Raise Your Voice Blog | Nicole Clark Consulting

21 Nov, 2012

Program Monitoring & Evaluation: Leveraging Your Strengths and Smoothing Out the Hiccups

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:00:07-04:00November 21st, 2012|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Capacity Building|0 Comments

Overwhelmed? You don’t have to be!

(image source)

You’ve figured out the Who, Why, When, Where, What, What For, and How of your program or workshop. You know what it means to be S.M.A.R.T. about your goals. You’ve tested out creative ways to get your objectives across. Finally, you’ve considered gathering feedback during your activity implementation. If you haven’t done any of this yet and would like to know more about how to do this, check out the four proven ways to increase the effectiveness of your program and workshops, and come back to this blog post.

If you have read it and/or have implemented some of the strategies I mentioned above, great! I hope that you found them useful, whether you are a seasoned nonprofit professional or someone who wants to provide meaningful programs and workshops for your community. Now it’s time to get to the second part of the equation. Let’s shift the focus to a separate but equally important issue: finding out if what you’re doing is actually effective.

So, how do you do figure out if what you’re doing is effective? You monitor and evaluate. Monitoring and evaluation are the best tools in your arsenal that can show you are moving in the right direction, or if you’ve hit a snag somewhere. Here’s a breakdown of each one, how they work together, and five key things to keep in mind when monitoring and evaluating your program or workshop so that you can continue to leverage your strengths and smooth out your hiccups (because we don’t believe in weaknesses!)

Monitoring and Evaluation: What Are the Differences?

Before we get into the differences between monitoring and evaluation, here is why each element is important: (more…)

24 Oct, 2012

4 Proven Ways to Create Effective Programs & Workshops for Youth

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:59:18-04:00October 24th, 2012|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Youth|0 Comments

(Pictured: Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls Code (an organization that encourages Black girls to learn more about technology and computer science), and her daughter Kai during a workshop)

I’ve seen many community groups and organizations develop workshops and programming in the hopes of attracting higher youth engagement. While their intentions are always in the right place, the results were often not very good. How so? Through feedback from participants, a decrease in participation (either by not returning to the program or not being actively engaged in the workshop), and funders choosing to no longer support them by taking away their funding. Of course, there are a variety of factors at play, and some factors you may not be able to control. But you do have a greater amount of control in how your programs and workshops are designed than you think you do.

Here are 4 ways to help you create successful programs and workshops in order to engage more youth. While these tips aren’t youth-specific, per se (and you may be familiar with them), these tips will get you thinking more about how you can tweak certain aspects of your programming and workshops. And you don’t have to be a director of programs to use these tips. All you need is the desire to improve what you do so that you can do it well, and your youth will reap the benefits: (more…)

19 Sep, 2012

8 Online Resources to Jump-Start Your Reproductive Rights Activism

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:55:21-04:00September 19th, 2012|Categories: Equity & Justice|Tags: activism, reproductive justice|0 Comments

I tend to get lot of emails, tweets, and messages about one thing: How do I become more aware of what’s happening in my community and nationwide when it comes to reproductive health and rights? What are some resources I can start using to increase my awareness?

I’ve used many resources throughout the years to get timely information on what’s happening in reproductive rights, health and education, and I wanted to share some of the best resources I’ve found. Of course, this isn’t a complete listing of every online source that you can use, but hopefully you can use this as a stepping stone to begin increasing your awareness of what’s happening across the country and globally when it comes to reproductive health and information. Plus, you may already be familiar with these resources. In that case, great! I’m sure there is always something use, fresh, and useful for you to learn and share.

From perspective blogs to interactive maps, here are 8 online resources you can use to jump-start your reproductive rights activism (and 3 ways to get the most out of them):

RH Reality Check– RH Reality Check is an online community that provides evidence-based information on what’s happening in sexual health and reproductive rights policy. From birthing rights, abortion, law and policy, public health, and many other topics, RH Reality Check has its regular site writers and also invites readers to submit posts and videos as guest bloggers in order to increase it’s range of progressive and insightful news an analysis. Not only will you find information and commentary on reproductive health and rights happening in the United States, you’ll also read what’s happening globally.

