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>> So, welcome again to this webinar for VISTAs
on promoting your sustainability for your project.
Sustainability is one of the key principles of VISTA.
Today, you'll learn how to plan your service so that you create sustainable systems
that will persist long after the VISTA project ends.
I'm your host Kim Judy from the VISTA training unit.
Assting me today are Robyn Stegman and Suzanne Knizner, our partners at Campaign consultation.
We're here to assist you during today's session and help you get your questions answered.
Now, it's my pleasure to introduce today's presenter Dax-Devlon Ross
from Bankstreet College of Education.
I'm now going to turn it over to him.
>> Thank you Kim.
And welcome everyone.
We're really pleased that you could join us today.
As you can see here we have 4 goals for the next one hour but mostly we hope to get you thanking
about what sustainability means and the context of your projects and how you can go
about promoting a sustainability [inaudible] in your work.
I just want to give you a quick outline of the agenda we have laid out for you today.
Obviously we've covered some of the welcome and introductions and there will be some others
that you'll be meeting later on in this session as well.
We hope that provide a sort of big picture scope of the work,
the goals, the project sustainability.
We'll be taking a look at report that VISTA produced a couple of years ago, 4 years ago now.
We'll also hear from some folks on the ground from Michigan
in a gear program that's taking place out there very successful and they'll talk about some
of the work that they're doing around sustainability.
Ultimately we'll get a chance to talk about some strategies and hopefully hear from you as well
about some of the strategies that you've used at your sites.
And then we'll have a Q&A and a wrap-up and then will be signing-off.
So, to begin, we'd like each of you to weigh
in via the chat option on your screen on this question.
What do these images have in common?
So, take a moment and just respond if you will in the chat option.
All right, seeing some come through, community, sustainability with the exclamation mark,
lots of community, the cycle, wonderful-- uh-huh, interconnectedness, like stop photos,
okay, uh-huh, the environment, lots coming through.
Wonderful, wonderful, we really appreciate these feedback that you're offering.
So, some people anticipated it but in fact because we are here talking
about sustainability, it is sustainability that we have
as the connection between those 3 images.
So, the word sustainability is become somewhat ubiquitous in the past decade
or so which evolved from a call to action on energy and the environment
to a holistic meta-concepts or mean that touches on every part of our lives.
Perhaps the biggest testament to the mainstream emergence of it's--
if its varied usage listen closely enough and you'll hear the term use
as an adjective, sustainable living.
Adverb, living sustainably and a noun, a life that is sustainable.
Even traditional corporations they've been often been faulted for perpetuating a culture
of disposability and consumers and have gotten them on the act.
The Patagonia common threads initiative made headlines awhile back because pledge
to support sustainable consumption by helping reduce repair, we use and recycle its products.
Well, connects the industries organizations initiatives and products
under the sustainability tint or the underlying values the word implies, openness collaboration,
health and wellness, engagement, responsiveness, diversity, social and environmental stewardship,
smart technology and even endurance.
One potential pitfall of the popularization is
that its meaning can get a bit fuzzy while VISTA doesn't have a hard
and fast definition of sustainability.
Sustainable Solutions is one of the four core principles all VISTA projects must be developed
in accordance with.
Although the other three are dressed explicitly at PSO [phonetic],
this principle implicitly guides each
of the others fighting poverty effectively requires the judicious use of a limited supply
of human and financial resources and empower community is a crucial ally and participant
for any project looking to gain traction and by it.
And of course the project itself need systems and structures that can get the job done.
So, let's take a quicker and closer look at how this shows up
and the goals of the project sustainability.
Just really quickly want to note that this isn't meant
to be a comprehensive list nevertheless developing effective
and efficient systems allows people to focus on fulfilling the mission
of the project or reason for being.
This could be a volunteer recruitment of training system having that firmly
in place allows the project of focus on its objectives.
Note that we've highlighted integrity
and the second goal overtime an organization may tweak its work.
It may focus on a population or region, the roles and responsibility,
the staff members may change to meet the new needs and that's OK and perhaps necessary
in light of new discoveries of finding-- or finding is about funding opportunities.
Relying on a single source of funding of support as a risky endeavor
because funding priorities do change.
Sustainable projects are always cultivating people
than resources with an eye toward the future.
And finally transparency with stakeholders builds trust and concern
that can turn into support down the line.
So, I mentioned earlier-- a few moments ago
that 4 years ago VISTA released a sustainability report.
Its purpose was to evaluate the extent to which VISTA was achieving its goals
of helping organizations build and maintain sustainable projects.
One of the key questions study ask was what percentage of projects continue
to operate successfully two more years after the project ended.
Later on we're going to take a look at some of the findings of that report,
I wanted you to know what you think.
So, we are going to ask you all to quickly respond to this and, Robyn,
if you might want to jump in and tell people actually responding in the chat each
but there is a-- at the bottom of your screen a place
where you can register your responses and uphold.
Excellent, excellent, great.
Lots of variety coming through.
We'll going to come back to this a little later on but wanted
to just stall this out as a pole question.
We're going to return to in a bit.
So, moving along.
We've established the goal of VISTA projects is to persist well
after VISTAs-- and VISTA has left.
This hopefully gives you a visual sense of the lifespan of a project.
As you can see in an ideal world the amount of time VISTAs work on a project relative
to the amount of time of the projects operate on their own.
It's fairly brief.
Many of you may have participate in the passing the torch webinar
and in case you've missed it I invite you to download the PDFs on the campus.
The focus of that webinar was continuity between VISTAs serving
at the same project over a three year cycle.
It's helpful to think about sustainability as continuities older sibling.
They're related but different.
And where as can-- continuity is focused on a year to year transitions
and ensuring the documentation is in place with incoming VISTA.
Sustainability is cheaply concerned with how projects prepared themselves
to continue their mission when VISTAs are no longer involved with the project.
Another way to think about this difference is planning versus positioning.
Sustainability positions people others in the organization or community stakeholders.
And processes to operate in perpetuity ongoing.
It may mean finding and trading volunteers to do what it is you do.
It may mean working on a strategic plan with the organization
to use resources that you help create.
Continuity plans with an eye toward another person taking over.
It's keeping all of the key documents that the next person will need
in a tidy manual or a thumb drive.
It's introducing your replacement to community stakeholders all of which is hugely important.
Tool kit, I've talked a lot for the last few minutes time
to change things up just for a quick moment.
So, remember way back at your PSOs your facilitator asked you to draw a napkin sketch
that visually illustrated what you expect to see at the end of your service chart.
