Progress Reports

1. Progress Reports They’re crucial. They can be fun. They’re Required.

2. What are they For? • Track the progress against the goals • Update the CNCS State Office on challenges and successes. • Accountable to stakeholders • Technical assistance needs • Assess and make adjustments • Build a cumulative record for future reference. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

3. What do they entail? Three sections • First section: Performance Measures. Report on each performance measure listed in the project plan. 2 sections here: 1). Measures that you all share. 2). Site-specific measures. NOTE: not all pertain to you. Complete ALL relevant questions. Mustdiscuss each performance measure, even if little was accomplished or you don’t have final data. • Second section: VISTA and Sponsor Development.Training opportunities utilized by VISTA and Supervisor • Third section: Narratives. Describe project challenges, needs, partnerships/collaborations, sustainability efforts & accomplishments. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

4. Take a Little looksie You’ll see the formal face of the report, here. Notice the note to use third person (titles and/or names, not “I” or “we”). Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

5. Performance Measures • This is for the first quarter, which goes from your start date (Aug. 4) to September 30. Do NOT include work done after September 30. • Complete all relevant questions. If non-required questions (no asterisk) pertain to you, you must complete them. • Volunteers/volunteer hours managed INCLUDES areas where you provided support, but didn’t directly manage. Cash/grants leveraged is the same: include amounts you helpedleverage. • In-kind donations = goods, services (e.g. meeting space, phone service, etc.), expertise (e.g. legal, business, etc.) • Program participants are the unique or new participants. Do not report repeat individuals in the performance measures section. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

6. Milestones Note the different sites/milestone categories. These two will be specific to your site’s goals that relate to the required focus areas outlined by CNCS. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

7. Performance Measures and Milestone Questions? Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

8. Training Time The VISTA Member Training Time is the time spent as a participant. Supervisor Training Time is time your supervisor spent as a participant OR a host/lead of various training or development opportunities. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

9. Narratives • Use formal language to describe project impact/work • Speak in third person and use specific titles. • Use numbers: demonstrate impact & work completed. This is an art of including the measurements that TRULY matter . • Keep them project-based – challenges should mostly be programmatic, not personal. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

10. Narrative Questions Note: specifically means training and technical – not resources, generally. Note: this is simply a helpful partnership that the VISTA has worked with in some way. Could be long-standing. The parts of the organization that pertain to the VISTA project have to be affected by the partnership in some way. Note: “if you reported” refers to what you have previously written in this report. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

11. Narrative examples: Good vs bad Bad From the beginning, I worked directly with 5 volunteers and helped the volunteer supervisors at the places I work with to manage about 70 volunteers total. These volunteers contribute anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week. Because of them, many more families receive help in Anoka County. Good Since the start of this project year, the VISTA developed and piloted training and supervising best practices and implemented them with 5 volunteers that had previously been recruited by the host site staff. The VISTA then distributed the materials to 15 volunteer supervisors at the host site’s satellite locations, which resulted in more effective supervision and development of 72 volunteers. The 77 volunteers that the VISTA supported this quarter contributed a total of 1,232 volunteer hours, or about 2 hours per week per volunteer. This is an improvement on the same time frame from the host site’s records of the previous year, which showed 65 volunteers and 98 volunteer hours total. The volunteers help stock, organize, and distribute 3,000 pounds of food, which served approximately 700 individuals in the host site’s county (Anoka County). Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

12. Narrative examples - Red = problem - Green = VISTA action/plans - Blue = current* results *It’s OK if results are minimal in the first report. For the narrative section asking for stories: provide at least one story that would best communicate to the public how AmeriCorps VISTA members get things done in your community. Note: make stories “touch the heart, but contain specific actions that you took to ensure success or capacity or growth. Stories that can be demonstrated with a numerical impact are especially desirable, and they trump anecdotal stories about particular cases. The community that the VISTA serves has an unemployment rate of 20%. 90% of the unemployed population are immigrants who are not proficient in English. The VISTA worked to alleviate this by developing the host site’s job readiness program. The VISTA visited 11 classes to promote the job readiness lab, reaching a total of 207 students. The VISTA arranged for two tutors to assist with class promotions. Meeting the tutors helped students feel more comfortable signing up for the lab. The VISTA gave students flyers, set up regular lab times, and worked with the front desk staff person to create a sign-up sheet. The VISTA gave reminder slips to teachers to give to students with an appointment. The VISTA also called students the day before appointments to remind them of their appointments. Additionally, the VISTA made the job lab available in the evenings, which allowed students who are busy during the day to have access to the lab as well. Since the start of the school year, 57 students have received help in the job lab. 2 students found work after a job lab session; 3 students completed an application; 7 students completed resumes; 2 students prepared for an interview; 1 student completed a cover letter and made a plan for finding and applying to jobs, in addition to completing a resume. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

