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Testimonials
Click on the service areas below to read testimonials from our clients:
Mentoring
Owen consulting has been a tremendous help to all of the Mentors here at Credit Suisse Asset Management. As the program coordinator and a Mentor, I truly appreciate all the help provided to our group by Dave Owen & Owen Consulting. They have helped us work with the staff at the school as well as connect with the students in ways we would not have thought of. They are inventive, resourceful and possess a deep understanding and enthusiasm for mentoring.
Hats off to Owen Consulting!
Kenneth M. Wallace, Vice President, Information Technology, Credit Suisse Asset Management
Never having been a part of a mentoring program, I was definitely in need of assistance. Dave Owen became my life preserver. His patience and expertise allowed me to feel comfortable in getting the program started. His skills showed quickly at the trainings. He was as comfortable with the kids as he was with the adults. When it came time to match up the participants, Dave’s instincts were right on target. The pairs he helped establish in October have flourished since the beginning.
Dave continues to be my most valuable resource whenever I need support. He has been an invaluable asset to our program and I’m sure will be to all others with whom he works.
Ted Schechter, Program Coordinator, Royal Bank of Scotland/First Tee Mentoring Program
Owen Consulting was not only the right organization at the right time (the school, ISA, and (a major wall street investment bank) were in the process of revamping the mentoring program) but they possessed an expert arsenal of tools to go along with the necessary flexibility and adaptability we required. From the beginning, Dave sought to fashion a program that fit with and around our prevailing constraints and requirements. He and his colleagues are so well grounded in youth development theory and Mentoring practice that it gave me, the administrator, permission to not be the expert on the best approaches. Owen Consulting knew how to actually build the program and how to make it work. There is no overestimating how valuable a skill that is to a busy manager.
As a direct result of Owen Consulting's involvement with the MCA Mentoring Program, it is stronger than it has ever been and, more importantly, many more young people's lives are being positively impacted than would otherwise be the case.
Terry Bowman, Director, Institute for Student Achievement
The National Mentoring Partnership has been extremely helpful in developing our mentoring program. They also provided us with Dave Owen, who did a wonderful job in facilitating [our program kick-off]. The activities he had the pairs engaging in really seemed to forge connections, not simply between the mentor and mentee, but between the group as a whole.
Gail Harvey, Market Development Specialist, Bank of America
Dave Owen is a very captivating presenter. He had all of CSAM's participating employees and managers engaged and interested from the start of the mentor training to the very end. His direct experiences with NYC's youth and his mentoring tips are extremely invaluable to our mentors!
Rosangela Perna, Assistant Vice President, Human Resources, Credit Suisse Asset Management
Mentoring USA fortunately collaborated with Owen Consulting and hired their team to provide outcome evaluation and lead workshops for our mentor/mentee pairs related to our BRAVE (Bias Related Anti-Violence Education) Juliana component. Their workshops on Conflict Resolution and Diversity were not only engaging, but also informative and fun for all! We also appreciated the evaluation they conducted for the BRAVE Juliana component.
Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Founder and Chairperson, Mentoring USA
Owen Consulting provides valuable assessment and training services that meets the needs of our program. In addition, the professionalism and flexibility by which the company conducts business is an appreciated strength.
Lori Mastromauro, Program Manager, New York City Mentoring Program, New York City Department of Education
Reel Works has emerged as national model for combining mentoring with youth media - earning us the 2007 Coming Up Taller Award from the President's Council on the Humanities, the nation's top honor for after school arts programs. We credit much or our success to our work with Owen Consulting.
Owen Consulting helped us create a mentoring program from the ground-up - and taught us about the power of mentoring in youth development. Their professional development has helped our staff develop the knowledge and tools to lead our volunteer (mentor) trainings, enabling us to save money in the long run.
John Williams, Executive Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking
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Youth Development
When the Conservancy received a generous grant from the Luce foundation to expand our Ascent Program, we turned to Owen Consulting. They began by assessing our needs and resources, and helped us to define short and long term goals for the program. Owen Consulting then redesigned the entire program, trained our staff, developed partnerships with schools, designed our outcome evaluation, assisted with promotion and development, and helped coordinate and manage everything for the first two years. The data now shows that the students really benefited from their involvement - Owen Consulting did an outstanding job - we couldn't have done it without them.
Joyce Ferejohn, Director of Recreation, The Central Park Conservancy
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Adventure Education
Owen Consulting led a self-esteem and trust-building workshop for Good Shepherd Services between a group of corporate volunteers and teenagers from one of our residential foster care programs.
OC's facilitators did a fabulous job of engaging these two seemingly disparate groups in activities that promoted positive and healthy communication and interaction and established trust and a genuine connection between the youth and adults. Everyone left the day feeling uplifted, inspired and eager to partake in another day of its kind.
We look forward to working with Owen Consulting again in the future.
Mary Beth Zurat, Good Shepherd Services
We retained Owen Consulting to lead two days of orientation and professional development for Staff and Students from McKee High School in Staten Island. Their extensive knowledge of group dynamics and leadership development helped adults and youth alike to really address group issues. The Company knows how to organize a day that is stimulating, engaging, fun, and motivates participants to get involved and stay involved.
Tom Pendleton, Executive Director, the New York Citywide School to Work Alliance
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Workforce Development
Owen Consulting took our good idea and showed us how to make it into a great program. They brought together diverse leaders from the business and education worlds, synthesized their expectations, and provided a road map to success. Our Job Training Institute would not exist had we not worked with Owen Consulting.
