Experiencing the Impact of Project Impact

Lizzie Martinez is an SVP Rising Leader and the Director of Development and Communications at Latino Network. She represented LatNet in their SVP-sponsored participation in Project Impact, a workshop series to help non-profits measure and improve their community impact.

“If more kids had this opportunity, we would save many headaches when our children grow up.  We would even save money. The jails would close.” – Juntos Aprendemos parent

When I heard this quote, I was sitting in a tiny chair in a kindergarten classroom at a Portland elementary school, helping to run a focus group. Around the circle, parents were nodding their heads in agreement. I thought for the rest of the session – throughout the week – about how powerful that statement was: "the jails would close."

Every nonprofit organization dreams of being able to claim their programs dramatically change outcomes for their participants. Closing jails is certainly not our primary goal. Juntos Aprendemos (Together We Learn) is an early childhood education program that prepares 3-5 year olds to be ready to succeed in kindergarten, and prepares parents to be their child’s first teachers.

As I listened to the parents discuss how Juntos Aprendemos had changed their lives, and how they wished every family in Portland could have the opportunity to participate, I was struck by how much my understanding of the program’s impact had changed. This was because of my time in Project Impact.Project Impact is a ten-month workshop series designed to help organizations develop and implement rigorous qualitative and quantitative evaluation for their programs. I participated as part of the Latino Network team for Juntos Aprendemos in the cohort sponsored by Social Venture Partners Portland for early childhood education programs.

When I started the program, I was certainly skeptical. I had no training in data and evaluation, and I couldn’t believe that I would learn enough to actually begin conducting our own evaluation at Latino Network in just once-a-month workshops. I was also skeptical that we could conduct evaluations that would truly show our impact. Too often I had seen simple evaluation tools that failed to convey the transformation programs created.

As I sat in that parent focus group – the first focus group I helped conduct – I realized how wrong I had been. With the help of the Project Impact leader, Steve Patty, and the coordinator, Rebecca Alexander, we had indeed been able to create in-depth surveys and tools. In just a few months, with my coworkers from Latino Network, we had learned how to create focus group questions, how to frame impact, and how to get “inside the triangle”–Project Impact’s term for getting to the deep answers that truly show transformation.

The entire experience was transformational for our early education program, and for me as part of the team. The program was able to show some amazing outcomes. While we knew that the program was effective in helping children learn basic skills of literacy and numeracy, we learned that program is affecting many more socio-emotional outcomes. One of the biggest ones is that the program is helping parents to uncover their own voices and power to advocate for their children. One parent said, “We create the change in the future of our children – no one else does.” Other impacts we found were that the program is helping families break out of traditional gender roles, create strong bicultural identities for their children, be more engaged with the school, and nurture their children’s love of reading.

As a new member of the Latino Network team (having started just 4 months before Project Impact), it was incredibly helpful to understand the impact of our program on a deeper level. We couldn't show that the jails were closing because of our programs, but we did find that the program is transforming the lives of parents and children. As a result of Project Impact, we look forward to continuing to track impact on families and see the long-term effects. And I look forward to the day when every program of Latino Network has gone through this workshop series!