La Cana

Employment opportunities in prison are insufficient, poorly paid and of low quality. In the State of Mexico, 3.07% only has formal employment, leaving the remaining 96.93% with no opportunities to earn an income nor job-training activities, which encourages prostitution, drug sales, extortion, violence and corruption in prison, and recidivism. Regarding technology, many women in prison do not have basic computing and technological knowledge, leaving them with limited employment options upon their release.

La Cana has implemented a holistic and effective social reintegration model for incarcerated women that gives them the opportunity to receive training and to get a decent job in and out of prison. Now, we want to implement a computing, technological and entrepreneurship literacy program, to give them the skills needed to build a new life away from crime and stay apace with the changing job market and economic downturns achieving a technological, peaceful and economic inclusive society.

In Mexico alone, more than 10,000 women live in prison (increases every year), many of them resort to criminal activities as a source of income as well as a way to get out of poverty, inequality, violence and exclusion in which they live. This is how they end up in prison and far from encountering a system that allows them to be socially reintegrated, (effective training and employment programs) they find themselves in worse circumstances than before.

More than 80% of these women are in a “technological limbo” because they entered prison 20 years ago or they never had a formal education in basic computing and other technological sources (email, excel, word, social media for business) these facts deny them the opportunity to get a job after serving their sentences. 

Educational lag and social stigma make it almost impossible to find a job in freedom and this affects further their self-esteem and increases recidivism. At a national level, 1 out of 4 people who are released from prison, reoffend. And 52% reoffend within the first 2 years upon release, due to the difficulty in finding a job. Nationwide, 66% of the prisons lack training and employment opportunities for incarcerated people.

Our solution aims to reduce the technological lag and promote entrepreneurship, through a program of soft and technical skills for work, which aims to ensure that, women obtain their freedom, they have the necessary tools to find a good job, formal, dignified and well remunerated, with one of our partner companies, thus reducing recidivism rates.

The idea is to enable the spaces of 4 prisons in Mexico, and provide them with computer material, Internet and basic software to implement the computing and technological literacy program, which consists of 3 modules:

1. Computing (18 hours) Basic functions of computers and how to use them through a theoretical-practical methodology. Upon completion, the women will have basic computer skills, learn how to use the Internet, email, Microsoft Windows, basic code and social networks.

2 Skills for the Future (30 hours): Four modules that seek to strengthen and develop fundamental techniques and skills for competitive performance in the formal labor market.

3. Entrepreneurship (20 hours): Knowledge necessary to start a business. At the end of this program, the participants will pitch their business proposal and the winners will have personalized mentoring and a seed funding to start their own project.

We currently provide quality training and good jobs to incarcerated women in four prisons in Mexico.

Prior to entering in prison, they were raised in areas of high marginalization with limited opportunities which had a negative effect on their upbringing, considering that they have a low education, socioeconomic level and a limited access to basic and secondary services. More than 80% of women are mothers and they were sole breadwinner their homes before being arrested. The average age is 30-45 years old, with a middle and/or high school education level, and do not have basic computing and technological knowledge. Throughout the 4 years we’ve been working with this population, we have learned their concerns, being mainly the need for a second chance to change their lives. The three modules of our solution will give them the technical, economic and empowerment tools necessary to find a job or start their own projects; in this way we will be able to break the cycle of poverty and marginality, they will have a decent income, they will be able to continue being economic support for their families and they will become examples of resilience, for their children and for the entire community

Mexico’s penitentiary system lacks successful reentry programs. Prisons are seen as places of punishment rather than opportunity or rehabilitation. Women in prison live in complete exclusion, poverty, technological backwardness, lack of training and unemployment. Our solution aims to equip these spaces to offer them technological and digital education, as well as the lasting technical and empowerment-entrepreneurship skills necessary so that once they recover their freedom, they can quickly adapt to the constant changes in the labor market and its demands, so that this way, they really have a real second chance to re-build their lives.