What? Imagine creating a napkin sketch that captures what you would expect to see
if you visited your program 5 years after you left.
What would you expect to see?
So, again, we have that chat feature, just think about that for a moment.
What would you expect to see when you come back
after you've left your VISTA service site, what would you like to see?
[ Pause ]
Lots are thinking.
People stepping up, I'm seeing that prosperity in the community growth, right,
a fully developed volunteer database, more participation, full time positions
in the serving-- service learning initiatives, growth of the program.
I hope you all having an opportunity to see some of the thoughts that are coming
in throughout the country around us.
We have a lot of people that have-- that joined us in this call.
Quantitative even qualitative evaluations I'm seeing continued outreach,
some successful corporate sponsorship programs rate, greater degree of comfort
with technology, excellent national partnerships.
This is all wonderful, this is good, lots of lots of interesting ideas coming
through some folks throughout engaged communities says Victoria Cortez [assumed
spelling], great, great.
So, we want to thank you for that and then please feel free to continue to share those.
But, I'm actually going to turn it over to Craig Kinnear who is a Budget
and Program Analyst at AmeriCorps VISTA.
And Craig is going to talk to us a little bit more about his work and about the report.
>> Thank you Dax.
As Dax previously explained we undertook an 18-month project in 2010 or that ended in 2010
to take a look at answering the question of how successful is this day
in developing project sustainability.
And he asked you a poll question and I see the results have come in.
47 percent of you said that 63 percent of projects were sustained after three years.
36 percent said some of the three percent of projects
and 16 percent said 84 percent of projects.
And the correct answer is 84 percent.
What this means is that, well, we went out and asked projects
that had whose last [inaudible] prior to January 1st of 2008.
We said in 2010, 2009 and 2010, what percent of those projects were still in operation.
And 84 percent of them were the more impressive than this is that 90 percent
of those projects said that they had fully
or partially achieved their three most important project goals which is critical in terms
of business view of the projects.
In addition, more than 90 percent of project directors and staff said
that VISTA members were critical or very helpful in achieving project goals.
Interestingly enough just over 20 percent of projects reported the project activities evolved
or the course of the business support due
to changing circumstances or new strategies and assets.
So, what characteristics and competencies did project directors
and staff say most successful VISTA members had.
The first one is a willingness to work hard.
That might sound obvious but it's critically important
that because VISTAs are a short term resource that they're able to complete
as much work effectively and efficiently as possible.
The second is excellent communication skills.
The third is creativity and problem solving, and the fourth is a commitment
to the social justice issues that the organization was addressing.
For example, VISTA's that we're successful on helping their project achieve their goals
and sustaining the long [inaudible] were capable in this four ways.
And it's much as sustainability as the goal and but it's also be embedded
in the everyday behaviors demonstrated by strong VISTAs, it is those behaviors, hard work,
strong communications, skilled problem solving strategies and commitment
to the mission that ultimately drags success.
So, take a look at projects had been-- did not sustain.
You're probably curios about what happened to those other 16 percent
of projects, the ones that didn't sustain.
Well, we have some information on those organizations as well.
According to staff had about half
of those organizations the following reasons were cited most often
for what projects were not sustained.
First, for organization and project management, and this is critical to you as well.
In terms of the importance of keeping things organized and keeping on top
of project management and timeline.
The second was lack of needed resources either funds for volunteers.
We know that a lot of you are primarily responsible for either recruiting
and managing volunteers and or raising funds and developing other resources.
And that's critical to the success of any project.
Third was the lack of community support which mainly means that,
while the organization may have believed that some point in time that if they were in--
they were embarking on a project that enjoyed at strong level of community and support.
At some point in time that support sees to exist or it never existed in the first place.
So, make sure project should make sure that what they're endeavoring to do in choices part
of a wide birth of their-- of their community.
And finally, lack of organization support often lead to projects not being sustainable.
In terms of organization support, you would think, well,
if the organization developed a project, of course the organization supports.
There's been a lot of times what happened is projects or experimental.
An organization who focuses on one very, very narrow thing branches out to a new project.
And perhaps the organization decides at some point in time
that that project is not quite as important as they thought.
So, those are the four sort of a weaknesses that lead to projects not being sustained.
In terms of predicting, and this is different.
We had the consultant take a look at helping us identify factors that can predict
when our current project is likely to be sustained.
So, in terms of predicting that the most important variable sighted and this is an order
of predictive value are number one, the--
capacities training and dedication of this to members.
You are the key ingredient to the success and sustainability of the project.
Two, support of the projects, support of the project from the community at large.
Third, the age of the organization
and the organization's experience with project activities.
And fourth set the centrality of the project goals to the mission of the organization.
If you'd like you can download the report right here,
it's located in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
Dax, I'm turning it back to you.
>> Thank you so much Craig.
So, Craig is going to be around to answer some questions later on during the Q&A session.
But, we're now going to actually turn to Ingrid Clover and Asma Peracha.
They are from Michigan's GEAR UP program and they're going to talk a lot about what they do
and how sustainability really supports their successful endeavors out there.
So, quickly, as Craig noted the success of sustainability efforts will depend
on the good communication and particularly between the VISTAs supervisors.
Of VISTAs supervisor's role and promoting sustainability will be very different from that
of the VISTA member both because of what a supervisor does and because
of the length of time they spent on a project.
And to that end we've asked Ingrid and Asma to talk about their different roles
but also ways in which the roles intersect.
So, I'm going to hand it over to those two now and they're going to talk
to you more about what do they do.
Ingid and-- and Ingrid and Asma, it's up to you.
>> Great, well, thank Dax.
This is Ingrid Clover here.
And, I am a VISTA Project Supervisor from Michigan GEAR UP.
GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs, GEAR UP.
And it is a federal program to increase college access for low income students.
My office the King-Chavez-Parks Initiative won its third consecutive GEAR UP grant,
Michigan GEAR UP, MI GEAR UP in September of 2011.
And this brings to our state a 23.5 million dollar federal award which we matched with state
and local resources and that results in 47 million dollars over our seven year grant cycle.
MI GEAR UP serves a cohort of approximately 10,000 students from 7th grade
through their first year college.
Our MI GEAR UP cohort is currently in 9th grade.
We recruit our VISTA members to a large extent from KCP program alumni.
And this allows us to create additional employment and education options
for academically and economically disadvantage students as well
as providing role models to our MI GEAR UP students.
Role models that have successfully navigated college access and success.
Our MI GEAR UP VISTAs are used to implement the MI GEAR UP statewide initiative
such as financial literacy, balance and resort of justice
and our statewide asset map and resource manual.
