CASE STUDY: ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Roca, Inc. is a grassroots, multicultural, human development and community building organization based in Chelsea and serving the communities of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston, and Lynn, Massachusetts. Its mission is to promote justice by creating opportunities for youth and families to lead happy and healthy lives. Roca has partnered with the Innovation Center on multiple projects, and is currently working on a review of organizational capacity and goals achieved. “We are making sure the institution is as functional as it can be in order to better serve the work of building communities,” says Molly Baldwin, Executive Director of Roca.

Together with the Innovation Center, Roca has developed a process in which peers, as well as supervisors and key community partners, assess the work of all senior staff, and get feedback on how effectively the organization is achieving its mission. Sandra Tacke, Roca’s Director of Development, explains, “You get a sense of the quality of the work you’re doing, as well as how well you practice the values of the organization and demonstrate leadership.” As a member of the management team, Tacke has both been evaluated and participated in the assessment of her colleagues.

The Innovation Center helped to develop the feedback/learning process after meeting with Baldwin, senior staff, and board members from Roca. “They also did the training and shared their experience of working with other organizations using a similar evaluation method,” says Tacke. “That’s the area where the Innovation Center has helped the most. They have worked with so many organizations and can give us the broader view of what works, while helping us to integrate our own values into moving the organization forward.”

In addition to running an on site teen health clinic and offering a range of direct services for youth and families, Roca holds peacemaking circles to build lines of communication across diverse cultures, groups, ages, and gender. Circles provide a structure for young people and adults to build trust within communities and instigate collective social change. “The real work,” explains Baldwin, “is what we are doing with young people and the communities. The Innovation Center is really committed to this process.”

PROJECTS

Through the Planning and Evaluation Resource Center Project, the Innovation Center has partnered with the New England Network to create efficient and integrated systems for gathering, compiling, and analyzing the complex information generated by a typical youth agency. Results will inform creation of a tool kit called Measuring Incremental Change that includes:

• methodology for creating objectives and indicators,
• recommendations on staff training,
• how to choose and implement an integrated agency-wide database,
• how to minimize redundant data entry,
• formal measurement tools, and
• suggestions for overcoming barriers to outcome measurement.

National training workshops will prepare and assist groups with Measuring Incremental Change.