CURATING THE PLAN TO END CHILD ABUSE
Creating a strategic plan for two recently merged non-profits aimed at preventing child abuse and its long term adult effects
Client Introduction
This client is a well known child abuse prevention non-profit that is merging with a research focused organization focusing toxic stress and and trauma affected children.
Problem
The goal was to create a new 3-5 year strategic plan to effectively merge the organizations in a holistic way that would align their missions, visions, values and programmatic offerings. Through research it became evident there were issues with communication, trust, and a shared understanding of the vision for the organization.
Solution
Using a client-consultancy co-designed approach the team and I created, facilitated and synthesized data and feedback from 4 staff workshops and 3 leadership/board engagements to develop a new strategic plan. This plan included strategic priorities, corresponding and aligned goals, and measurable objectives and key results to monitor the progress and adherence of the plan.
Results
Toward the conclusion of the project the leadership and staff understood where their deficiencies were and aligned on the priorities and goals. The next objective was to create an easily digestible one page format to showcase to the plan stakeholders to ensure it encompasses all the necessary features for the plan to be successful.
My Role
Throughout this project I built the content necessary to deliver the findings in a human centered way. This involved drafting workshops that were equitable in providing people the opportunity to give feedback, creating psychologically safe break out rooms, and incorporating the voice of the community into the engagements to keep their target audience top of mind.
What went well
The research we conduct brought enormous value to the project. Thorough qualitative interview data enabled us to pull exceptional quotes that highlighted inadequacies in the current modes of working and infrastructure limitations that capped their impact within the community. Ethnographic research of program and financial records showed a lack of vision that created siloed information channels. These research findings informed the objectives for the subsequent workshops and enticed more robust and authentic contributions from staff. These contributions made the staff feel heard and helped to galvanize the organization around a single set of priorities for improvement.
What challenges were overcome
Our small group of 3 was remarkably resilient and adaptable to the changing needs of the client. Pivoting to allow more workshop engagements, additional research interviews and reframed priorities mid project was challenging to execute and remain in budget. Our team remained flexible and countered by sharing feedback within the core team more frequently to align on needs of the project in shorter cycles. This enabled us to feel the pulse of the project more tightly and adjust accordingly.
Visual artifacts
Examples of workshop layouts
Disclaimer: Images have been altered to prevent legibility to preserve client confidentiality