Our solution has no competition, since, as to our knowledge, there are no other enterprises or NGOs that seek to teach technological matters to incarcerated women. They are an invisible sector of society who is triple-discriminated against for being women, for being in prison, and for being poor. Our intervention breaks paradigms and sensitizes the population. It is innovative because no one bets on women who are or were in prison, but possibly many of them will be future entrepreneurs in their communities when they are impacted by our project.

We know and create alliances with organizations that work with prison populations, none with the intervention model that we work with: Reinserta, A.C., works on maternity issues and with adolescents; Prison Confraternity; Provides support from a religious perspective; Dragon Mexico and Ovalle Plastics, which offer formal jobs, but the characteristics of these jobs are that they are of low quality, with salaries way below the minimum wage. A tendency towards the use of prison labor as a mechanism of labor exploitation and cheap labor has been observed in these companies.

Our model differs from the previous ones because of the Technology Training focus. In addition, our strategy is holistic by providing entrepreneurship, mental health workshops, legal advice, advocacy work in public policies and support to find a job once they have served their sentence and regained their freedom.

We live in a world of technological discrimination, on the one hand, we have technology that allows us to explore the online universe, and on the other, millions of people do not know how to send an email and attach their resume to find a job. For this reason, our solution uses existing technology, software and basic hardware: Office, Code, and Internet packages to learn, from sending an email, putting together a professional summary, using an Excel sheet, to knowledge of e-commerce, digital marketing and social media. The basics to get a job where they can develop and grow. We start from the basics because in this way we cover the needs of our beneficiaries. One of the challenges of working with the prison population will be to make use of the secure internet, since the prison system's policies prohibit the use of the internet, in such a way that we will be extremely careful to comply with these regulations without affecting the training program.

The technology applied by our solution is the one that everyone uses on a daily basis in their professional and personal activities to communicate and interact with the outside remotely, social networks, the internet, search engines, e-commerce, and digital marketing, They strengthen fundamental techniques and skills for competitive performance in the formal labor market.

The problem of Mexican prisons is the lack of effective training and employment programs as a means to achieve social reintegration which encourages prostitution, drug sales, extortion, violence and corruption in prison, and recidivism. 

In a globalized world one might think that all people have access to technology and that there isn’t anyone that doesn’t have an email account, knows how to use a computer, have a profile on LinkedIn has used Excel. Well, Mexico's prisons are full of women who understand absolutely nothing about technology and basic computer use, due to the context in which they have grown from inequality, marginalization and gender inequality.

Our solution works like this: if they don’t have access to technology, we take technology to them; in this way we “break the chains” of seclusion and social abandonment, we will condition prison spaces into technological classrooms that contribute to open the window of learning opportunities for incarcerated women.

Our solution will offer those women who are soon-to-be released, the opportunity to receive training through a practical theoretical methodology, in techniques and fundamental skills for competitive performance in the formal labor market; and receive all the necessary knowledge to start their own business. Having this, immediately makes women feel less anxious and more confident in the near future and begin to plan their lives in freedom with a positive vision and different tools than before.

In the short term, as soon as they recover their freedom, women will be able to access a better job, with a living wage, some of them will be able to start their own business and create their own source of income, improving their quality of life and their families’.

In the medium term, they will be able to implement this knowledge and become job generators for their community, and in this way contribute to improving their social environment.

In the long term, we contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty, exclusion, and technological backwardness of women, which will have a significant impact on the aspirations that their sons and daughters will have for their own future.

La Cana has established a proven intervention model which has contributed to eradicate poverty and improve quality of life of more than 350 women in 4 prisons in Mexico. 

Specifically, our Technology Training, Good Jobs and Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Women in Prison initiative will impact 120 women in the first year, 15 per semester in each of the 4 prisons where we work.

In one year, we will open our scope to 2 new prisons impacting 180 women; and in 2 years with 2 more prisons we could impact 240 more women. 

In other words, in 2 years having the program in 8 prisons in Mexico, we will be able to impact 540 incarcerated women.