And as you can see, MI GEAR UP of which you can tell I'm very proud is our state's largest
college excess program, we operated in partnership
with every single one of our 15 public universities.
And as you can see we are all over the map.
We have VISTAs as far North as you-- you can see as Lake Superior State University,
we have VISTAs in Wayne County out of U of M Ann Arbor, U of M Dearborn GEAR UP.
And we have VISTAs working on sustainable local projects such as at Western Michigan University,
they're creating some wonderful sustainable partnerships to support tutoring and mentoring
as well as at Lake Superior State University
of some wonderful sustainable projects partnering with the Department of Defense.
And at Central Michigan University, they're doing really exciting things with social media.
So, those are some of the local project sites that are working
out some really exciting sustainable initiatives.
OK. Sustainability and scalability.
Scalability is a concern for us because our grant Michigan GEAR UP operates
on a much larger scale than many other college access programs.
Most of-- a lot of other college excess programs will partner
with maybe one university and serve a couple of schools.
As you can see from the previous slide, we're all over the place.
So, it's more of a challenge for us to do coordinated program wide, statewide initiative.
The VISTAs make that possible for us.
And the VISTAs working on the statewide initiative really preserve the sustainability
of the GEAR UP program.
Michigan GEAR UP is a competitively awarded federal grant.
Our most recent round of funding in 2011 was very, very competitive.
And several long time grantees were not funded.
Our next round of funding is coming up at 2018 and we expect that to be even more competitive.
And again, one of the challenges that we face in our program implementation is serving
such a large population in such a diverse population.
And we're competing against states.
So again, maybe partner with a single University to serve a couple of school districts.
But, with our VISTAs, we are able to-- to implement statewide initiative.
We use sustainable system improvement and a train the trainer model.
And with our VISTAs, we're able to--
our VISTAs make it possible for MI GEAR UP to achieve statewide objective that due
to our program scope and its size would otherwise just not be seizable.
So, our VISTAs also make it possible to make our project sustainable across programs.
Our office, The King-Chavez-Parks Initiative manages a variety
of college access programs in addition to Michigan GEAR UP.
So, what we do with our VISTA projects, we make those projects available to our KCP Programs
and other Michigan college access programs across state.
So, for example, one of the ways that we do that is
when VISTAs conduct a workshop say financial literacy, we'll invite staff from other programs
to attend and to facilitate the event.
This allows us to provide training and program materials to step from other programs.
And, this slide you can see-- kind of gives you an overview of the KCP Program continuum.
We really like to view our office as providing a pipeline of educational program--
programming which is focused on meeting the needs of specific populations of disadvantage
and under represented students by providing them with the necessary tools and supports to access
and succeed in the next stage either educational progression.
So, if you take a look at our pipeline, the first program that we have is Michigan GEAR UP.
And Michigan GEAR UP serves students starting in 7th grade through their 1st year college.
Then, our office also offers three undergraduate college access programs.
Our fourth program, our MICUP program and Morris Hood program.
The 4S program targets students at colleges and university.
Our MICUP program targets students transferring from a community college
to a four year college university.
And our MHED or Morris Hood Program targets students at--
in undergraduate programs who are preparing for query teaching.
And so, what we do is we try to have cross program collaboration between MI GEAR UP
and those post secondary program.
And so, we've got our under graduate college access programs.
From those college access programs, our-- our program participants can transition either
into a career or we might even refer them to our future faculty fellow program
and our visiting preceptor [phonetic] program.
These are programs that serve graduate students.
Now, one of the career options that we make available is--
as I mentioned earlier our VISTA program.
We like to recruit alumni from our KCP Programs to serve our GEAR UP students.
An example of that is our VISTA osmo coracha [phonetic].
Osmo coracha is a proud alumni of the 4S program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
And, on our next slide, you can see an example of many not at all but many
of our collaborative partner at Michigan GEAR UP.
And, by making our VISTA projects available to our collaborative partners that allows us
to increase the scope of the sustainability.
OK, how do we assess sustainability?
What does sustainability mean to our program?
When we look at VISTA projects, when we determine whether or not it's sustainable,
we look-- we use a three prong VISTA analysis or three prong sustainability analysis.
We say, does the project-- is the project itself sustainable?
Then we look at, does the project contribute to the sustainability of the program?
How will the project contribute toward the sustainability of Michigan GEAR UP?
And then we look at, how will the project contribute toward the sustainability
of our overall program goal which is a Michigan College-Bound Culture?
So, here's how that analysis plays out in one of our statewide VISTA projects,
our financial literacy initiative.
Our financial literacy project support, is sustainable and that it develops
and implements financial literacy services that remain
after the workshop is conducted is available to program staff
and participants after the project has concluded.
Then we look at how does it sustain the program.
Financial literacy sustains the program and that it's a required program component.
And a statewide financial literacy program that progresses whether a cohort from 7th grade
through their 1st year of college sustains our--
our current program and makes us more competitive
as we prepare for the 2018 round of funding.
And then we look at our third prong, how is financial literacy sustain our program goal,
how does it sustain our college-bound culture?
Well, the scale of our program and the fact that we make our financial literacy program available
across program allows us to create almost an institutionalized culture
where students have the financial knowledge prepare for a college career.
So, in that way it supports a statewide college culture.
OK, what do the VISTAs do, what are the-- some of these sustainable camps that they work on?
Our MI GEAR UP VISTA task include those that are required by statute such as financial literacy
and parent involvement as well as other components that support college access
and success such as the statewide asset map and resource manual
which Asma will speak to you later.
Our MI GEAR UP VISTA task include work on these initiative as well
as creating sustainable program partnerships, designing and implementing workshops
and activities as well as supporting campus visit and summer camp activities.
Now, we received additional support regarding our sustainable initiative
with our 2013 AmeriCorps summer associates.
MI GEAR UP received-- we were awarded 10 AmeriCorps summer associates
to support the work of our MI GEAR UP VISTAs.
Our summer associates-- each summer associate was paired with a VISTA and the VISTA worked
as a mentor to kind of introduce the summer associate
to what national service in MI GEAR UP means.
And, this was sustainable and that it allowed us to kind of recruit some of our summer associates
so that they would serve later in their careers as a MI GEAR UP VISTA.
We also worked towards sustainability through the use of data.
MI GEAR UP is going to conduct a statewide evaluation of the effectiveness of GEAR
UP interventions using student-level data.
And much of this data will involve ACT test, the Explore, the plan, and the ACT.
And information that we get from this data will be used to *** the impact of MI GEAR
UP interventions on secondary and post secondary educational outcomes as well
as to inform programmatic decisions and resource allocations.
