Programs don’t exist in a vacuum.
When everyone —schools, families, and community organizations — pitches in, your program increases its chances of achieving its outcomes. By intentionally finding ways for everyone to work together, you create a team that highlights unique strengths, helping to lift the whole program for more exposure, results, and sustainability.
Let’s break down how this can look:
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Whether you’re running a K-12 after-school tutoring program or a college-level leadership initiative, aligning your goals with the academic calendar can be game changing.
The school year is full of built-in milestones—like holiday breaks, midterms, and the start of new semesters—that naturally shape your planning and communication. Depending on how the program is structured (whether it’s year round or semester based), you have enough flexibility to be in tune with your school’s schedule, making it easier to pivot when surprises pop up, without losing sight of what you set out to accomplish.
Here are some tips for adjusting your program goals to the school schedule, and how you can use the school year as a framework to stay on track to meet your program goals.
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In order to evaluate a program, I start by speaking to staff in charged of running the program.
This helps me understand why the program exists, the ideal participants, program goals, activities, outreach, etc. This helps to develop an evaluation process that’s appropriate to the program’s goals.
This process also helps in providing programmatic recommendations. Even though participant feedback is key to program improvements, so is understanding staff capacity to make these changes.
Navigating grantee-funder relationships while staying true to your mission is complex.
Similarly, it can be a balancing act when staff have to prioritize program participant feedback.
Here are five recommendations to help programmatic staff balance participant feedback with their capacity to implement changes:
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In the ever-changing landscape of community needs, having a solid yet adaptable framework is crucial for organizations aiming to make a significant impact.
What is a framework?
A framework is a strategic guide that outlines clear goals, structured plans, and collaborative efforts while leaving room for flexibility. This helps organizations remain focused and organized, ensuring that all activities align with their mission.
More importantly, a well-designed framework supports organizations’ ability to quickly adapt to emerging challenges and opportunities, fostering resilience and sustained community engagement.
There are four keys to building flexible programs:
Let’s start with the first key:
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Inviting organizations to join a partnership requires strategizing on who to invite, articulating the partnership’s value add, each partner knowing their role, and being open to shifts in how partners participate over time.
While a partnership works in service of addressing an emerging community need, how and what gets addressed requires its own strategy. After establishing how to work together, you need something to work on.
This activity is ideal for:
What you’ll need:
The steps:
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