Sandra LaFleur – Director of Program DevelopmentBecky Broughton – Product Training Manager

Mute *6 and to Unmute #6

Adopting “Strength of Relationship”

Stage I

From What We Do to What we Achieve

• Focus on Retention Rate• Enhance SB practices• New outcome measure• Implement Strength of Relationship measure

Increase Program Impact

Today’s workshop focus:

• Development of the SOR

• Guidelines and tips to effectively implement

• Prepare for using data

What is the Strength of Relationship?

• An evaluation process designed to capture data on relationship qualities that predict strength of relationship between Big and Little

• For Littles: coping, disappointment, safety, importance, and closeness

• For Bigs: connectedness, frustration, confidence, and closeness

• Tested for validity and reliability• Designed and used by leading researchers in

youth development field• BBBS pilot experience

Benefits of Strength of Relationship

• New data for monitoring the quality of each match relationship,

• New info on what your program is achieving in its efforts to nurture strong relationships,

• Insights into which program elements are effective and which are not, and

• New benchmarks for measuring changes in the quality of your matches over time as you modify program practices, etc.

Administering the SOR…

When? Community

Based•3 months from Match Date

• annual match anniversary

School

Based•3 months from Match Date

• end of school year (EOSY)

To Whom?

•All Bigs

• All Littles over age of 8+

AIM and the SOR measure

• New SOR surveys – same survey functionality in AIM

• E-form of SOR will become available later in 2008

• Responses are scored using a 5-point Likert scale that AIM uses to calculate summary and composite measures of relationship qualities

How - Staffing and the SOR

• SOR is to be administered by Match Support Specialists.

• The SOR survey can be integrated into a regular match support contact, although it alone would not constitute an appropriate contact.

To Ensure Validity

• Disciplined administration is important:• stick to questions as they’re phrased• stick to timelines,• dialogue about the content of the survey

AFTER it is complete

• Staff Training is important!• Survey wording is direct! Staff may need to

adjust

Analyzing your SOR data

• AIM reports will provide various data points:• For Big, Little, and match• Individual relationship qualities as well as

composite measures• 3 month, annual/EOSY, plus change over time

(delta)• Both detail and summary – in both Excel and

PDF formats• Benchmark individuals, teams, programs, agency-

wide

Possible / Expected Program Implications?

• More time spent conducting quality match support

• Different use of Red/Yellow/Green system in AIM

• New/different training for ongoing staff development related to relationship building skills

• Others?

2008 SOR Implementation Milestones and Goals

February-March 2008

AIM agencies begin preparing staff for SOR implementation with use of SOR training materials (see Implementation Planning Guide)

Mid-late March 2008

• SOR functionality in AIM is live. AIM will initialize SOR for all active matches on their next due dates.

• Agency staff take online self-paced SD00119 for technical application.

• Agency follows self-paced implementation plan to begin administering SOR to matches.

2008 SOR

GOAL

All agencies begin implementation with 100 new matches and ramp up to using SOR on all matches by year-end

Suggested Implementation Plans…

• Use materials provided to you by BBBSA.• Proper training and preparation is most important!• Build your timeline and stick to it.• Allow for learning-curve time to make changes,

interpret data, adjust with course-corrections, and follow-up.

• Many variations based on:• Training of all staff or some (champion) staff to

administer SOR?• Conduct on only 100 new matches now or all

new matches now?

SOR Implementation Materials

• Powerpoints for agency use:1. SOR Overview - for all staff and for Board of

Directors2. Adopting SOR, Stage I (this one) – for

executive/program leadership training3. SOR Implementation Training – for MS team

and others expected to use SOR• SOR surveys – hard copies• SOR Implementation Planning Guide – Excel

spreadsheet

What’s Next from BBBSA?

1. Self-paced online course SD00119“AIM Strength of Relationships (SOR) Tool” ready with AIM release in mid/late March

2. Stage II webinar on “Performance Management with SOR” – scheduled for after AIM release

3. National conference workshop: “Early Lessons in SOR Implementation”

Questions?