For example, we have a pilot project
in Wayne County using stembased workforce development strategies
to increase college access.
With the use of the student level database, we'll be able to look and see for every student
who spent a certain number of hours in those workshops, we'll be able to connect attendance
on those workshops, put their performance on their standardized test as well
as other academic outcomes such as GPA, advancement to the next academic level.
And this is very exciting for us because MI GEAR UP has traditionally relied on--
data how students at a group and the group are doing.
So, this will really be the first time that we can use student level data to-- and for--
to be used for formative and summative assessments.
And at this point, I will hand it over to Asma Peracha and she can talk about her role
in leading in shepherding our statewide asset map and resource manual.
>> Thank you, Ingrid.
So, like Ingrid said, one of our sustainable projects that MI GEAR
UP one of the many is an Asset Map.
And to give a little bit of background the projects.
The Asset Map projects really started at one of our GEAR UP sites, one of the 15,
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
And we had a VISTA who was placed at that site and under the direction and guidance
of our supervisor she created an asset map for the community that she was working with.
And an asset map is really just sort of sounds like you map up that assets in you community
and preferably with one issue in mind.
So, with MI GEAR UP we're looking at education and access education and access to services
such as financial literature that prepare at risk students for college and success beyond.
And so, this is like created an asset map for this community looking
at all of these different resources.
And when we saw what she had done in the work project that she had created, it was so obvious
and so clear that this was such a useful project.
Because as of MI GEAR UP VISTA not only do you have to kind of be knowledgeable and informed
about the statewide working present program and be involved in the statewide implementation.
But you also really have to know your community pretty well whether
or not you hail originally from that community.
And so, the asset map [inaudible] and informing the VISTA as well as other people in that office
about the community that they were working with.
And really great information, demographics of the student population,
different business endeavor in the community that were successful
and actively involved in certain causes.
Until we decided that since its such a useful project, we should have one
for as any of our site as possible.
And that idea is that when you put these individual asset maps together,
they create a statewide asset map for all over MI GEAR UP communities.
And so, we use a train the trainer model to VISTA
who originally created the first asset map.
She came and trained our-- summer associate as well as a handful
of our other VISTAs and how to create an asset map.
And those summer associates in the VISTAs come back to their communities
and they created an asset map for their communities as well using her model.
And so, that we completed this towards the end of last summer.
And again, like I said, when we put this together we have the statewide asset map
which is still useful, and we can also pull up the individual community maps on for the use
in their offices and at their site.
And, we're hoping that one of the next step of this implementation will be to get one
of the universities, one of their graduate classes to pick it up and kind
of really polish off and add to the method or the existing.
The asset maps are useful again and the office level as well as the statewide level.
And the attribute sustainability of the culture because this is a work project
that will always be available to any new VISTA who comes in.
Allows the time to VISTAs that are [inaudible] in sites, they grew up in that community,
they went to those schools that just as often they didn't.
And so by having this research which highlight, you know, the demographics and the resources
in the community, it's so much easier and it's so helpful for not only the VISTAs
so really the office staff in general.
And it's in the [inaudible] living document because it's going to always be updated.
And that sums up are Asset Map and project.
>> So, I want to thank both of you Ingrid and Asma for sharing what you shared.
You took a lot of time to develop this and it's really obvious so we appreciate that.
At one point, I just want to make before we-- as we wrap up your sections of it was just.
It's important to reiterate that in MI GEAR UP program it's on its third grant cycle
and that federal investment had really clearly demonstrates as a belief in what the project is
about and what it's doing, its ability to make an impact, its ability to evaluate its impact.
And not all that happens because of their processes and those systems that are in place.
And so, Dax, I want to congratulate you on that work so far.
They both again going to stay on the line so they can answer some questions at the end
of our session which is actually shortly.
But before we get to that, I wanted to share just some of the strategies and things
that we might have heard today or things that we've actually talked
about is-- in our smaller groups.
Just things that we think might help promote sustainability at your sites
and I wanted to share some of those with you.
So, to start, developing the broad-based relationships
and partnerships that foster collaboration.
I thank both Craig and Ingrid-- really and, you know, even Asma's last point
about making sure that, you know, you're thinking about this assets maps
because your own folks are growing in the communities and the ways
in which they might be involved and thinking about developing schools
or programs for their communities.
Developing those kinds of relationships
and partnerships really fostered the sustainability that we're talking about.
Nurturing the community involvement I think that's an extension of the point
that I was just making just to reiterate that.
Being visible in the community, developing and-- executing an outreach plan to that end.
So, being visible it means, letting people know what's up, what's going on,
how they can be involved, extremely important.
Evaluation, I think we heard both Ingrid and Craig talk about this
but particularly Ingrid talking
about how evaluations become really important to their program.
Evaluation is important because it allows you
to both gather the qualitative and-- quantitative feedback.
And then it also helps you link the evaluation to the project success.
And then to the marketing that you do about the program as you move forward.
So, there's a lot of value and the evaluation.
Being flexible, I think one of the points that you address really early on were talking
about those goals of project sustainability where the ability to modify the project based
on feedback and based on evaluation as well.
Wearing the Sustainability Lens, and there's something I really
like about Ingrid's presentation.
It talked-- she-- and all of these different ways sustainability shows up
and what they're doing whether it's working with AmeriCorps summer associates and thinking
about how to get them tied in or thinking about young people in the community.
All of these things are about the lens that even and as well I will talk
about how that feeds into the sharing.
So, that inviting other programs to facilitate at things that you're doing.
So, that they can be involved, you're sharing your resources,
you're sharing your expertise, you're sharing your-- successes.
All that sharing helps contribute to an environment into a culture of sustainability.
We also want to find out from you.
So, we want to take a moment right now.
We know we just shared some ideas around sustainability, but what have you tried?
What are the things that you've done that you think either has been successful
or maybe haven't been so successful but what have you tried?
So, again, in the chat feature if you wouldn't mind,
a couple more minutes just to hear from you.
What some of the strategies that you tried
around sustainability event so far at your various sites.
[ Pause ]
Keeping records, absolutely.
I'm seeing this come through.
Databases, Google volunteer databases, absolutely using Google, very important.
Meeting a wide variety of people in the community extremely important,
we talked about that, we reiterate that over and over again.
I think and even as far back as PSO getting staff on board.
Using drop box, one of my favorite friends as well.
Building-- research usually important, no one was already out there, decluttering.
Creating a community center, Facebook page, using the social media, extremely valuable.
Letter to my successor, I like that.
Yeah. Compiling a list of things you can always be doing, very good.
