Staffing with Purpose: Empower Your Community with the Strength of Recovery
By Cade Ingleson, MBA ‘26 and Tony Nguyen MBA ‘25
Building the Community: Tony Nguyen, MBA ’25, standing next to the Service in Unity project board. Photo credit: Tony Nguyen and Cade Ingleson.
A Path Forward for People in Recovery
Service in Unity (SIU), a nonprofit based in Ithaca, NY, is a staffing agency that connects individuals in substance use and mental health recovery with flexible, short-term work that restores confidence, builds structure, and provides income during vulnerable periods of transition. SIU was founded to address a profound gap: finding dignified, supportive employment while navigating recovery. By partnering with nonprofits, local businesses, and event organizers, SIU provides people with meaningful work opportunities and offers employers reliable, values-aligned staffing and the ability to reinvest in their community. As part of the Big Red Microenterprise (BRM) program at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, our team of MBA students worked with SIU to support its mission-driven business model. BRM connects business students with underserved entrepreneurs in the local community, offering tailored coaching and strategic support. Our project focused on exploring ways SIU could scale into nearby communities, diversify its client base, and structure growth in a way that upholds the trust and human-centered approach at the core of its success—contributing to inclusive economic development in the region.
The central challenge: Grow but stay grounded
SIU has built a strong reputation among nonprofits in Tompkins County by providing reliable staff for event setup, cleaning, administrative support, and other flexible roles. Its responsiveness, quality control, and client commitment have earned praise from groups like the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and the Mental Health Association.
When we began our work, SIU was undergoing several changes—relaunching its website, reevaluating marketing and pricing, and improving internal systems. Our early meetings revealed it was a pivotal moment to assist. Key questions emerged around expanding into nearby counties; attracting new client types while preserving its recovery-centered model; and exploring new services like recurring office support. Rather than solving everything at once, we helped SIU prioritize decisions by evaluating growth options through the lens of feasibility, mission alignment, and capacity.
Listening first: What employers told us
We began by interviewing SIU’s former clients and stakeholders to understand the Ithaca market and assess growth potential. These conversations highlighted SIU’s strengths:
- Consistent and clear communication
- High-quality work and effort from employees
- High level of personal involvement by the founder, Scott Sherwood, and the SIU team
- Deep commitment to recovery, reintegration, and support
However, we also found that while many organizations supported their mission, they were unsure how to engage further or lacked the capacity for regular collaboration.
Learning from the field: What comparable models showed us
Taking feedback from previous clients, we identified our next step as benchmarking SIU against other staffing agency models, such as TaskRabbit—a national platform offering on-demand work—and Working Fields, a Vermont-based agency that supports individuals in recovery through temporary-to-permanent placements and employer coaching.
While TaskRabbit’s high-volume, technology-driven approach isn’t a good fit for SIU’s community-focused context, the gig work and flexibility it affords employees has takeaways that SIU can learn from. Working Fields provided many useful insights. Its model is built on strong regional relationships, clear risk mitigation processes, and partnerships with social service agencies for comprehensive support. The key takeaway is that SIU’s growth would be best served by codifying its value proposition; as such, it would need to explore an expansion of the services it offers or the clientele it aims to serve.
Strategic recommendations: Building for sustainable, values-aligned growth
Rather than prescribing a fixed sequence of actions, we arrived at a set of flexible, mission-aligned strategies that SIU can implement and refine over time. Our recommendations emerged from interviews with clients, benchmarking similar organizations, and a careful assessment of SIU’s current operating model.
A central opportunity lies in improving the clarity and accessibility of SIU’s service offerings. Many organizations interested in collaborating with SIU appreciate its mission but are unsure about how to engage with its services. To address this, we recommended developing gig work opportunities for entities beyond the nonprofit sector and updating marketing tools with a simplified catalog of common services—such as event staffing, light cleaning, and administrative support—with sample pricing, lead time guidance, and frequently asked questions. This structured approach would help first-time clients quickly understand SIU’s offerings and streamline the process of initiating service.
In parallel, it is crucial to better codify and communicate SIU’s value proposition. Clients have consistently praised the reliability of SIU staff and the responsiveness of its leadership, but these strengths are currently shared through informal channels and word of mouth. We recommended capturing compelling testimonials, developing case studies, and creating success stories that illustrate what SIU does and why it matters. These assets can be integrated into proposals, outreach materials, and community presentations to build trust and credibility.
As for growth, we see promise in two primary pathways. First, geographic expansion into nearby counties with similar nonprofit networks would be a natural next step. Second, diversifying the client base to include small businesses in need of gig work could help sustain operations. Offering “starter packages” and referral discounts, emphasizing SIU’s robust screening process, and exploring temporary-to-permanent staffing models could support this transition. Finally, we encouraged SIU to build internal systems that support adaptive learning by gathering client feedback, tracking key metrics, and adjusting strategies in real time—ensuring growth that reinforces rather than dilutes its mission.
Reflections: Strategy with soul
One of the most rewarding aspects of this project was witnessing firsthand how strategy and compassion work together. SIU isn’t just a staffing agency; it is a force for change that provides dignity, stability, and the promise of a second chance. In a world that often values scale over substance, our work with SIU underscored the importance of scaling with values at the helm.
The insights gained through this project have reinforced our beliefs that sustainable growth is not measured solely by increased revenue or expanded market share. It can also be defined by maintaining relationships, upholding organizational values, and adapting to the changing needs of the community. Our strategic recommendations are not meant to be a rigid roadmap; they are designed to help SIU ask the right questions, test new ideas thoughtfully, and evolve in a manner that stays true to its core mission and enables long-term success.
About the authors
Cade Ingleson, MBA ‘26 is a first-year MBA candidate in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Prior to business school, Ingleson was a U.S. Army officer, leading infantry organizations and working at Alkali Labs, a biotechnology startup. At the Johnson School, he focuses on sustainability and strategy. He is president of the Sustainable Global Enterprise Club and vice president of the Johnson Association of Veterans. He joined BRM to work with purpose-driven ventures like SIU, applying business tools to advance equity in local communities.
Tony Nguyen, MBA ’25 is a second-year MBA candidate in the Johnson School. Before his MBA, he was a sales manager at Procter and Gamble and a strategic business development manager at Generali, a global insurer from Europe. He also has experience in consulting, working as a summer associate at Bain. He joined BRM to make a tangible impact on local enterprises and nonprofits in the area.