Portfolio

The Organization

Aging in Los Angeles (ALA) is a nonprofit organization that works with the aging population to provide life-enhancing programs to low- and moderate-income seniors living in affordable housing communities. The organization works to create healthy communities by creating safe environments in which seniors can live and grow, developing and maintaining social support networks and relationships, and making the senior housing communities part of a healthier surrounding community (schools, businesses, government, etc.).

The Challenge

The senior population receiving services from the organization struggles with being able to afford food once they have met all of their other financial obligations for the month.

Our Consulting

We spent time having face-to-face conversations with housing staff, administrators, and the senior population. We listened to their concerns and asked what ideas they had for addressing the issue.

We took the information learned from our face-to-face interactions and formulated several goals for the organization. The goals were designed to not only address the issue of food insecurity in the senior population, but also to bring awareness to an important and pressing issue in this community.

As a result of the proposed goals, the organization was able to employ a full-time staff member to manage the implementation of a program aimed at addressing the food insecurity in this population.

The Organization

Southern California School (SCS) is a family owned school offering primary education programs and day care for preschool and K-5th aged children and their families. This year-round school offers programming that stimulates and supports the cognitive, social, artistic, and developmental needs of the children in their programs.

The Challenge

SCS was struggling to document and explain their programming to new employees and potential supporters or funders. They knew in their hearts and from the smiling faces of the kids that they were doing something amazing, but just didn’t have it laid out on paper in a form that could be easily replicated by others.

Our Consulting

We fell in love with this school! The teachers and administrators were kind, playful, and insightful. We wanted to be sure they felt validated in their work and had the support to take credit for the impact they had on the children and families they served.

After interviews with multiple stakeholders in their community and many days of program observation for all of their various activities, we were able to create map of their operations. This included information for them to track the impact of interventions related to emotional growth, primary education, social learning, and general health (e.g. food and hygiene).

The Organization

The Women’s Center (TWC) is a nonprofit organization located in the greater Los Angeles area. This organization provides a domestic violence awareness program, specifically within the Latina community, that provides in-service training to other community organizations and community-based peer training to women living in the community.

The domestic violence awareness program within the community was created to address the high frequency of sexual assault and domestic violence within the Latina population. The program also aims to increase the likelihood that survivors will report domestic violence and sexual assault to authorities, as well as receive support services following such incidents.

The Challenge

The domestic violence awareness program was well-attended and appeared to have a positive impact on the community. However, TWC was unable to document specific outcomes of this program, which limited the types of funding they could seek.

Our Consulting

We spent time having face-to-face conversations with staff, participants in the peer led training program, and with in-service trainers.

We took the information learned from our face-to-face interactions and formulated several goals for the organization. The consultants worked with organization staff to create an evaluation measure that would gauge participation in the program, as well as the program’s impact over time.

The use of the new evaluation tools provided the organization with a clearer understanding of how many community members were participating the program. In addition, the information gathered from pre- and post-test measures, helped the organization articulate how the community was responding to the training program, both in the short term and long term.

The Organization

Los Angeles Cancer Support Center (LACSC) improves the quality of life for cancer patients, survivors, and their families. They offer free programs and services to support the physical and emotional side effects of a cancer diagnosis.

The Challenge

LACSC was trying to evaluate the effectiveness and popularity of their programming. They had attempted to survey their participants in the past, but were unsure what to do with the completed surveys or if the surveys even held the information necessary to make confident decisions about adding, removing, or modifying programming.

Our Consulting

We worked with leadership staff and various service providers to identify the information needed to make programmatic planning decisions. We assessed all of the resources and structure currently available to the organization to identify which evaluation methods would be feasible. After reviewing the past survey data we were able to determine what information was useful and what changes should be made to any surveys going forward.