Youth Communication New York Center, Inc.

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

We serve two sets of people: New York City youth aged 14-22. Vast majority are people of color from poor/lower middle class households. Many are immigrants. NYC educators: Our professional development sessions and social-emotional learning curricula help educators develop nurturing, safe, and effective schools and out-of-school programming.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

We develop curricula which educators use to promote the social and emotional development of adolescents. We originally developed a curriculum focusing on the need and issues of young women. We developed a separate program for young men. We base these curricula on autobiographical stories written by teens in our writing program. Many educators told us they do not work with all-girls or all-boys groups. They said they needed a program that addresses both sets of issues and that was directed at mixed gender groups. We developed this program with their input so we now have three programs around gender issues that educators can use according to their populations.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

From the start of the organization in 1980, young people in our writing program constantly provide us feedback about how we run the writing program and the issues they want to cover in their stories. This makes them full-fledged partners in how we produce stories which we have distributed to over 2 million teens and staff since 1980. They take deep pride in reaching a real audience and knowing that their stories inspire and inform thousands of readers. Over the years we have also solicited feedback from teens and educators about the story topics they want to see in our publications. For example, over the last 18 months we have published many stories about teens responses to the pandemic, racial justice movements, and violence against Asian-Americans.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,