Raise Your Voice Blog | Nicole Clark Consulting

8 Jan, 2025

Ask Nicole: Aligning Program Goals With The School Year

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2025-01-07T17:26:16-05:00January 8th, 2025|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Academics, Ask Nicole, program design, School|0 Comments

Have a question you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

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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3 Sep, 2024

Ask Nicole: Balancing Participant Feedback & Staff Capacity

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-12-23T14:42:45-05:00September 3rd, 2024|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Ask Nicole, program design, program evaluation, staff capacity|0 Comments

Have a questions you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

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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7 Aug, 2024

Ask Nicole: The Four Keys to Flexible Programs

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-08-07T12:51:39-04:00August 7th, 2024|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Ask Nicole, program design|0 Comments

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:

Assess community needs and resources
Design adaptable program structures
Build robust community partnerships
Monitor, evaluate, and adapt for improvement

Let’s start with the first key:

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19 Jul, 2024

Try This: Narrow Your Partnership Focus

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-07-19T11:48:18-04:00July 19th, 2024|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Community Partnerships, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this activity and let me know how it goes for you.

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:

Partnership members with experience in facilitating meetings
Partnership members with experience in engaging communities
Partnership members with experience in data collection and analysis

What you’ll need:

A method for taking notes

The steps:

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10 Jul, 2024

Are You a Convener, Catalyst, Conduit, or Funder?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-07-10T12:07:40-04:00July 10th, 2024|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Partnerships, Sustainability|0 Comments

Saying yes to a partnership signals that you’ve assessed whether your organization should have a role in a partnership, and are ready to work with other organizations to address a community need.

What role does your organization typically play in a partnership?

Do you enjoy bringing together the right partners?

Are you good at building momentum?

Do you thrive in keeping everyone in the loop?

Or are you good at securing funding?

The role your organization plays should support the partnership in being well-organized, adequately resourced, and effectively managed.

Let’s break down the four roles commonly found in a partnership:

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Ask Nicole: Aligning Program Goals With The School Year

Ask Nicole: Balancing Participant Feedback & Staff Capacity

Ask Nicole: The Four Keys to Flexible Programs

Try This: Narrow Your Partnership Focus

Are You a Convener, Catalyst, Conduit, or Funder?

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