Thank you for sharing that Loren.
Yes. Prezi.
Prezi for different training its only administrative typed activities.
I don't know if all of you know about Prezi's but those are really cool ways.
They're sort of like PowerPoints but a little bit different, look into those spreadsheets
and binders, all sorts of ways in which you can just gather information.
Community events whether that's being there, thank you for pulling
that [inaudible] whether that's being there or, you know, short presenting there.
Annual corporate sponsorship programs, thank you Aimee.
These are great, creating college club chapters, excellent idea.
That way you're making sure you're connecting with your own folks and they're getting involved
and they want to be involved as well.
Developing strong relationship with alumni, we've got a couple more coming through.
Excellent, excellent, excellent.
So, you can keep those coming though,
I'm going to just step forward slide forward to this next slide.
And what its offer a little encouragement because we know that we've said a lot
of information with you and that you all charge with a pretty daunting task.
And, this isn't easy and it won't be done overnight.
But, the work that you do is extremely vital,
so vital that we're having this webinar a day about it.
So, we want to just leave you with a little encouragement, first, being proactive.
So, that just means don't wait until your last month of surface,
that's one of the first things you wanted to reiterate in this encouragement section.
Begin today, however you can begin, begin today.
Being patient, so the organization may not be ready to implement all
of your ideas today and that's OK.
You know, what's important is you document the process which all of you are pointing
out in the chat feature right now because you document that process so that it--
when it is ready, when the organization is ready,
there's a plan that's in place for them to use.
Be respectful, and this goes across all of different relationships
in the community to operating it.
So, when and how you introduce your ideas can be crucial and as you seek to buy the buy
in from stakeholders should be sure to recognize community norms, organizational structures
and protocols and be open to the feedback that you get from people how that feedback may come.
And finally be creative, you know, I can't stress this enough.
You've intentionally resisted giving you a sustainability template here,
even though we did discuss it.
Because each situation is different, you all have different environments you're working
into the communities that you're working in.
So, each of you is going to need to take stock of your situation and develop a strategy
that is based on the goals of your particular project.
So, I want to leave you and before we turn it over and start the Q&A sessions
with this final quote because we like to close this in final quotes.
The key ingredient to progress to getting ahead is
to leave a foundation behind, very simple, very sweet.
Hopefully that resonates with you as well.
So, this time I'm going to turn it back over to Kim.
>> Thanks, Dax and, our other presenters.
At this point we are going to open up our lines for our question and answer period.
Operator, can you remind our participants how do ask a question verbally.
>> Certainly.
At this time if you would have a question on the phone lines, please to press star one
and record your name when prompted.
Please be sure your line is unmated and speak your name clearly
so I may introduce your question, star one please.
It will take just--
>> Thanks.
>> -- a few moments for the first question to register.
>> Thank you.
While we wait for those questions on the line, I'll start taking questions
from our Q&A section in the Webinar.
So, the first question that I'd like as discussed, actually is a grouping of questions,
we've got a number of questions that reflect that the VISTA members aren't working on tasks
that are in line with developing a sustainable project.
They may not be working on the activities listed on their [inaudible]
or they might have been asked to take on a more administrative role at their site.
I recommend that they bring these issues up directly
with their supervisors referencing their [inaudible]
and the VISTA project plan during the conversation.
Ingrid, as a supervisor, do you have any suggestions
on how they might approach their supervisor with these issues?
>> So, in the events that of this they would contact me with a concern
that the task were not directly related to the [inaudible].
My first-- I guess step in the analysis would be to determine, are they doing direct service
or are they doing indirect service.
And to the extent that they are doing direct service, to what extent is it related
to a sustainable system improvement?
For example, if I have VISTA who is working to develop a curriculum designed
to motivate student interest in STEM careers.
That VISTA is going to be much more effective if the VISTA is actually in the classroom working
with the students developing that activity.
So, I would look at that as permissible direct service because that relates directly
to a sustainable system improvement and then I would reference to that and see that it relates
to the objective in the action steps.
However, if a VISTA calls me and says the reception is on maternity leave
and they're going to be filling in for a month then clearly that's different
because it's not connected to a sustainable system improvement.
So, again, whether or not someone is doing task that is within their MI GEAR UP bad,
the first step in the analysis is sustainability.
>> Thank you, Ingrid.
Operator, do we have any questions on the phone yet?
>> Yes we do.
We have a question from Michelle Hall [assumed spelling].
Your line is open.
>> Oh, thank you.
I was just wondering about-- actually, my questions been answered
because I got some links on creating an asset map.
So, I'm good.
>> All right, wonderful.
That's actually another group of questions that we have received in the Q&A section.
Ingrid, VISTAs are asking, could they get a copy of the Michigan GEAR UP asset map?
And now, are there other docs-- or Ingrid, are there other sample asset map available?
>> We can direct you toward information that you can use in compiling your asset map.
At this point, our Michigan asset map is not yet ready for release.
We don't have the necessary releases from all of our program partners, but we would be happy
to direct you to resources that would be useful in developing your own asset map.
And I guess, I should make my contact information available after the webinar.
If anybody has any questions, they should feel free to contact me.
>> And I just want to bump in.
This is Robyn.
Just to say that [inaudible] and we can post it again and it will also be available
with the resources falling in this webinar.
On the VISTA campus there is a webinar that we've done previously
on mapping assets that actually Asma was on.
And as part of that webinar follow up and we can make this available in the campus.
There are both examples of an asset map and a guide for VISTAs
on how to create their own asset map.
So, that will be sent out to participants of this webinar as well.
And you can see that webinar on the VISTA campus.
We'll post and will give a chat again.
>> Thank you all.
The next question comes from Rochelle Rice [assumed spelling] and is related to data.
So, her question is, do you have any suggestions of what type
of data we should try to collect for our own program?
And, how do we ensure we are collecting data that will be useful?
>> Craig, is that one you might feel comfortable taking on a little bit?
>> I think, it depends what your project is.
But anything that you believe is transferable
to either your next VISTA or volunteers or project staff.
For instance, if you're doing-- if you're working at a homeless project,
temporary housing project, anything having to do with homeless population in your community,
temporary housing, locations, partners that you could--
or organizations that you could partner with, a lot of data is available from the census
from Department of the Interior-- or Department of [inaudible].
So, anything that you think is critical to your project.
Although in that I don't have any specific--
>> Hi, this is Ingrid.
I guess I can share some of the successes that we've had in gathering data.
I referenced our pilot project in Wayne County using stem based workforce
development strategies.
