"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 2007, we worked with a Santa Clara University professor and her Applied Sociology class.
The team surveyed the parents, children and volunteers who participate with Sunday Friends.
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, one of our partners.
* 88% of parents believe that their children are doing better in school because of Sunday Friends.
* 91% of parents report that their children show more respect, thanks to Sunday Friends.
* 94% of parents agree that their children enjoy learning more at Sunday Friends.
* 88% of children say that they enjoy learning more when they are at Sunday
Friends, validating their parents’ observation.
* Perhaps most important: 100% of participating children agree
(76% strongly agree) that they have been inspired through Sunday Friends to
want to do their best.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Esther, who last year 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 ten 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.
* 100% of parents stated that they feel more confident they will be able
to care for their family in the future because of Sunday Friends.
* 97% feel more confident that their children will be able to care for themselves
as they grow up.
* 79% feel less stressed meeting the needs of their family.
* 100% are more hopeful about the future, thanks to Sunday Friends.
Beyond the numbers...
•
Maria, who taught her children to steal from us when her family first joined a year ago, 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.
We work with over 1,500 volunteers per year.
We surveyed 47 currently active volunteers, 62.5% of whom have worked with
Sunday Friends for one to six years.
* Volunteers most strongly agreed (4.60 on a scale of 1-5) that: Because of my experience
with Sunday Friends, I am more sensitive to the needs of people like those
attending the Sunday Friends program for low income families.
* Volunteers also strongly agreed (4.45 on a scale of 1-5): Because of my experience with
Sunday Friends, I am more likely to do volunteer work in the future.
* Volunteers also strongly agree (4.43 on a scale of 1-5): Because of my experience with Sunday Friends, I have had the opportunity
to develop leadership skills.
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 eighteen, 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 two qualifications for a program simliar to Sunday Friends would be
safety and no cost.
We were very pleased to learn that the next two aspects of value to our
participants are:
Learning opportunities for children
and
Family opportunities to give back to their community
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!
"I think these findings validate Sunday Friends Provost's Award for Excellence!"
- Michael Fallon, Director, SJSU Center for Community Learning & Leadership