Scarleteen– Scarleteen is the go-to site for all things positive sexuality for youth and adolescents (and their parents and caretakers). Headed by author and activist Heather Corinna, Scarleteen provides frequently updated information on comprehensive sexuality, dating, ways to do outreach offline, resources, mentoring and leadership opportunities, advice on where to go for services, and much more. Coupled with All About S.E.X.: The Scarleteen Book!, Scarleteen also runs a moderated message board for you to ask questions and get answers on all things pro-healthy sexual development. (more…)

5 Sep, 2012

How My Mother’s Death Makes Me Fear Motherhood

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:54:47-04:00September 5th, 2012|Categories: Miscellaneous|Tags: Reflections|0 Comments

(This post is also cross-posted at The Doula Guide)

My mother died when I was seventeen years old. Diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2000, she rapidly declined, passing away 5 months later at the age of 43. We all have that one moment when your world changes forever. This was my moment.

When you’re a teenager, the world revolves around you. I was a high achiever. I expected nothing less than an A in all of my classes, striving to keep my concert master violinist position in my high school orchestra, and making sure that I was inducted into the National Honors Society and National Beta Club, all while maintaining a 4.3 grade point average. I was used to thinking logically about many things, but for a long time I couldn’t grasp the fact that my mother, who never smoked, could die from something like lung cancer. Even worse, I didn’t want to accept the fact that I would never see her again. One of my biggest fears in life was losing my mother at a young age. Though I was 5 months shy of my 18th birthday, I felt like a little girl on the day of my mother died.

As I approach my 29th birthday a little over a month away, I still have many moments in which I feel like that 17 year old all over again. Also, visions of babies dance in my head. While many women my age are either currently pregnant, already mothers, or are waiting with anticipation of becoming mothers some day, I come up with as many reasons as possible as to why motherhood may not be for me:

Not all women desire to be mothers.

What if my kid doesn’t like me?

Kids are expensive, and the economy sucks.

I actually get more excited when I see a dog than I do when I see a baby.

What if I don’t like my kid?

We live in a patriarchal society that puts forth the ideal that women are nothing if we aren’t mothers and wives.

What about my career?

Do I really want the responsibility of caring for another life?
(more…)

29 Aug, 2012

Ask Nicole: How Can We Create More Affirming Spaces for Women & Girls of Color?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:06:29-04:00August 29th, 2012|Categories: Equity & Justice|Tags: Ask Nicole, Youth|0 Comments

Do you have a question that other Raise Your Voice community members can benefit from? Contact me and I’ll answer it!

I recently received an email from a young woman of color and a recent college graduate. She contacted me to ask if I could point her in the direction of women of color organizations in her area that are open to having volunteers, as the organizations she’s already contacted currently do not have any volunteer opportunities. She shared with me that, being a recent college graduate, Latina, and the first of her family to attend college, she has a passion to give back to her community and to empower others.

What heightened my interest in her email was that she mentioned that she was an active member of a women of color group on her college campus. She described the campus group as a multi-generational safe space for women of color on campus, which meets monthly. The monthly gathering, complete with food and fellowship, invites current students and staff to share experiences and advice over a chosen topic of the month (spiritual wellness, intellectual wellness, environmental wellness, among others.) Her group has also hosted a woman of color retreat on campus as well as a gala to recognize the many contributions of the women of color on campus.

I responded back to her, letting her know that I will look into women of color organizations in her area, but I also gave her the suggestion of creating a similar supportive group based on her campus group. Here in New York City, I am part of the New York City Reproductive Justice Coalition. We meet once a month to discuss what’s happening locally and nationally around reproductive justice and women and girls of color. What we’re currently doing every month sounds very similar to what her campus does: We connect, inform, enlighten, strategize, and fellowship.

The need for more spaces for women and girls of color to grow, connect, and be affirmed in a world that tells us that we’re in the minority is crucial. Instead of it being a matter of chance, women and girls of color spaces need to be a given, a space where women and girls of color are mentored and supported by peers who have their best interest in mind. In a perfect world, there would be no need for spaces like these. Until then, the more spaces we have that tell women and girls like us that we matter, the more likely we will be able to step up and pay it forward.

Are you interested in starting a space for women and girls of color in your community or on campus? Here are a few ideas to get you started: (more…)

Program Monitoring & Evaluation: Leveraging Your Strengths and Smoothing Out the Hiccups

4 Proven Ways to Create Effective Programs & Workshops for Youth

8 Online Resources to Jump-Start Your Reproductive Rights Activism

How My Mother’s Death Makes Me Fear Motherhood

Ask Nicole: How Can We Create More Affirming Spaces for Women & Girls of Color?

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