ABOUT THE PROJECT

Since its inception, Bon Secours Community Works (BSCW) has endeavored to serve the Southwest Baltimore Community. This is a community where 37% of families with children under the age of 18 live in poverty, and high unemployment, low rates of high school completion, high crime, and addiction have created chronic generational problems that pose significant barriers to its residents. Many individuals, particularly youth and young adults, lack the basic skills and educational requirements needed to obtain a job, manage their finances, work well with others, and successfully navigate the job marketplace as well as the workplace.

Bon Secours Community Works has approached this work comprehensively, holistically, and collaboratively by partnering with community organizations to tackle the myriad of needs that exist within the community. These needs include not only access to high quality health care, but also access to healthy foods, housing, jobs and the social and mental health supports to ensure a community grows and thrives. BSCW works to enrich West Baltimore communities with programs and services that contribute to the long-term economic and social viability of neighborhoods.

BSCW engaged Requity to review the summer youth program and to develop a strategic plan to provide BSCW leadership a framework to ensure future program success.

CHALLENGES

While it was clear that BSCW was committed to youth in their service area, the lack of standard operating procedures, a comprehensive program evaluation plan and any continuous quality improvement initiative had resulted in 17 years of programming with limited data to determine long term impact or any objective way to determine if programming is meeting the needs of the youth it is trying to serve.

SOLUTIONS

Requity engaged with BSCW staff and reviewed historical documents to develop a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the youth program. While Requity made five key recommendations to BSCW leadership, the key to program success was to develop a mechanism to solicit and utilize youth voices for program development and ensure youth are provided with social supports while participating in programs.

Requity presented the following recommendations to leadership:

  • Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and ensure their implementation and regular review and update. These SOPs should cover all aspects of programs including staff development and training, emergency response, and human resource issues.
  • Develop a Standard Curriculum for each youth program implemented by BSCW.
  • Develop a process for ongoing evaluation and continuous quality improvement activities.
  • Develop and implement a Youth Advisory Council.
  • Hire a Youth Services Program Specialist.

To date, BSCW leadership has developed SOPs, hired a Youth Services Program Specialist, and is in the process of developing evaluation measures to capture program success.