And one of our VISTAs got some really good outcome data for us through the use of pre
and post assessments for his workshops.
So, we were able to write.
Before attending the workshop,
these many students expressed an interest in pursuing a STEM career.
After participating in the workshop, a whole bunch more expressed an interest.
And so, for every workshop that he did, there was pre and post assessment so we were able
to actually show the improvement on a student level.
>> Thank you, Craig and Ingrid.
Operator, do we have any questions on the phone?
>> Not at this time.
>> OK. So, another question that has come up for-- it sounds like a couple of people.
In both circumstances, the project is ending after one year due
to like internal organization cause or other unforeseen circumstances.
What suggestions or resources can you provide
for implementing sustainability into a one year VISTA project?
[ Pause ]
One thing I might suggest for those of you who might be in this situation is asking
to see a copy of the project plan if you haven't already listed that.
The project plan would have kind of outlined in a big picture and the full scope
of the VISTA project over a three-year period.
So, by sitting down, you know, what your supervisor or other organizational heads,
you might be able to look at what their end goal where going to be
and see what steps you can take to at least get them set up to take that on after you exit.
Ingrid, do you have--
>> I would add--
>> Oh, go ahead Dax.
>> I would just add that, you know, one of the things that we talked about, you know,
when we're looking at and specifically thinking about the goals of sustainability was--
and something that came up in the conversation was just how important it is.
Then, I think, I've said it a couple times just how important it is to identify, you know,
people who are in this specific community that you're already
in who have expressed some sort of interest in being involved.
So, to the-- you know, I think standing in the point that you just made
around looking at that project plan.
But then looking at what discrete skills would be necessary to actually continue
on certain pieces of the project given the fact that this is will no longer be there.
So, what-- so being be able to pull out discrete skills being able to pull out what discrete bits
of knowledge that you would need to have.
And then, who are the people that you could [inaudible] to defy
who even might have the skills or might be able to be developed over a period of time
that you have so that they can have the skills.
So, that when you do make the transition, that stuff was still be there with you.
So, again, look at the project plan, pulling out skills and knowledge that you--
that would, you know, that are needed
to actually implement certain pieces of that project plan.
And it's fine to identify people in the community who you think could actually fulfill
and learn those skills, already have those skills and that knowledge and trying
to charge them with the challenge in the task of moving forward with the project.
>> And I guess I would agree with that approach and it's kind of similar to what we're doing
at Michigan GEAR UP through across program collaboration.
I would identify other organizations that share your program goal
and make your resources available to them through a train-the-trainer approach perhaps
and collaborate to develop resources that that organization can use
after your own organization has wound up.
[ Pause ]
>> Hey, thank you for those.
Operator, do you have any questions in queue on the phone?
>> No, we do not.
Once again, now, star 1 if you would have a question.
>> All right.
The next question we have comes from Lyn Robertson [assumed spelling].
She asked, I'm working on a community-wide VISTA project with 10 VISTAs, that 10 organizations.
We worked together to create a community-wide event and I'm looking for advice on how
to have this event continue after our program is over next year?
>> Wow.
[ Pause ]
>> Ingrid, could you perhaps apply the train-the-trainer approach
that you just alluded to, to speak more specifically to Lyn's situation?
>> Sure. And if I understand Lyn's situation, the VISTAs are working
to create a one-day community event, and she's looking at post event activities
that will sustain the program goal.
Is that as their understanding?
>> It's more that she wants to ensure that this community-wide event continues
after the VISTAs have left those organizations.
>> OK. So, in that case, I think it would be a train-the-trainer approach.
And I'm going to think of a one of our community-wide events that we have
or that we're involved in it, Michigan GEAR UP is a STEM activity called Exploration Sensation
and the VISTAs at Lake Superior State University
in the Upper Peninsula really take the lead with that.
And, they make it sustainable and that they recruit a network of volunteers,
they used the train-the-trainer approach, they also create a network of partnerships so that
in the event that we were-- in the event that Michigan GEAR UP would not be able
to provide the kind of support that is traditionally provided.
They created a sustainable networks so that the event could continue I believe in some format.
[ Pause ]
>> Thank you for that.
Our next question comes from Justin Smothers [assumed spelling]
and he actually has a question for Craig Kinnear.
He asked, do you have any guidance or remarks
about the VISTA strength that lead to project success?
>> There is some more detail on that in the VISTA's sustainability report.
If you download that and that-- the link to-- at the bottom of your screen.
And take a look-- it's fairly well organized.
The index has places where you can go to talk about predictability
and also talk about skills of the VISTA.
So, that's where I would refer you to.
>> Thank you, Craig.
Jacqueline [assumed spelling]-- Operator, do we have any questions on the phone?
>> No ma'am, we do not.
>> OK. Our next question comes from Jacqueline [inaudible] and that she is in a small town
and has organization in a high transient community.
She happens to be a fish-- in a fishing town in Alaska.
But I think this is common circumstance that many of our more rural VISTAs experience
when they live in small-- serving in small town of the transient population.
They have 2,000 people in the community during the winter and then 5,000
in the summer with only two staff members.
So, she wants to know what can she-- how can she approach her supervisor to share ideas
that she has either found in legacy documents that previous VISTAs have left and ensure
that they get implemented beyond the lifespan of their VISTA project.
[ Pause ]
Jacqueline, one thing I might suggest is that you and really anyone who might be
in the final year or if you are just on a one year cycle in the final months
of your project is setting up a time to sit down with your supervisor
and start working on some exit goals together.
What documents or legacy items do they want to see from you and what goals, you know,
do you want to achieve before you exit and what goals might you have hoped and goals
that you might have for the organization once you've moved on.
Dax or Ingrid, do you either of you have anything to add?
>> As I was hearing the question, I heard [inaudible] a couple different things
and I think the way that you responded to was one of the ways I was hearing it, you know,
the how as in sort of what to do in terms and then there's also the kind of how I was hearing
in terms of how to approach this person.
So, I can't really read into whether or not what the nature of the relationship is or, you know,
whether or not there's a sort of open relationship.
You have the kind of dialogue, the kind of relationship where you can--
you can set that up or get that going.
But if the other part of the how question is what I'm hearing is--
is what is the way to engage this person or engage the supervisor in this conversation.
You know, I always and some work I was to do as an interviewer what you really want is just down
and ask them is really get a sense from them.
And I think this was already put out by Ken.
Get a sense from them, you know, what it is they are already thinking before you introduce the
ideas 'cause you might-- you should come with the ideas, absolutely.
And be prepared to share them.
But create-- trying to create a space where that conversation could happen can be huge.