We have begun the process to become a Social Impact Franchise (SIF), guided by a firm of experts in the matter. Our goal is that this model could be replicated in every prison where females live in poverty without employment and training opportunities, in order to eliminate the barriers that imprisoned women face to obtain a decent work, which could allow them to live a life away from crime and poverty. What we want to prove is that this model is highly replicable and profitable applying the social franchise model, which in fact is our value proposition. We want to encompass the rest of the country, as well as Central and South America which have similar conditions in their penitentiary systems.

Also, we have a public policy and advocacy program, that allows us to impact not only the population of the prisons where we work in, but all the prison population nationwide. We have presented before the Senate a reform to legislate prison labor in order to guarantee inmates’ minimum social and labor standards. With this, it will contribute to promoting the participation of the private sector in the generation of skills and jobs for incarcerated people, guaranteeing their rights and access to social security benefits compatible with the legal situation of such population.

The only barrier we are currently facing is the initial capital investment to condition the spaces and equip prisons with computers and desks. Thinking about the long-term sustainability of the project, we will generate the necessary alliances with companies that provide hardware and software maintenance support to receive their services on a probono basis; in addition, the software and the internet system will be managed by donations. Technically there is no barrier, we have the support of prestigious Universities and their talents to implement the project. 

Legally and institutionally, we have the recognition of the corresponding penitentiary authorities and public institutions. This, thanks to the work that La Cana has carried out with great prestige and results since 2016. We hope that in five years all the women in the prisons where we work have been trained. If this happens, we could think about expanding the program with other topics and the entire prison population, moving the program to other spaces, or using these same teams to create jobs inside the prison.

We are addressing the initial capital investment barrier by searching for and applying for financing, mentoring and support, mainly with organizations willing to sponsor social entrepreneurship projects, interested in using technology to promote job opportunities, gender equality, access to education and have a vision of a more just and peaceful world. To make it sustainable over time, we will create alliances that allow us to keep hardware and software in good condition and up to date. Human capital will be covered with specialists thanks to the alliances we have generated and will generate so that they share their knowledge with us.

NA

Daniela Ancira Ruiz Founder / Project Manager daniela@lacana.mx

Raquel A. Aguirre García Co-founder / Social Impact Manager raquel@lacana.mx

Wendy Balcázar Pérez Co-founder / Advocacy Strategist wendy@lacana.mx

Mercedes Becker Perez Co-Founder/Director of Mental Health merche@lacana.mx

Lizbeth Leonor Suárez Sánchez Social Impact Officer desarrollo.institucional@lacana.mx

Aldo Larios, Cofounder Re-Code MX: administration, training and management of Human Resources, 

Our experience: We are the social enterprise that employs the most incarcerated women in the country. La Cana has established a proven intervention model which has contributed to eradicate poverty and improve quality of life of more than 350 women in 4 prisons in Mexico.

We are an extensive and multi-experienced team in Social Enterprise. business, entrepreneurship, e-commerce, technology, psychology, advocacy, and law. Daniela Ancira: Lawyer, Graduated with honors from the  Master in Human Rights and Democracy (FLACSO); certified in Business Essentials by Northwestern University. And has been recognized with several social entrepreneurship awards such as L’Oréal Paris “Women of Worth” award 2016; Grupo Salinas “Citizen of the Year 2018” award; UBS Visionaris Social Entrepreneurship award 2019; is an Ashoka Fellow and a British Council Fellow

Raquel Aguirre, criminal lawyer, specialist in the Accusatory System in Mexico;  Wendy Balcázar; lawyer, Master in Government and Public Policy, and has worked professionally in various positions in the Legislative Branch. Mercedes Becker, Psychologist, Master’s Degree in Integrative Clincal Psychotherapy and has specialties in Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy, Art Psychotherapy and Human Development.

Aldo Larios, Bachelor of Communication Sciences from the Intercontinental University. He has a specialty in Senior Management Mérida Initiative Police Training Academy. Since 2012 he began his career in Social Reintegration where he developed the prison industry model so that inmates couldreceive payment for your work.

