Inner Strength Education was established in 2014 to foster inner strength for outer stability in today’s youth. They provide in-school trauma-sensitive resources and whole-person wellness programs to support teens with life-changing perspectives and skillsets. Inner Strength’s goal is to empower youth to realize their higher potentials, supported by mindfulness and other innovative tools. We had the honor of interviewing two special people from Inner Strength: Amy Edelstein, the Founder of Inner Strength, and Haylee Warner, an Instructor and Curriculum Developer for Inner Strength. We asked them a few questions about their experience with their new MilkCrate mobile app and how it has changed daily routines for Inner Strength. These are some of the highlights from the interview:

Why did you build the app? What was your initial goal?

Amy: Initially we did not have a way to stay in contact with the high school students that we work with in the high school classrooms. Up till now, we were going to public schools and trained over 15,000 students in person. However, once we left the classroom their program was finished and we had no way to stay in touch, since teenagers don’t really use email. It seemed the only way to continue to encourage students to use the mindful contemplation and wellness tools that they learned through the Inner Strength program, was to find a way to continue to engage and communicate. This would help them work with the tools in an ongoing way, especially when they transition from high school to college, and eventually move into the workforce.

Do high school students only utilize your app or has it opened up to other types of users as well?

Amy: I have an 11-year-old daughter of someone on our mailing list who loves the app, she said “it speaks to me”. We also have adults who utilize the app. We encourage teachers and parents as well to use the app because it is free for all users and we would love people to engage with these trauma-sensitive wellness supports as much as possible.

How is the app making it easier for students to engage in programs and activities now?

Haylee: I think our recordings in tandem with actions that connect to the curriculum that we teach gives another pathway into mindfulness that there wasn’t a lot of prior, so I think that's definitely why people are enjoying the app.

Amy: To add on to that, our app was made in Philadelphia for Philadelphia students, so the app takes into account their experience. Some parts woven into the app are trauma-sensitive supports and awareness of mental health issues that are related to racial tension, stress, violence, and resource scarcity. Also, pointing the students towards questions that are provocative because they are unanswerable. So getting them to think about open awareness, what does it mean to contemplate that which has no beginning and no end, what does it mean to think about infinity… These kinds of big questions are not generally woven into mindfulness programming, so providing these resources will allow students to open up their worldview.

Initially, how many people were you hoping to onboard in the first month of launching?

Amy: I thought we did really well! I was really pleased with 250 users for the first month. I thought that was a fantastic start, given the circumstances around timing. By the end of next year, I would like to see between 5,000 and 7,000 users on the app and after year 2 I'm hoping for around 25,000 active users.

What do you think you did that helped you get to this level of success within your first month of launching?

Amy: It was definitely the content, the tone, the inspiration, and the build of trust with us and with their classroom teachers who have been in the program with them. I think it is because we have a good reputation with the teens as well. We have been working with schools since 2014 and all the students know us, they know the quality of our teaching and the way we relate to them, and the supportiveness of the program. Because of this, I think students were predisposed to give it a try because they appreciated the program. We are pleased that the students are giving us the benefit of the doubt because students are very protective of their phones, it's something that is an extension of them, so we consider it a privilege when they grant us that trust and that space in their lives to be on their phones, inviting us into their digital life and if they feel that, they will trust the content you are providing because your intention is to support them.

Did you learn from any past products or programs to base your app off of?

Amy: I wish we had done that, but we based our app from the curriculum and translated our classroom, written curriculum into digital. I recommend to your clientele to do some user testing and research.

Has anything surprised you about this process, good, bad, or surprised about being about to build out an app for your curriculum and program?

Amy: I think if we had more time to do analytics or bring someone on our team that is already immersed in that world, I think would have been very valuable and would have saved us time or gotten us to incorporate tools that are already evidence-based to help students form positive habits but that would have been my lessons learned through this process. The second thing I was surprised about was how excited I was about the launch of the app because I am not really an app user, but this app has a life of its own. It's different from a classroom setting, this is like a living-breathing interactive organism that is going to change over time as more people interact with it.

Now that you guys are fully launched, what kinds of feedback have you received from your users?

Haylee: For the most part, the users have really loved the recordings, the voices, and the graphics. Those three things alone they have really appreciated. Some things that the users asked for are more features we are working on now.

We had a great time interviewing both Amy and Haylee from Inner Strength and we want to congratulate you on such a successful launch! Amy and Haylee talked about a lot of topics, so we narrowed it down and gave you the best 3 takeaways from this interview.

Takeaway #1: Set goals.

When in the process of making a mobile app, set some short and long-term goals that you want to achieve. A good example is when Amy talked about how she wants between 5,000 to 7,000 active users by the end of next year which would be the short-term goal and her long-term goal would be to have 25,000 active users.

Takeaway #2: Do your research!

Before you move on to building a mobile app make sure you do all of your research. Have an idea of what your users would want within the app? How do you want your users to interact with the mobile app? Or how can you translate your work into a digital version? Sorting out these kinds of questions will save you a lot of time in the future.

Takeaway #3 Mobile apps can change the workflow!

Making a mobile is hard work but it can also take your business to the next level. Having a mobile app has the possibility to reach more people and connect with your clients differently. Both Amy and Haylee have many positive things to say about having a mobile app and how it changed daily operations for them at Inner Strength and made communication within the work environment much more efficient.

Inner Strength Interview