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Organization: University of Memphis GROWWTH
Population Served:
Solution:
Insights From: Stephanie Godwin-Chu and Bishope Wilson
Video Testimonial:
Summary:
The Growing Relational and Occupational Wealth in West Tennessee Households (GROWWTH) Program at the University of Memphis is a state-funded workforce readiness initiative serving low-income families across 21 counties in West Tennessee. When a planned state reporting system fell behind and a major subcontracting model had to be brought in-house at the end of year one, GROWWTH turned to CaseWorthy as its system of record. Today, every role in the program operates inside CaseWorthy, and the team has used the platform to nearly triple staff, scale enrollment, redesign its training mix around real participant demand, and build a data foundation to pursue funding beyond the original state grant.
From a Grant on Paper to a Whole-Person Workforce Program
How the University of Memphis GROWWTH Program Uses CaseWorthy to Power Wraparound Services Across 21 Counties
The Growing Relational and Occupational Wealth in West Tennessee Households (GROWWTH) Program at the University of Memphis is a workforce readiness initiative dedicated to helping low-income families reach economic self-sufficiency. Funded by the State of Tennessee in November 2022 and live with services in February 2023, GROWWTH serves parents across 21 counties in West Tennessee, from Shelby County to Hardin County. The majority of participants are women, with roughly 60–70% percent single mothers and 93% women overall.
The program delivers a wide range of wraparound services, including employment assistance, resume support, job placement, training scholarships of up to $6,000, financial education, an entrepreneurship track, and emergency assistance for rent, utilities, transportation, and childcare. On any given day, a single participant may work with a case manager, a care coordinator, and an employment specialist, all collaborating around one centralized record.
The Challenge
A Wide Footprint, a Limited State System, and a Service Model Built to Change
When GROWWTH launched, the program faced a familiar challenge: too much complexity and not enough infrastructure to hold it together. The State of Tennessee’s required system handled assessments and baseline enrollment but offered no real capability for documentation or record keeping, and it was not ready in time for the program’s service launch.
The operating model added more complexity. GROWWTH was designed to deliver services across a 21-county region with a target of roughly 2,500 participants over four years, originally through a network of seven subcontractors. At the end of year one, the program had to end contracts with all but two of those subcontractors and bring nearly all program delivery in-house, almost overnight.
The team itself spanned a wide range of roles and tool backgrounds. Engagement staff, intake staff, case managers, care coordinators, directors, communications staff, and subcontractor employees from American Job Centers, many of whom were used to state platforms like Jobs4TN and VOS, all needed to work in the same environment. And with dozens of service types and multi-county payments flowing through the program, the team had no reliable way to track services and proof of payment beyond spreadsheets.
Why CaseWorthy
A System That Could Absorb Everything
CaseWorthy was already under contract when Stephanie Godwin-Chu joined as Project Director, and once the state system fell behind, it quickly became GROWWTH’s system of record. Today, every role in the program operates inside CaseWorthy, from case management and care coordination to intake, engagement, communications, leadership, and subcontractor staff.
The team has configured CaseWorthy around the specific requirements of the grant, building out services, forms, dashboards, and templated case notes for monthly contacts and other standardized processes. System administration runs in-house as well. Bishope Wilson joined GROWWTH in July 2023 as a care coordinator before stepping into a Quality Assurance Specialist role, where he now manages reporting, dashboards, form design, and caseload analysis as a team of one.
How GROWWTH Uses CaseWorthy Today
A Single Source of Truth Across Every Role
When a case manager, care coordinator, and employment specialist all work with the same participant on the same day, real-time visibility into notes, communications, and services keeps the team aligned. Participants do not have to retell a sensitive or trauma-related story every time they are referred to a new colleague.
Services and Payments in One Centralized Record
GROWWTH worked with the CaseWorthy team to redefine services so the platform could serve as the system of record for payouts. The business services team can now confirm in real time whether a rent payment, utility bill, or weekly childcare payment has been issued, with proof-of-payment documentation attached at the participant level.
Form Requirements and Templates That Protect Data Quality
Required fields built into forms ensure that critical data is captured every time. Case note templates streamline monthly contacts and other standardized processes, allowing case managers to spend less time formatting and more time on the conversation.
