Capacity Building Archives - Page 2 of 4

6 Apr, 2022

Ask Nicole: Applying Reproductive Justice Beyond Programs & Services

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-04-05T09:26:50-04:00April 6th, 2022|Categories: Equity & Justice|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building, reproductive justice|0 Comments

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

Reproductive Justice presents an added layer to how organizations engage and hold themselves accountable to the communities they work with. While program design, monitoring and evaluation go hand in hand, it can be difficult to envision how this framework looks beyond programs and services.

From program feedback to developing leadership opportunities, it’s easier to see how to apply RJ to your programming, services, and data driven processes like research and evaluation.

But not everyone in your organization works in these departments.

If Reproductive Justice is an organizing framework that centers the leadership, perspectives and voices of people typically at the margins, how can this be applied in every area of your organization?

Let’s look at one example: Health insurance coverage.

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5 Jan, 2022

Ask Nicole: Improving Capacity vs. Scaling Up

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-01-19T10:32:25-05:00January 5th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building|0 Comments

First off: Happy New Year!

Now, let’s get into the topic of improving capacity versus scaling up.

This is inspired by a comment from a colleague, who has been frustrated with their organization’s focus on scaling quickly, with little regard to making what they’re already doing, better.

I think it’s a complex issue. As an organization, you want to remain relevant and responsive to emerging issues, yet this can be at the expense of improving current programs and services while being being overworked, understaffed, and under resourced.

We see this with businesses that sell tangible products. There’s one company I purchase items from whose business scaled rapidly to meet the demands of new customers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their business exploded during this time because they sell body products (and we all need body products to stay clean). They’re also Black-owned, and many Black owned businesses have benefited during this time.

The downside was that the supply (and staff capacity) wasn’t able to meet the demand, leading to shipping delays and frustrated customers.

I’ve seen it in the nonprofit sector. Organizations (particularly smaller ones) have a tendency to make themselves appear bigger than what their capacity allows. This can lead to more funding, more collaborations, more supporters, more press, and more opportunities. I’ve stopped being surprised by organizations that are implementing large scale initiatives —whether alone or in partnership—with a staff of maybe 5 people.

I also saw this back in my micro/clinical social work days. In my department, the focus was on getting as many clients in the door as possible, with little regard to 1) staff capacity to do the tasks required of us by leadership and 2) whether the programs and services we promoted to clients were of quality.

We experienced high staff turnover. In response, the department began hosting job fairs to bring in more staff with the promise of lowering caseloads. Which never happened.

This experience shaped my approach to how I work with clients and partners, and I feel in many ways, I’m shifting away from helping organizations raise the voices of women and girls of color (their program participants) to helping raise the voices (and concerns) of staff. You can’t have a program without participants, however:

Programs and services are only successful when staff feel supported and have the capacity to do their jobs well.

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4 Aug, 2021

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:12:50-04:00August 4th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building, consulting|0 Comments

I had a discovery call with a prospective client recently, who wants to build an evaluation framework for their staff to implement. The executive director wanted an evaluation framework that was general enough to cover each program but could be tailored to each program’s specifics.

This organization has the budget to hire a consultant, but once the consultant’s job is over, the organization will have to pick up where the consultant left off. That often includes understanding their capacity to implement evaluation activities.

It’s no surprise that many organizations doing amazing work tend to have a small staff. And just like the larger organizations, they focus on the bigger picture and how to measure their impact. (I’ll touch on how grassroots organizations can be more data driven in next week’s blog post.)

They’re getting funding (via their supporters or from foundations) to help build out their infrastructure and capacity to do this data driven work while also being deep within the communities they serve.

“Who will implement this framework and all of its activities?“, I asked the executive director. In order to build an appropriate evaluation framework, I have to understand staff capacity.

It’s not a waste of time or money to hire someone to help. It is a waste of time if the end product isn’t conducive to where your staff’s capacity currently is, which could lead into finding the money to bring in another consultant to help with implementation.

Should you hire a consultant or should you do it yourself?

As a consultant, while my business thrives on being hired to do stuff, the answer isn’t that simple.

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16 May, 2019

Try This: Take a Bird’s Eye View

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:36:01-04:00May 16th, 2019|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Capacity Building, Strategic Planning, Try This|0 Comments

There are various factors that impact your program.

If you’re a nonprofit or social service agency, chances are you run several programs and services.

These programs and services don’t exist in a vacuum. In fact, a variety of factors make up a complex system in which your program or service operates within, including budgets and available funding, policies (organizational as well as federal/state/local), organizational structure, staff leadership capacity, participant perceptions, internal and external stakeholders, and more.

We often lose sight of these and we can be in the thick of it, doing what we can to keep the program afloat. However, when we take a bird’s eye view, we see the context that programs and services operate under.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

Sheets of paper or an erasable whiteboard
Writing utensils (pens, pencils, markers, or dry erase markers)

The steps:

Take your preferred writing utensil and either a sheet of paper or erasable whiteboard. Draw a large circle, and a smaller circle in the middle. Write the name of your program or service in the middle, like this:

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19 Apr, 2019

Try This: Put the Pieces Together

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:31:30-04:00April 19th, 2019|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Capacity Building, program design, Try This|0 Comments

Get clear on your program’s purpose and everyone’s role.

During one of my first major evaluations, I asked the client if I could view the program’s curriculum. As I looked through it, I asked how often the curriculum is revised based on participant feedback.

The program had been around for some time, and while the client was consistent with evaluating the program and drawing out the positive feedback to share with funders, they hadn’t used the feedback to revise the actual program.

During another site visit for this program, I noticed that staff were familiar with certain aspects of the program, but not the program in its entirety, or who was responsible for what. Understandable when you’re dealing with newer versus more seasoned staff. Also, some staff were confused about the purpose of some activities and when each activity was supposed to take place.

I’ve always been of the mindset that, in order to create or revise data collection and analysis tools and processes, you need to have a general sense of program goals and how the program is supposed to function. This is important as staff will come and go. Also, there should be a process built in for revising the program so that it’s meeting the emerging needs of participants.

Similar to putting together a puzzle, it can be daunting to look at the multiple components of a program. Instead of working on the entire puzzle at once, focus on one section at a time so that it all comes together.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

Your program’s logic model
Your program curriculum
Bonus: Your most recent program data that gives you insight about the program (compiled and synthesized data)

The process:

Typically with my Try This exercises, I lay out all the steps. For this exercise, I’m going to leave that up to you.

To frame it, there are three parts to this process. First, review your program’s goals and objectives. Second, look at your staff roles to assess 1) whether everyone currently connected to the program is being utilized in ways that align with the programs and objectives, 2) if those involved are utilizing their expertise, and 3) who is responsible for what. Third, review the program’s activities to assess if these activities currently align with the goals and objectives.

(Also, it should go without saying that “program” can also mean service, workshop, training, initiative, strategy, and so forth).

Here are some guiding questions (and feel free to add more):

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Ask Nicole: Applying Reproductive Justice Beyond Programs & Services

Ask Nicole: Improving Capacity vs. Scaling Up

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

Try This: Take a Bird’s Eye View

Try This: Put the Pieces Together

This Is A Custom Widget