13. Narrative examples List of partners, separated by city here. Partnerships and Collaboration – example Bloomington--Hilton, Home Depot, Normandale Service Learning, Radisson Waterpark of America, HIRED; Eden Prairie--Library, CAPSH Renter's Rights, Hennepin Technical College Admissions; Edina--Fairview Southdale Hospital; Minneapolis--Chipotle recruiter; Minnetonka--Homes Within Reach; Plymouth--Lowe's Store; St. Paul--1st Home Network, University of St. Thomas. The partnerships the VISTA made help Metro South ABE educate students about careers and workplace skills. They have resulted in guest speakers, who motivate students to advance their education and create attainable career goals. These partnerships also help fortify a network of speakers and community partnerships that can assist with Career Pathways educational goals for future classes. The partnership network also consists of helpful community resources for low-income families. Collaboration with the partners in this network has resulted in positive relationships with businesses such that our students could receive favorable consideration when applying for jobs with some of our partners. Note: this section completes the story arc by showing the significance of the partnerships for the VISTA project. This is the key for narratives. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

14. Narrative examples Challenges One challenge to the VISTA project is the lack of time, space, and interest in conversation circle tutoring at the Eden Prairie location. Conversation circles could help level 3 and level 4 students make level gains and move up to level 5, which is a VISTA milestone goals. To overcome this, the VISTA supervisor spoke with the teacher at the Eden Prairie location about what she sees as a tutoring need. The teacher identified job readiness skills as a tutoring need. The VISTA has found a tutor who can meet that need, and the VISTA, volunteer, and Eden Prairie teachers are arranging for job readiness tutoring. This tutoring can also supplement student learning in a similar way to conversation circles. Sustainability The VISTA and VISTA supervisor have been discussing a plan to sustain the project next year. The VISTA worked with Normandale Service Learning to recruit volunteers for the job lab, but the VISTA’s experience with Normandale tutors has made the VISTA less comfortable with using Normandale as a way to sustain VISTA duties. Instead, the VISTA is looking at ways in which the job readiness lab can be incorporated into a class structure, which would involve volunteers with more reliability and experience than college student volunteers. The VISTA’s partnership and outreach duties will be taken over by the VISTA supervisor, in cooperation with career pathways teachers. For both the job readiness lab and the outreach activities, the VISTA is composing a guide manual to pass on to the VISTA supervisor for upcoming years. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

15. Narrative Questions? Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

16. Tips and suggestions Do NOT lose the link to your report! If you do lose it, ask for a new one. You CANNOT borrow someone else’s. Type responses in a draft on Microsoft Word so you can save, edit, and easily print them. Use the paper copy that was emailed to you as a guide. Don’t be worried about missing some site work. This report IS a requirement and priority. Strongest suggestion: plan enough time to complete this on timeand without stress. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

17. SAMPLE TIMELINE • Monday, Sep. 29 or Tuesday, Sep. 30:Have initial supervisor meeting, guided by Quarterly Report document. Gather info on time spent at trainings & sick/personal time. Make notes on what to include/where to find numbers. Spend 2 hours after meeting working on the report. • Wednesday, Oct. 1 and Thursday, Oct. 2: Plan for 5 hours of your service time to be used ONLY for completing the report to the best of your abilities. If you can’t take that much time in one or two days, plan to add work time to Friday. • Monday, Oct. 6: Meet with supervisor, go over responses &finalize details. Allow 3 hours after meeting to finish writing. • Wednesday, Oct. 8: Completely wrap things up (consider this as a last minute, “oh wait, I needed that piece of information!” day. • IDEAL SCENARIO: sit down to type out and complete the entire report on Wednesday or Thursday. Again, THEY ARE DUE ON FRIDAY, OCT. 10 by 3:00pm. Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource

18. We’ve been there, done that ourselves…. Good luck! Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration VISTA resource