Today we bring you the first installment in our ETOlutionist “A Look Inside” series –where we bring you inside details about organizations bringing about their own ETOlutions.
First up, the Latin American Youth Center, a network of youth centers, schools, and social enterprises that provide health and wellness services, educational support, workplace training and counseling, and classes on art, advocacy and culture to more than 2,500 Latino, African-American and other individuals in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area.
LAYC began working with Social Solutions in order to get control of a large amount of data – from collecting it for more than 40 programs to tracking class attendance, outcome, and other data to detailed analysis for program development and fundraising/development purposes.
Implementation wasn’t immediate. LAYC had to invest some time at the front-end to articulate outcomes measurement on its more than 40 programs, as well as internal training to get staff up to speed on – and supportive of – data collection and effective use of ETO Software®. LAYC has used its implementation to kick-off a larger internal focus on evaluation as a means of better serving clients and motivating supporters – and once staff became focused on outcomes, they became far more friendly to outcomes measurement and the data collection that comes with it, an important internal cultural shift.
After two years of focusing on outcomes, LAYC now has access to detailed demographic statistics, report card grades for educational programs, and pre-and-post program test results. LAYC is using demographic information to optimize services, develop programs, and plan expansions to serve more youths with more services. And funding for the organization has significantly increased since implementation, so they’re well positioned for their expanded service offerings.