As part of our strategic goal to provide high-quality programs aligned with community needs, we conduct evaluations to understand the measurable impact of our programs on our participants, and to identify areas for improvement. Developing assessment tools that effectively capture participant feedback is always a challenge, thus we were fortunate to partner with Fund for Shared Insight and Sand Hill Foundation to adopt the Listen for Good program.
The Listen for Good model provides a tool to capture high-quality feedback to help us improve programs and communicate back to our participants. We have captured valuable data on the impact of our Financial Empowerment and Second Careers Employment Programs. In addition to measurable outcomes, we solicit feedback to help improve programs. For instance, Second Careers Employment participants requested increased training for computers, language, and other skills, as well as more guest speaker presentations. As a result of this feedback, the program manager strengthened the training referral programs, and is building additional partnerships with community colleges, and adult
schools. These and other partners are providing free or low cost training resources for adults age 55+ to gain job coaching assistance and new relevant skills to successfully reenter the workforce.
In Financial Empowerment, respondents provided feedback on the wait time between their DriveForward auto loan application and notification approval. As a result, we added a process to streamline low-risk loans. This change will expedite participant access to financing their own vehicle, allowing them to overcome transportation barriers that impact their ability to go to work, take children to school, or attend training programs. We continue to review the feedback and examine ways to improve our program delivery and the participant experience. We are grateful to Fund
for Shared Insight and Sand Hill Foundation for providing a system that helps us gather participant feedback and tap into their expertise and lived experiences, often providing the most effective solutions to problems and issues we are trying to solve. By doing so, we work towards our mission to help participants realize their full potential, and lead healthy, stable lives.