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Community Connect Through Technology Project
In 2009, Nexus implemented “Communities Connect Through Technology (CCTP)” a one year pilot project layering technology, community engagement, and asset and wealth creation. By providing immigrant families in two of our three geographic areas a free laptop, computer accessories and a year’s worth of internet access, Nexus anticipated their social networks would be enhanced and assets would be built. Nexus partnered with two organizations, East Side Neighborhood Development Company (ESNDC) in St. Paul and Project for Pride in Living (PPL) in Minneapolis in the development and implementation of CCTP. A total of 24 families, 13 from Minneapolis and 11 from St. Paul attended monthly trainings and additional one on ones with staff as part of this year long pilot project.
With the project complete, a formal evaluation is under way in contract with the evaluation firm Copeland Carson and Associates. We are excited to share some of the initial findings thus far:
- Overall, CCTP participants have a high level of satisfaction with the project.
- CCTP participants improved their computer and internet skills, with many indicating that they have email accounts and use their laptops and the internet on a regular basis. The report found that the most common uses for the laptops and/or the internet are email (96%), searching the internet (91%), learning English (87%), school (87%), and getting a job, buying a house or getting training (74-83%).
"Before enrolling into the computer training class ... I couldn't even turn on or off a computer, let alone use it for any purpose. At the level I am at today, I can not only check emails, send emails to my children's teachers, and connect with my family; I can write documents and save them on the computer and be able to use internet for job searches, homes, and general research." - Minneapolis Participant
- CCTP helped participants and their families improved their asset building skills, particularly for employment searches. While no participants reported finding a new job while part of the program, most participants (70%) said they have used the internet to search for jobs.
- CCTP participants expanded their levels of community engagement. Many participants shared examples about how CCTP improved their quality of life and opened up a new world of knowledge to them. All participants reported sharing their computer, internet access, and/or knowledge with others, suggesting that CCTP has impacted a wider community.
“I have skills that actually make my life easier. For example, before I used to always take the bus or drive to my children's school in order to check up on them and talk to their teachers about the progress. I only could do that face to face because I did not know how to use the computer. Now, all I do is just send an email and instantly I know where my kids are at in school.” St. Paul Participant
We are excited by these early findings and we plan on publishing a full report later this summer along with a lessons learned guide for practioners as well. Stay tuned for this final report!
The Evaluation Process
For the past few weeks Nexus Community Partners staff has been immersed in evaluation work in partnership with a number of our grantees and our consultant Copeland Carson and Associates.
The process itself has been formative for Nexus staff and a few key thoughts has emerged for me regarding the role and function of evaluation.
It seems as if too often evaluation ends up simply being about the validation of a particular program. Does it work or doesn’t work? In our meetings it was insightful to hear from organizations that see their evaluation as being about more than just measuring effectiveness, but as a method and tool to display the values that drives the work of the organization. Success is measured first by the organization, which then helps to inform the broader community. This lead me to think that if fully embraced as a philosophy and practice by an organization, evaluation can be a very valuable method of helping organizations learn about themselves as well as how they relate and/or are perceived by the broader community around them. This then helps shift evaluation into a practice and not just a function within an organization.
Yet we know that developing this culture of evaluation can be quite a shift given the daily demands of an organization’s work. And as with any cultural shift, the implementation of this work is the harder and more challenging task. As Nexus has learned for itself and from what our grantee partners have shared with us, implementation needs to be done slowly but intentionally so that organizations can simultaneously learn from the process while engaging in the hard work of shifting the culture of evaluation within their organization.
In the next month, Nexus hopes to emerge with a set of key evaluation questions that will inform how we collect data and demonstrate community outcomes. We also plan to create a database that will collect this information. In our work of building the field of Community Engagement, we hope to develop a survey with our grantee partners to capture what and how community residents feel about their neighborhoods and quality of life. Lastly, Nexus will continue to build organizational capacity of our grantee partners around the value and practice of evaluation.
As an interesting resource check out six common myths of evaluation here.