"You all are doing such great work. I received your evaluation results, and I am terribly impressed with the rigor of the evaluation process as well as your very positive results!"
- Mary Patterson, Former Executive Director, Project Cornerstone
Every two years, Sunday Friends conducts a professional, survey-based evaluation
led by a professional researcher in collaboration with a local university.
In 2009, we worked with Professors Yoko Baba (chair), Michael Fallon, James Lee
and Claudio Vera Sanchez of San Jose State University's Sociology Department.
The team surveyed the parents, children and volunteers who participate with
Sunday Friends. Some of the highlights of the report are below.
For the complete evaluation report,
click here.
What We Measure and Why
1. How well are we imparting
developmental assets to children?
The importance of this measurement is based on the research of
The Search Institute,
which has shown that 41 assets are predictors of success and health in life.
Sunday Friends focuses on 35 of those 41 assets.
Imparting Developmental Assets to Children in Need
Sunday Friends’ primary goal has always been to help children, with the
support of their parents, to acquire the skills and attitudes needed to break
the cycle of poverty. More specifically, we strive to impart the developmental
assets defined and validated by The Search Institute and promoted in
the Bay Area by Project Cornerstone.
* 89% of parents report that they are more actively involved in helping their children succeed in school, thanks to Sunday Friends.
* 96% of parents state that their children want to learn more new things because of Sunday Friends.
* 97% of parents believe that their children appreciate their family more because of Sunday Friends.
* 85% of children feel more that life can be good when they are at Sunday
Friends.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Esther, who had ignored her two toddlers, keeping them strapped in strollers for four hours straight, now helps them cut fruit, create art, count tickets and make thoughtful decisions.
2. How well are we helping families grow toward self-sufficiency?
Are we educating and empowering children, with the support of their parents,
to break the generational cycle of poverty?
Helping Families Grow Toward Self-Sufficiency
We have learned over the past twelve years that children have a much greater chance
of uplifting themselves when their families are working together with them to
develop life skills and strength. For this reason, we measured the extent to
which families believe they are building self-sufficiency through Sunday Friends.
* 99% of parents stated that they feel more confident they will be able
to care for their families in the future because of Sunday Friends.
* 93% feel more confident that their children will be able to care for themselves
when they grow up.
* 97% (up from 79% in 2007) feel less stressed in meeting the needs of their family.
* 80% of parents report that their children are eating a more healthy diet than they did before they began attending Sunday Friends.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Maria, who taught her children to steal from us when her family first joined Sunday Friends, now works enthusiastically with her children to contribute to the program, to earn and to save. She helps her children learn everything from good manners to English.
Sunday Friends pays as much attention to the development of our
community volunteers as it does to the development of the children and families.
Over 1,700 volunteers contributed more than 15,000 hours of their time in 2008.
* 91% of volunteers feel that they are more sensitive to the needs of people from low income families because of Sunday Friends.
* 81% of volunteers state that they have had the opportunity to develop leadership skills through Sunday Friends.
* 94% claim that they are more likely to do volunteer work in the future because of Sunday Friends.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Andy, the boy we met when he was twelve and living in a homeless shelter with his mentally disabled mom, is now, at twenty, an active leader within every Sunday Friends program. He makes A’s and B’s in community college and supports himself with two jobs.
4. Which aspects of our program would be most important to introduce into
other organizations? How can we best become a model program for a broader community?
Becoming a Model for Other Organizations
While it is important to us to help our currently participating families uplift
themselves and their children’s futures, our broader vision is to serve as a model for a larger community. We seek to share the success of our well-tested program
structure and unique philosophy with other organizations. For this reason, we
asked our participating families to tell us which aspects of our program would
be most important to replicate.
Their top three qualifications for a program similar to Sunday Friends would be:
* Learning opportunities for children and parents
* Opportunities for families to participate together and
* Having children be with positive role models
Other qualities they value highly are:
* Opportunities to give back to the community and feeling a part of the community
* Safe and no cost
* Opportunities to practice the English language
We conclude from this that at least one of the following is true:
* Sunday Friends is attracting those families who, although they must focus
on survival issues day-by-day, are still able to care about uplifting their
children and community
and / or
* Sunday Friends is successfully helping families whose primary focus has been
survival to relax their sense of desperation and to broaden their caring to
include their children’s futures and their community.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Jennifer, who wouldn’t speak a word of English to anyone at age five last year, now tells us long, imaginative stories – in English!