So, I always talk about, you know, where you have the conversation was huge.
So, you have the space.
Do you want to have the conversation, you know, at work or do you want to have it out at coffee
or do you want to have it face to face versus do you want to have it online or over the phone.
So, based on the kinds of relationship that you have with them if this is how depending,
you know, depending on what kind of relationship is I would encourage you to sort of try to--
try to shape the conversation, shape all of the different parameters
of the conversation ahead of time.
So, that when you step into it that environment is
such that you can have the open dialogue that you really want to have.
>> And my suggestion for VISTA regarding how to approach a supervisor with a project would be
to tie it back to the program goals.
And so, VISTA were to approach me say for example I want to get--
I want to create materials for a series of workshops.
And it's related through-- to this program goal
because it will improve our students test preparedness.
And its going to improve our Michigan gear up, our program because its going to demonstrate
that our programming is effective thereby preserving our program Michigan gear
up through our current and into our next round funding.
And then the VISTA could also say and it preserves our college going culture
because by building a series of sustainable of workshop that allows students
to improve their test taking skill-- skills they will be enter--
they will be able to enter college-- college ready thereby supporting our state wide goal
of a college bound, college ready culture.
>> Thank you.
Operator do we have any questions on the phone?
>> We do have a question from Michelle Hall.
Your line is open.
>> Hi, I was just wondering what kinds of ways could a person work with other organizations
that are stakeholders to improve the visibility and the sustainability of the program.
I know one person mentioned affair.
And then I was thinking perhaps like help with fund raisers for those organizations.
But are there some other creative ideas that people have come up with
to partner with these other groups?
>> Just off the top of my head one of the things I'm thinking about is a campaign
that actually inter-- that where there's an intersection between initiative
that you both, you know, advocating for.
So, you know, it could be tied to a specific time of year.
It could be tied to a specific event.
But, you know, thinking about a collaborative campaign I mean that's one of the ways of course
that people engage corporate-- corporate partners as well finding ways in which things
and things that the corporate-- if its a corporate part of it that your looking at
or community based organization that your looking at.
But the thing that they already are attached to or think that they already have and stake in
or already involved in and-- and building again has a sense and sort of campaign around that
where you can share the cost of marketing.
When you will be able to share both of, you know, your base of support.
And, you know, you can really defray cost but also kind of magnify the impact by looking
at specific time of year or specific way or specific event that's really, really hyper--
hyper focused on something that you already have a connection to and a passion about.
>> Excellent.
That's an excellent idea.
>> And one of the ways that we worked to achieve that goal at Michigan Gear
Up for example summer time is when our college program do a lot of their heavy lifting.
We do a lot of summer camps, a lot of college visits.
So, what we did is we asked our project sites to identify the dates
for their scheduled college access activities.
And then we made that information available to their legislative representative.
So, that our elective representative could see what was going on in their districts could come
out possibly and actually participate in a summer gear up event.
So, I guess we want them to see--
to see for themselves exactly the good work that we were doing.
>> Yeah, that's great because then your more visible and then they get to tie
in to what your doing and-- and support it.
That's excellent.
>> Thank you.
>> And we have no further questions at this time.
[ Pause ]
>> Next question comes from Rochelle Shoot [assumed spelling].
She works in an organization that has a lot of red tape, a lot of levels of approval.
And so, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get things approved than--
and then we-- then we all might like.
So, she asks how do you maintain on the momentum and excitement that might have started
with the initial project idea so that, you know, people stay excited
about it and keep moving forward.
And then related to that how might she address
that in a sustainability binder for the next VISTA.
So, how can she convey that-- that situation appropriately and positively for the next VISTA?
And I thought in terms of speaking from one VISTA
to another maybe Asma might actually be able to talk a little bit about how she might address
that in a-- in a binder for the next VISTA.
More of the soft skills you have to convey.
>> So, I guess one of the things is to maintain--
to remain in touch with kind of the natural VISTA and AmeriCorps family.
So, within MI GEAR UP we have fortune VISTA's current and its easy to get caught
in the individual site activities
and your individual site kind of task that you have to do.
We all have a bottom list to do list.
And it's hard enough to stay in touch statewide within just your program.
But then there's even a further layer where you have to stay
in touch with the AmeriCorps family.
And events like this, events like the webinars, different gatherings
of some location told and then I'm on forum.
These are great ways to stay in touch.
And if they really bring you back to the foundational kind of knowledge that you gain
at your PSO and maybe the first couple of weeks where the excitement is a little bit stronger.
And so, I will say just to make sure they remember that you are part of a national family
and to do what you can to stay in touch with them.
>> Thank you, Asma.
Anything from Ingrid or Dax?
>> Something that I-- oh, go ahead, Ingrid, go ahead.
>> I guess I just keep coming back to the program goals.
And our program goal is getting low income kinds in the college
and who can't get excited about that.
So, we had a pretty easy in there regarding Michigan GEAR UP.
>> I would-- I would add just, you know, any way that you can maintain visibility for yourself
but also for others around that whether that's using technology or whether its sort
of analog style, whether you have a calendar up that just 'cause something
that keeps the thing present both for you and for other folks involved.
And also celebrate the small victories, you know, chunk this thing down to really small bits
and really find ways to acknowledge even if it's like you just got one more bit of approval.
You got through another stage of the red tape just making sure that those--
those sorts of things are acknowledged along the way.
And that people are constantly in the loop around that and know what's going on.
So, it might mean a lot of heavy lifting throughout on the part
of the person whose carrying that, you know, sort of carrying that task through.
But in order to keep folks really engage and I've seen
that happen pretty well throughout small victories, high visibility,
don't let people slip-- don't let it slip in people's minds.
And I think that eventually capture in a-- in a manual as you pass forward, you know,
just acknowledging the importance of those sort of things to others.
Without that I don't think that really steps on any ones toes and I think it really continues
to address the importance of that to the project.
>> Thank you.
Our next question comes from Catherine Boyle-Stead.
She asks, what is a good online service to create an online editable volunteer manual?
And so, Dax, Ingrid, if you have any suggestions that I thought.
Robyn, you might be able to point to some campus resources too.
[ Pause ]
So, Ingrid or Dax, do you have any suggestions for volunteer manual [inaudible]?
>> I use Google Docs for everything because you can actually work on them at the same--
and [inaudible] probably on this call probably use it themselves but it's something
that you can work on collaboratively at the same time.
It's constantly updatable and constantly automatically saves whatever the previous
iteration was.
You can also think about looking into creating a Wiki.
And a Wiki is sort of like an online.
It could be use as an online manual.
