the questions has been the winning formula needed to gain their support.”

Located in Santa Rosa, California and founded in 1975, Women’s Recovery Services is a nonprofit organization that helps families recover from a mother’s addiction. The organization’s goal is to break the cycle of addiction for women, including by providing a safe, healthy residence that allows neglected children to remain with their mothers while they learn the life skills necessary to become responsible community members.

The specific goals of WRS are to: interrupt the cycle of addiction including its subsequent effect of poverty, homelessness, violence, neglect and separation from families; stabilize the mother and children’s health; show mothers and children the way to a new life by addressing the root causes of chronic addiction, providing tools and education about substance dependence and how to live in recovery, providing parenting classes to be great mothers in the long term and teaching life skills to become independent; build a healthy community of resources with other women in recovery and participate in support systems available in Sonoma County; and transition to community living by providing transition homes with ongoing case management and parental coaching.

WRS offers a 120-day Residential Program for pregnant and parenting women as well as their kids, a Children’s Program, and an eight-month AfterCare program. AfterCare is a weekly program provided upon successful completion of the Residential Program. WRS also offers up to two years for families to live in a transition home while getting back on their feet.https://www.womensrecoveryservices.org/

WRS currently provides shelter for 52 women and children and seeks public donations to provide shelter, food and counseling for residents. Donations help provide a safety net for women and children, including a safe place to eat and sleep, diapers and food for babies, protection from their abusers, and counseling. 

Visitors can donate online through the organization's website. WRS also hosts fundraisers through its Facebook page.