More To Life - About us - Who MTL has worked with

The goal of the More To Life program is to make an exceptional difference in people’s lives. In addition to many years of offering public courses, the More To Life non-profit foundation has also provided training and services within a variety of organizations.

The impact of this has been wide-ranging, from changing the lives of inmates at a prison in Bastrop, Texas, to helping young people develop entrepreneurial skills with the Prince’s Trust. Below are a few sample case studies and a list of some of its main partner organizations around the world:

Breaking free in Bastrop Prison, Texas

Prison reform case study

FCI Bastrop was a medium-security prison in Texas. For more than ten years, More To Life, in partnership with the prison’s Holistic Drug Abuse Program, delivered a range of courses to several thousand prisoners. These courses included the More To Life Weekend, the Power of Self Esteem, and the Power of Purpose, as well as weekly support groups.

More To Life courses helped the prisoners reclaim their lives by learning to express long-held anger in a safe way, forgiving themselves and others, releasing self-defeating behaviors, and turning newly prioritized goals into reality.

Results noted include the highest recorded levels of positive morale and communication between inmates and staff; fewer disciplinary reports compared with other inmates, especially regarding misconduct associated with violence; fewer complaints about other inmates; constantly higher sanitation ratings than other units in the prison.

Despite FCI Bastrop’s clinical psychologist’s high opinion of this work, the partnership came to an end when prison education fell out of favor and federal funding for drug rehabilitation units was cut. The last More To Life Weekend offered at Bastrop Prison was funded entirely by More To Life students.

Putting victims of domestic violence in touch with their self-worth

Domestic violence case study

For two years More To Life partnered with the YWCA Domestic Violence Victims Unit at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Their goal was to facilitate victims’ emotional and psychological transition to stable, independent-living situations and long-term emotional and economic self-sufficiency.

To achieve this, More To Life mentors taught six Power of Self Esteem courses to 75 shelter staff and residents. The skills taught here offered participants the chance to understand the underlying factors that were affecting their self-esteem, and to discover how to release themselves from repetitive self-critical thought patterns and self-defeating behavior.

This shift enabled them to start to experience the joy of being able to love and esteem oneself, regardless of their life circumstances up to that point.

The Power of Self Esteem course complemented the unit’s existing strategy to help client-victims to see that they truly had options, and for the staff to be advocates, walking alongside each woman while she chose her next steps.

Self-esteem, in the sense of knowing you are “okay” as you are and can make free, creative choices, opened up a possibility for staff and residents to be able to choose a far wider range of options than they could have previously seen or initiated.

The partnership was eventually completed in a context of staff changes at the shelter and the end of the grant period.

Becoming more productive at Capella University, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Productivity case study

The relationship between Capella and More To Life began in 2002 when a More To Life Mentor began applying the tools taught in the Power of Purpose course in her career as a salesperson with Capella.

It was observed that her performance levels increased, and her success rate doubled. The management of the university decided to offer the course to their academic advisors and sales staff over a two-year period, with over 100 staff members completing the training.

Consistent feedback from sales teams spoke of how the tools provided structure, support and direction both for coaching and sales. They also reported a marked increase in enthusiasm and satisfaction due to being able to create from a bigger perspective on life. The opinion of the staff was that their jobs had taken on more significant meaning than before.

At the present time the university has negotiated a three-year licensing agreement with More To Life, aimed at training 600 executives, managers and faculty members. When the agreement was presented to the Capella directors, they were so excited that they broke into applause.

The Harlow Project

Creating purpose case study

Harlow is an early post-war new town in Essex, UK. It has been listed as the 3rd-most deprived district in the East of England, with the highest rate of unemployment in the country. It has the highest rate of one-parent households, separation and divorce, and children on the Child Protection Register. There are low levels of literacy and numeracy, and a high rate of people registered as permanently sick or disabled.

More To Life worked in Harlow for four years alongside the Counselling and Life Management Centre to deliver the Power of Self Esteem and the Power of Purpose to 282 women who were either unemployed or in low-skilled or low-paid work.

The impact was highly significant and showed up in many forms of personal and social change as well as in health improvements. Many participants continue to use the course tools in support groups, moving over time from isolation and depression to taking a proactive role in their family, at work and in the wider community.

Typical feedback includes this comment: “I have moved on from being unable to cope with work, finance and life in general by understanding how my thinking affects my self-esteem, and I am now choosing to return to work…”

Partner organizations