The Improve Group

The Improve Group team recently concluded an evaluation of Minnesota Department of Health’s Safe Harbor program, which serves youth who have experienced sex trafficking and exploitation. We convened a small group of youth with lived experiences to serve as advisers about their experience with the Safe Harbor program. The guidance and feedback from these youth advisers dictated the design of the rest of our evaluation, where we distributed surveys, conducted focus groups with grantees and institutional partners, and reviewed existing data about the Safe Harbor program. A recent press release from the Minnesota Department of Health shared that the evaluation indicated the Safe Harbor program served more youth than ever before from 2021 to 2023, and that youth who are supported by Safe Harbor found high levels of satisfaction with the program. We are in the early stages of working with the Minnesota Department of Health as we design the next evaluation of the Safe Harbor program. Read the full press release here: https://buff.ly/3UwHykB and the evaluation report here: https://buff.ly/3YuTrIW

The Improve Group became a worker-owned cooperative in August 2023. Since then, we have expanded our membership and welcomed new worker-owners. Writer and Communications Assistant Alice Markey recently shared her experience about becoming a co-op member. Click here to read the full article about our pathway to co-op membership: https://lnkd.in/gqhyJkD5

We are pleased to announce Kia Her's advancement to Senior Consultant! Kia joined IG as an Associate Consultant in 2020, bringing a record of supporting mission-driven organizations to close disparities and better serve their communities. She has worked as a key team member on many projects since joining, including our work with the Minnesota Youth in Transition Database and evaluation of Minnesota’s Safe Harbor Program. In her new role, we are excited for her to transition to serving as a lead and key contact for several client projects. Congratulations, Kia! https://lnkd.in/gvh3q7Fh

Don’t miss our two presentations at the American Evaluation Association conference in Portland, OR from October 21 through 26! ⬇️ ⭐ Employee ownership: Embracing the new economy while empowering voices and engaging new perspectives (Thursday October 24 from 3:45 to 4:45 PST) This presentation will overview IG’s journey to becoming a co-op, and will provide insight on how transitioning to worker-ownership can support the health of evaluation firms. The presentation will include details on several elements of the co-op journey that attendees can develop now to support a successful transition later. ⭐ Seeing the Whole Iceberg, Supporting Clients to Embrace Root Causes (Friday October 25 from 12:45 to 1:15 PST) In this Birds of a Feather session, we will guide conversations about how evaluation can lift up and analyze the root causes of social issues. How can evaluators help clients prioritize seeing the whole iceberg underneath their specific goals? We will invite attendees to share tips, experiences, and learning about how to support clients to consider the whole iceberg of causes in their approach to supporting communities and sustainable change. Interested in attending? Registration is still open. We hope to see many of you in Portland! https://lnkd.in/gK7JuTj8

We're #hiring a new Associate Consultant in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. Apply today or share this post with your network.

We’re looking for an Associate Consultant to join our team. The ideal person will have a mix of experience and education within the evaluation, community research, or other related field. In this contributor role, you will apply your curiosity, equity-focused practices, organizational and communication skills, and an affinity for data among collaborative teams to help clients understand more about their programs or organizations, how they can best do their work, and ways to improve outcomes for the people they serve. While every project varies, you will generally go through a process of asking questions, gathering information from communities, and interpreting what you learn to inform recommendations for positive change. You will also be supported by an experienced lead who can help guide your work and provide you with roles and responsibilities that leverage your strengths or lean into desired areas of growth. Our culture is grounded in organizational learning and collaboration emphasizing indvidiudal growth and development with opportunities self-management and experimentation. Our non-traditional approach to supervision emphasizes coaching and learning as you are supported in self-managing assigned tasks and your continued growth. As an added benefit, after six months of employment, you are eligible to become a member of the cooperative, giving you an ownership stake and voting rights in the organization’s key decision-making processes. We are accepting applications through Wednesday, October 30, 2024. Review the job and apply at: https://lnkd.in/gKRXQCBe

We’re thrilled to share that our toolkit with a variety of tools and step-by-step instructions that agencies can follow to plan, design, and implement evaluations of their public participation and community engagement (PPCE) approaches is now live and open to the public! You can access the toolkit on the Evaluation.Gov website at the link below and apply it in your own work. https://lnkd.in/g4PdU6iR   

Our #CommunityEngagement gathering is almost one week away! If you haven't already, please RSVP if you plan to come. We can't wait to see you! https://lnkd.in/gyktDazw

Please join us for an in-person gathering at our office on Tuesday, October 8, from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Engaging community members is vital to building a better world. And at IG, we are always striving to learn from others, share our experiences, and simply do better. We are deeply grateful for the many people and organizations who contribute to this important work. Please join us for a gathering designed to share our collective experience in community engagement and build our connections with each other. Our time will include a brief panel discussion to get the conversation flowing, and then time and space for small group discussions to explore what is working well in community engagement, the barriers we’re experiencing, and future opportunities to deepen our impact. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided. We will also have childcare available so you can bring the kiddos and still fully engage! We hope you will join us to celebrate our collective community engagement work and learn from and connect with others in the field. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gyktDazw

Please join us for an in-person gathering at our office on Tuesday, October 8, from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Engaging community members is vital to building a better world. And at IG, we are always striving to learn from others, share our experiences, and simply do better. We are deeply grateful for the many people and organizations who contribute to this important work. Please join us for a gathering designed to share our collective experience in community engagement and build our connections with each other. Our time will include a brief panel discussion to get the conversation flowing, and then time and space for small group discussions to explore what is working well in community engagement, the barriers we’re experiencing, and future opportunities to deepen our impact. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided. We will also have childcare available so you can bring the kiddos and still fully engage! We hope you will join us to celebrate our collective community engagement work and learn from and connect with others in the field. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gyktDazw