He Co-founded Re-Code MX, a Civil Association to empower vulnerable groups through training in Information Technology and developing Prevention and Social Reintegration programs.

(i) Re-Code MX: will teach women the basic functions of computers and how to use them through a practical theoretical methodology. 

(ii) Creating your Future: will strengthen and develop fundamental techniques and skills for competitive performance in the formal labor market. 

(iii) La Chispa and Anáhuac University, women will receive all the necessary knowledge in entrepreneurship in order for them to start a business.

We are a social enterprise that trains and employs incarcerated women. Our business model is hybrid, on the one hand we are a for-profit that is in charge of the production, distribution, marketing, and sales of the different products handmade by women; From hand-woven dolls to the manufacture of products from designers and companies, and on the other hand, we are constituted as a non-profit, which provides Programs in mental healt, Human Rights Defense, Advocacy in Public Policy, and Follow-up after release.  

The women who train and work in La Cana receive an income that allows them to live in dignified conditions and cover their basic needs inside prison. In addition, they receive workshops on different topics that contributes to their self-esteem, have more peaceful relationships with their peers and with authority, reducing internal conflicts.

Thinking about our sustainability and permanence in the market, we have begun the process of becoming a Social Impact Franchise (SIF) which will allow us to obtain an extra source of income from the franchise fees and impact more women at a quicker scale.

Through the sales of our hand-made  products made by incarcerated women (more than 20,000 sold items per year) we have been able to raise awareness around the prisons’ problematic and tell the stories of these women, looking for empathy and social commitment, contributing to reduce the stigma and social discrimination.

We finance our operations in a combined way, through the sale of hand-made products at a national and international level; through our online store and various points of sale where we sell more than 20,000 products a year; and we have commercial alliances with more than 10 companies/designers to whom we manufacture their products. On the other hand, we have received seed capital from programs for social entrepreneurs. Seeking to be able to impact massively, we are in the process of creating our social franchise model, from which we will receive “franchise fees” as an extra source of income.

For the purposes of this solution, we seek to have seed capital thanks to the MIT Solve 2020 Global Challenges and that it be self-sustaining through the profits we have from our products and the franchise fees. In the long term we might think that once all the women were trained, we could use the computer equipment and the skills learned to carry out some type of remote work.

Solve can help us break down the initial investment capital budget barrier to condition spaces and equip them with computers and furniture for learning. Additionally, we want to be part of the peer support community, sponsors, and experts to help us empower our program. We consider the mentoring and strategic advice of the Solve and MIT networks to be very useful and we want to learn from them and contribute what we have learned along the way.

We want to become MIT Solve’s partner in order to get advice and support to scale our solution, so that we can have a meaningful impact in the lives of women in prison around the world. 

With Solve's technical support, we could cover more current issues, more innovative and specific topics so that women who are about to be released from prison, really have high-level knowledge and are quickly required in today's workplace. We could also be oriented on better teaching methodologies to make technological knowledge more accessible to them.

Digital skills are indispensable for young men and women to obtain a good job in the formal labor market. But as technology advances, we've seen that women are being left behind when it comes to the digital world. We are less likely to benefit from the huge job opportunities available in this sector, only due to our gender.

Now within this group of women who are in a technological lag, incarcerated women are still more invisible. Educational lag and social stigma make it almost impossible to find a job in freedom, and this problem is directly reflected in Mexico’s crime and recidivism rates, where 1 out of 4 people who are released from prison, reoffend within the first 2 years upon release. 

It gets even harder to find a job, when you not only are in a disadvantaged position due to your gender, but you have a criminal record, and upon all, you have no experience or education in computing or technology whatsoever. These women never had access to a computer, never sent an email, used Word, Excel, or social media for business. 

Our solution aims to reduce the technological lag and promote entrepreneurship, through a program of soft and technical skills for work during prison, which aims to ensure that, when they obtain their freedom, they have the necessary tools to find a good job. This way we will contribute to break the cycle of poverty, and give these women the opportunity to be economically independent away from crime