Drag-and-Drop Configuration
The form builder and dashboard builder allow GROWWTH to design bespoke workflows, reports, and visualizations tailored to the grant's reporting requirements, with minimal reliance on outside support.
Reporting That Tells GROWWTH's Own Story
CaseWorthy reporting gives GROWWTH the ability to break results down by service type, county, and region, supporting the program's annual reports, board updates, and future funder conversations with both quantitative and qualitative insight.
Impact
Scaling Without Losing a Beat
With CaseWorthy as the connective layer, GROWWTH absorbed a near-total reorganization of its service delivery model without disrupting participants. When the program ended most of its subcontractor contracts at the end of year one, the team nearly tripled its in-house staff in a short window, growing from about 12 to 35 employees. Enrollment doubled and then tripled month over month in the period that followed.
Staff Growth Without Disruption
GROWWTH scaled from roughly 12 to 35 staff and rebuilt service delivery in-house while continuing to onboard, train, and acclimate new team members inside one centralized platform.
Doubled, Then Tripled Enrollment
In the months following the subcontractor transition, the team doubled and then tripled enrollment month over month, with CaseWorthy supporting the increased caseload across users and counties.
Faster Onboarding for Subcontractor Staff
Subcontractor staff arriving from state platforms like Jobs4TN and VOS consistently report that CaseWorthy is easier to learn. Once workflows are built and initial training is delivered, consistency across the team follows quickly.
Data Sovereignty and a Stronger Story
By centralizing program data inside CaseWorthy, GROWWTH has been able to tell its own story rather than rely on the state and its study partner to feed metrics back. Year-over-year annual reports reflect richer quantitative and qualitative insight.
Smarter Program Design
Early CaseWorthy data revealed that GROWWTH's original emphasis on construction careers did not align with a participant base that is 93 percent women. The team used that insight to pivot training investments toward healthcare careers, where most participants seeking training were interested.
A Lean Quality Assurance Function
With form builder, dashboard builder, and reporting features doing the heavy lifting, a single Quality Assurance Specialist supports data hygiene, caseload analysis, hiring signals, and grant reporting across the entire program.
Participant Stories
What the Data Looks Like in Real Lives
Behind the workflows and dashboards are the participants whose lives change when the system works the way it should. One GROWWTH participant, a single mother, took advantage of nearly every program GROWWTH offers. She earned milestones for completing training, gaining employment, and staying employed, then went on to complete the entrepreneurship program and earn funds to grow her business. Today she is one of only two certified specialists in her field in the region. Because every interaction lives in CaseWorthy, former case managers can still follow her progress and reference her case notes long after the handoff.
A single father of three young girls had been on a heart transplant wait list for years, and his physical health had made steady employment difficult. GROWWTH paid for four stacked IT and networking certifications inside the program’s $6,000 training cap. He is now pursuing IT roles in Memphis’s growing data hub ecosystem and is in the process of receiving his transplant.
What’s Next
Building a Future Beyond the Original Grant
GROWWTH is in its no-cost extension year, with a wind-down contract lined up for the year that follows. The team is in early conversations about additional grant funding outside the state, and CaseWorthy data is central to that pitch. The metrics, the service mix, the outcomes, and the participant stories housed in the platform are how GROWWTH demonstrates what it does and how well it does it.
CaseWorthy’s configurability also gives GROWWTH a foundation that can outlast the current grant. The state system will sunset when the grant sunsets, but the program can reshape its CaseWorthy environment to comply with whatever new grant requirements come next.
In Their Own Words
Featuring Insights From
Stephanie Godwin-Chu is the Project Director for the GROWWTH Program at the University of Memphis, a state-funded workforce readiness initiative serving low-income families across 21 counties in West Tennessee. She leads the program’s strategy, staffing, and partnerships, and is currently focused on positioning GROWWTH for funding opportunities beyond its original state grant.
Bishope Wilson is the Quality Assurance Specialist for the GROWWTH Program at the University of Memphis. He joined the team in July 2023 as a care coordinator before moving into a system administrator and quality assurance role, where he now leads reporting, dashboard design, form configuration, and caseload analysis across the program.
