The primary analysis I ever led was for The Doula Project. My relationship to The Doula Challenge began with being a volunteer as a graduate pupil, and becoming a member of the board of administrators a couple of years later.
Primarily based on suggestions from the group’s Management Circle, there was a gradual lower in volunteer shift sign-ups, and as a volunteer-led group, the board wished to know why.
We realized that, regardless of having over 100 volunteers on the time and increasing to extra clinics in most of New York Metropolis’s boroughs, volunteer engagement decreased. Why?
As soon as I graduated and commenced working full time, I didn’t have time to volunteer anymore. Majority of the volunteers that engaged within the analysis had the identical expertise. Additionally, majority of the volunteers have been transient. Many New York Metropolis school and graduate college students have a tendency to depart the town after commencement. For those that keep, transitioning from college to employment presents boundaries on volunteering. And for The Doula Challenge, lots of the shifts have been throughout the work week.
One other factor the board and the Management Circle wished to discover was the influence of the group’s recruitment efforts. As a volunteer, many of the ladies I helped have been ladies of colour, and this was mirrored within the experiences of the volunteer base. This was vital as a result of, whereas the group served largely individuals of colour, majority of the volunteer base recognized as white.
The analysis’s suggestions harassed stronger outreach efforts to draw volunteers of colours and appeal to native residents to extend racial range and enhance retention of volunteers who make New York Metropolis their residence.
Throughout this course of, I realized that being data driven requires being proactive versus reactive. In hindsight, this analysis was a reactive means of understanding what was occurring with The Doula Challenge’s volunteer base.
Constructing a volunteer base to satisfy the wants of 1000’s of girls and pregnant individuals in New York requires revising a volunteer recruitment, coaching, engagement, and retainment mannequin that gives flexibility in volunteer hours, choices for the place to volunteer and the way one desires to volunteer, and a base that’s reflective of the variety of New Yorkers. Although it was reactive, it supplied beneficial insights, and I used to be happy to see the Management Circle and board act on the suggestions in an intentional means.
Key takeaway
On the highway to becoming data driven, organizations transfer past prioritizing decision-making that appeases funders. Making intentional studying a precedence, questioning, reflection, and motion planning is embedded in all organizational areas particularly programming. This course of begins earlier than issues come up.
Whether or not you’re conducting a program evaluation, beginning a brand new strategic plan, gearing up for a brand new research challenge, or revising a program’s curriculum, begin first by ask your self these questions:
- Why do we’d like new knowledge, and why now?
- What‘s occurring in our organizational panorama that requires this knowledge?
- Who wants this knowledge?
- How will we use this knowledge?
- How will we share this knowledge?
- How typically will we refer again to this knowledge?
Getting clear on these questions (and maintaining them on the forefront of your work) can transfer you in the direction of changing into a extra proactive knowledge pushed group, as a substitute of reactive.
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