Back to (social) work. ‘Prioritize nimbleness’.

Posted May 12, 2023 by Mindi Wisman

This is the second in our "Back to (Social) Work Series," written by Melanie Wilson, Youth Catalytics’ former research director. This series of posts covers the evolution of a hybrid mentoring/tutoring program her Washington State nonprofit, East County Citizens’ Alliance, developed in partnership with a local school system. The first post can be found here. Updates will appear every month or two.

Melanie Wilson

The importance of being nimble

Seven or eight years ago, I attended a conference at Georgetown University about changes that local jurisdictions could make to improve juvenile justice outcomes. There were lots of presentations, statistics, and case studies, but the only thing I really remember is a bit of advice one of the speakers tossed out near the end. Just a few words of wisdom, buried in a lot of other verbiage: Don’t spend a lot of time planning.

Say what, I thought?

He went on to advise us just to try things. Don’t load on a bunch of process up front; save it for later, when the approach has proven at least somewhat workable and effective. In other words, prioritize nimbleness, at least at the beginning. It’s not hard to recognize the practical value of this advice, while at the same time understanding that it’s simply not going to fly with most funders, some of whom consider planning down to the gnat’s behind an end in itself. (Literally so, given that many grants fund only planning.) Now, at the most local of local levels, I understand how important this idea of nimbleness is.

When my small community nonprofit began developing a new mentoring program in our local high school, we truly didn’t know how it would work. We put the barest mechanics in place, and week after week, felt our way through, dropping some elements of the program and adding others, drafting new policies only when it became clear they were needed. For instance, at the beginning, we planned to match mentors with students who were struggling emotionally and even on the brink of dropping out. It took about one day to figure out that, nope, given our level of staff training and the mechanics of the referral system, it wasn’t going to work. (See my first post in this series.)

Adapt and change

Another pivot: When it came to academic tutoring, we thought that it might not matter much whether students saw the same tutors each week; couldn’t we mix and match, as volunteers were available? Well, it turns out we could mix and match, but if we did, we’d be missing out on the opportunity to connect more deeply with the students who were struggling the most. What made all this nimbleness possible? Paradoxically, the fact that no external funders are supporting our work. We have no grant provisions to satisfy and no program officer to whom we report. We do what’s best for the kids and what’s doable within our particular constraints. So it’s easy to adjust as we learn and grow. It’s not money, but rather the ability to adapt and change, that keeps our effort afloat.

Keeping a program running only matters, though, if it’s a good program. That’s why, as an incurable evaluator, for me the proof will always be in the impact. The same is true for the administrators who have been our champions. In February, the school’s associate principal made a presentation to the school board that indicated that–so far and with fingers crossed–it appears that our program is working, at least in terms of keeping students from failing their hardest classes. The 35 students we saw three or more times entered our program collectively earning 35F’s. Those same students tallied only 14 F’s at the end of the term. That’s not conclusive proof of our effectiveness, of course. Indeed, at this point, it’s suggestive at best. There’s so much more to be explored, and as we collect more data of many kinds, we will. But given the critical importance of keeping students attached to school, and showing them there’s a way for them to succeed academically, we feel good about where we are. And that’s a testament to organic growth, not growth dictated by a work plan, timeline, logic model, eligibility requirements or list of allowable activities.