Vin Lenza, Associate Director, Staten Island Economic Development Corporation
The New York Citywide School to Work Alliance has collaborated with Owen Consulting on numerous projects and we have seen firsthand how successfully their team works with a range of individuals; from urban youth to adult public employees and private sector business professionals. Dave Owen and his team have demonstrated a deep knowledge of youth development and education that ranges from hands-on to theoretical. We’ve been impressed with their skill at program planning, design, and development and were very pleased with their thorough and detail-oriented implementation, as well as the overall quality of their work. Their expertise is only matched by their level of enthusiasm for what they do.
Tom Pendleton, Executive Director, the New York Citywide School to Work Alliance.
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Program and Outcome Evaluation
Owen Consulting was top notch and did an excellent job fulfilling our evaluation needs. They've been an incredible help throughout this process and their expertise was a huge value add for the project and for our thinking around program evaluation. I hope to work with them again in the future.
Andrea Coleman, Associate Vice President, Education and Youth Services, Federation Employment Guidance Service (FEGS)
Again, this report is excellent. I really appreciate the thorough analysis. Also, it is wonderful to see that the program had a positive impact. Congratulations on a GREAT job!
Kristi Zappie-Ferradino, Director of Products and Online Services, National Mentoring Partnership
Owen Consulting has a profound understanding of youth development and education and have assisted us tremendously in our program. They quickly assessed our needs, identified key problem areas, offered solutions and helped us to clearly define measurable outcomes. In doing so, they have designed an evaluation tool which captures our overall goals and designed a database to assist us in data collection. They maintain a flexible schedule and are always on hand to offer support. We are truly fortunate to be working with such a valuable organization.
Marina Chatoo, Executive Director, Educators for Children, Youth, and Families
From start to finish we found the Owen Consulting team to be professional, knowledgeable, cooperative, and responsible. Their evaluation plan and project timeline was realistic and yet flexible enough to allow for changes and additions from our staff; the pre- and post-test instruments and interview protocols they designed were readily understandable by the low-level readers and speakers of English in our target audience and incorporated all of our key learning objectives; and their observations of the teachers and students who participated in lessons based on our kit materials were thorough and rich. The final report, including the data interpretation, conclusions, and recommendations, was extremely well organized and well written, as well as clearly illustrated with graphs and charts.
We will not hesitate to work again with Owen Consulting and we give them our highest recommendation.
Lora Myers, Curriculum Director, A.L.M.A., Educational Development Center
We hired Owen Consulting to assess whether our national Foundation was successful in meeting our federal grant goals with the Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The surveys they developed and the interviews that were conducted had record numbers of participants in comparison to previous evaluations in other years. Their findings and recommendations are very useful for strategic planning and overall planning purposes. We were very pleased with Owen Consulting’s services, and we highly recommend them.
Marina Winton, President and CEO, “I Have a Dream” Foundation
Reel Works has emerged as a national model for combining mentoring with youth media - earning us the 2007 Coming Up Taller Award from the President's Council on the Humanities, the nation's top honor for after school arts programs. We credit much or our success to our work with Owen Consulting.
With their help, we created an assessment protocol to measure outcomes that has become a model for our field - putting Reel Works in a competitive advantage when seeking scarce grants dollars from funders increasingly interested in programs that have a measurable impact on the lives of participants. In the past, we only had anecdotes. Owen Consulting has helped Reel Works develop, analyze and understand the data that prove that our arts programs deliver real results to youth.
John Williams, Executive Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking
Owen Consulting Inc. was a breath of fresh air - their evaluation report was well-written, exhibited a thorough understanding of our program's mission and goals, and contained thoughtful and useful suggestions for program improvement.
Thom Thacker, Director, Historic Hudson Valley Youth Conservation Corps
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Professional Development
Through a combination of hands-on team-building activities and program development workshops, Owen Consulting helped us to build stronger working relationships and address key organizational problems. The workshop was a catalyst for effective communication and created a positive framework for planning new community programs. I highly recommend Owen Consulting as a unique resource for youth serving organizations to engage in strategic planning, consider key organizational issues and build trust and communication among staff.
Sean Andrews, Executive Director, Prospect Park YMCA
We brought in Owen Consulting to lead two days of orientation and professional development for Staff and Students from McKee High School in Staten Island. Their extensive knowledge of group dynamics and leadership development helped adults and youth alike to really address group issues. The Company knows how to organize a day that is stimulating, engaging, fun, and motivates participants to get involved and stay involved.
Tom Pendleton, Executive Director, the New York Citywide School to Work Alliance
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Grant Writing
Thanks for your terrific work on the successful armory proposal. I have gotten lots of great feedback from my colleagues and look forward to working with you in the future. All the best!
Sean Andrews, VP of Operations, YMCA, Prospect Park
I wanted to let you know how great of a job you did in pulling in all the information and building a strong case. Thank you for all of your hard work! [The grant] looks great!!! (successful 21st CCLC grant)
Voula Lagoudis, Director, YMCA, Staten Island
By the way, I meant to thank you on doing an outstanding job of providing guidance and support to all of us. I know that you get paid to do your job but you were very concise and user-friendly. You demonstrated extreme patience and care in moving us through the process. We hope that we get the chance to work with you again in the future....Thanks for everything.
Charles Taylor, Director, YMCA, Harlem
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