So, and there's bunch of different ones out there that I would just, you know,
type it in to the assertion you'll come up with different--
you know, different host for those Wikis,
I would look into those too as options to start with.
>> Yeah. We do a lot with Google Docs as well.
It really helps with coordinating information from all our VISTAs all across the state.
Regarding a local listing of volunteers, what I would advice is differ
to the local subject matter expert, the local [inaudible] on the ground.
They know who the desk project partners are.
Allows them to them to be your subject matter experts
and then have them gather the information.
And then once they gather the information, incorporated in a format
that again is accessible to your statewide partners.
>> Great. And Robyn, I-- in fact I-- right now posting on the VISTA campus volunteer resources
that actually have a great volunteer management course that goes included resources
on everything from, you know, tracking volunteers to how you recruit.
So, [inaudible] each of the game.
So, I'd encourage them toward looking for kind of volunteer management to check
out those resources there and which is exactly be really helpful and starting to think
about how you manage and to stay in volunteer involvement.
>> Wonderful.
Thank you to all of you for those answers.
Operator, do we have any questions queued on the phone?
>> Yes, we do.
We have a question from Victoria.
Your line is open.
>> Hi. We just had a question about direct service versus indirect service.
We realized that in our [inaudible] supposed to be indirect but sometimes there is a need
in the office to have an [inaudible].
You know, specifically [inaudible] to cover them or occasional clean up
or teacher 'cause I think that's the point that we're having trouble
with the teacher part for some of our lessons and--
>> Cover staffing.
>> Yeah, to cover staffing.
How would that fit into sustainability 'cause it's helping in the moment
but should we really be encouraging them or should we-- because that to ignore of that.
Sorry, there's a whole lot in one slide, that's it.
>> OK. So, it sounds like the question is, how much direct service is too much?
We would all agree that especially in small nonprofit organizations, there's always a need
and a time for all hands-on deck getting prepared for an event,
taking the turn answering the phone.
And if all staff at the organization are doing that, yeah, that would--
yes, as you said would be perfectly acceptable.
The next part of the question is, but what about when it comes
to actually supplanting staff teaching lessons at the organization instead
of staff person who typically teaches.
And I would say that that's always a good question to bring to your supervisor first
of all to make sure that your bringing that up diplomatically and asking them for their input
on that and expressing how it might be impacting your ability to accomplish them with other goals
that you have outlined on your [inaudible].
And there is also always room for that sort of direct service when it is contributing
to your overall understanding of your project but it is a fine line.
So, Ingrid, perhaps as a-- as the supervisor, you might be able to speak to that as well
in terms of how you may have engage services, indirect service
and where you would see the line as a supervisor?
>> Well, to me everything comes down to the nexus between the activity
and a sustainable system improvement.
If the work being done in the classroom related to a sustainable system improvement
like ACT test preparation material, like a series of workshops designed
to motivate student interest in STEM, or that the teacher call in sick and nobody bothered
to call a sub and you're just filling in some with lesson plan,
which you shouldn't be doing anyway because you don't have a necessary licenses
and certifications and you're exposing both programs to liability.
That's the big deal.
So, everything comes down to the nexus.
If not that you can't work with the students in the classroom, what kind of work are you doing?
And how is related to your sustainable system improvement?
How was it related to the policies in my case, of GEAR UP?
And how was it related to the guidelines for AmeriCorps?
>> Excellent.
Thank you for that, Ingrid.
And I will-- I think that is a great place to start your conversation with your supervisor.
If you feel you're not getting where you need to with your supervisor and you still have concerns
about those activities, that's always a conversation
that we encourage you to have with your state office.
But the way Ingrid described kind of are--
you know, the philosophy behind that is right on point.
At this point, we're going to start wrapping up our webinar.
So, I want to draw your attention to the evaluation that is
on the left hand side of your screen.
We do like to hear your feedback on this session
so that we can develop webinars relevant topics in the future.
So, please take a look at that and take time to answer those questions for us.
>> We do have one more question on the phone line.
>> All right, thank you.
We'll take that.
>> Yeah, and your line is open.
>> So, I had a question about kind of a larger contextual issues on the nonprofit world.
Specifically, I work at a shelter that works with injection drug users
and we generally don't receive very much money from the governments.
And even when we do, it comes in kind of waves of maybe like,
there was a project here three years ago that was funded for a while
but then eventually lost all the money.
In addition to that, we feel like a lot of the grants that we were receiving had a lot
of stipulations that require more paperwork.
And [inaudible] our priority is from the actual folks that we're serving
to getting the paperwork done and we're seeing
that as being a very big issue in our organization.
And I was wondering if anyone on the call had any suggestions for how to remove ourselves
from the nonprofit world in a way that provides sustainability
and refocuses our work on the folks that we serve.
>> That's a really big question.
That's a really big question.
Just to acknowledge, you know, I really do want to acknowledge I think some of the challenge
that you pointed out or challenge you that, you know, in my work and [inaudible] work
that I know some of it-- my colleagues and friends have had just around the balance
of people work versus actually work that you thought that you're getting into
and that's a challenge sometimes.
I think that when we-- one of the points we talked about, you know,
early on this how do you diverse--
how do you create a diverse full of resources of funding resources.
And it sounds like that historically there's been a particular form of funding
that you received and supported to proceed.
And I don't know and I really don't know the name.
I don't know the organization but I'm--
I guess the question I would maybe posting necessarily isn't the answer right now is,
you know, who else-- who cares and who would impacted by the work that you're doing
and to what extent are they involved and either fundraising or--
and helping to support the continuation of the program, the life of the program.
One of the challenges I think historically with folks working in nonprofit
and non profit work is that is what you pointed out is that idea that you're in something and
yet you're looking for different ways to find funding for yourself.
But I don't necessarily know what the alternative would be for you
as an existing structure other than for you to dissolve the organization potentially and then
to begin doing the work on a volunteer-base and structuring it that way.
But other than that one of it's-- you know, I guess part of the framework of the nonprofit
as a sort of legal entity is that that's how the consistently and historically operate.
But again, this is a-- it's a-- [inaudible], you're right, of larger contextual question.
And I would just-- I guess start with thinking about who else is impacted and has passion
and cares about another [inaudible] in your work and to what extent are they being engaged.
If those folks are being engaged and you are only using resources from one--
you know, one funding source then maybe that's part of the challenge
that you want to begin to address early on.
>> All right, thank you.
That will likely be the last question of this webinar.
So, thanks again to everyone for attending this webinar and contributing to our evaluation
so that we can continue to offer webinars that are valuable to you and your service.