Using data to measure progress and make programmatic changes to achieve outcomes has always been an important part of Banyan Community’s work. Essential to this effort is the input of all the stakeholder. Banyan’s key program indicators had not been updated for 10 years, and so much has changed since then. This year, Banyan engaged with consultants, Ava Yang-Lewis and Mark Lewis, from ACT Research to undertake a comprehensive review of our program evaluation process.
Beginning with our Theory of Change — that education is one of the most effective levers for addressing the complex challenges of poverty — Banyan met with each of our stakeholder groups twice to get valuable input and critical feedback on its programs. These groups included youth, parents, neighbors, staff, and the board. The focus was to identify and connect our most effective inputs and activities to our most successful outputs and outcomes, with the aim of aligning them to achieve the greatest impact. The overarching goal is to create the right conditions for growth, so we continued to advance our transformative mission.
“I liked that ACT brought a Spanish-speaking facilitator because that made it easier for us to participate and made us feel comfortable talking.” – Victoria, Banyan grandparent
Utilizing audio headsets capable of multilingual interpretation with two interpreters present along with facilitators, our parents were able to fully access and contribute to the stakeholder sessions and we were able to capture valuable input from our parents. Some stakeholder sessions utilized many sticky notes to collect ideas and an art-based method was used with the youth to gather insightful feedback. Our year-long evaluation review process is progressing well and on track for completion this Summer. We are excited to begin using our new measurements to tell the story of our continued growth and success next Fall!