In May 2024, Brianna Wilson started at Nellie’s in the newly-created role of Program and Evaluation Officer, and truly, it couldn’t be a better fit for her. Brianna has a master’s degree in Applied Social Psychology, with a research focus on sexual violence prevention — so this role that’s part-research and part-advocacy was tailor-made for a person with her specific combination of skills. “I wanted to bring my knowledge to Nellie’s and help them make their programs the best that they can be,” says Brianna.
Starting from scratch, she worked to develop evaluation frameworks for each of our programs, beginning with our Community Support and Outreach (CSO) programs. What does an evaluation framework look like? Brianna explains it as “mapping out the program and how we are going to evaluate it”: who are the stakeholders, what are the activities, and what are the objectives. Then she lays out a framework for how to determine the impact of those programs, whether that means surveys or focus groups with participants, interviews with partners, or other evaluation tools — and then she develops those tools. Next up is implementing the surveys, focus groups, or interviews, and then finally she compiles that data into a report for funders, as well as for Nellie’s staff.
In addition to including numerical data, Brianna also works to include stories of people’s experiences with our programs, so that she can provide a more personal perspective to the funders. “It’s great to be able to show how we’re actually making a difference,” explains Brianna. After completing a report on our food program, Brianna shared it with some of the Nellie’s staff as well, which she thinks acts as a helpful reminder to our teams of why our work is so critical. “They know they’re doing important work, but I think it’s validating to see proof of your impact and that the people we help are very grateful,” says Brianna.
While she is continuing her evaluations of the CSO programs, Brianna is also now working on developing the frameworks for evaluating our in-shelter programs. Another component of her job is doing program development work, including writing proposals for new funding, and reporting back to funders on the impact of their contributions.
Ultimately, Brianna sees her role as ensuring the programs at Nellie’s are making the greatest possible impact on the lives of those who use them. “We don’t want to invest our time and resources into programming that only we think is best,” Brianna explains. “What do the people who are taking part in the programs think? What are they taking away from it? And if they’re not finding it helpful, what can we change? Their voices are the ones that matter the most.”