CITY ON A HILL INC

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

Children, youth, and families we serve live in Milwaukee's central city, primarily in Zip Codes 53233 and 53208. Here, 66.2% of residents live below the poverty line – nearly three times the 24.9% of residents living in poverty city-wide. When we look at child poverty in these Zip Codes, the differences are even greater. Whereas in the city 36% of children live in poverty; in Zip Code 53208, 39% of children live in poverty; and in 53233, an astounding 76% of children live below the poverty line. (census data, 2018 update).

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), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls, 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 make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

We redesigned our youth center operation to create a Remote Learning Center that expanded our service hours to meet the needs of families related to learning support for students during the pandemic. Parents and caregivers shared direct feedback on what was most important for them at the onset of distance learning shifts across all schools for the 2019-2020 school year and beyond. We used the feedback to adapt our delivery systems, hours, support structures, and staffing to meet the emergent needs of our constituents.

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?

Our Neighborhood Council was created in 2013 to: 1) To identify and articulate needs of the community, 2) to advise the board on Ends Policies to meet the needs of people being served by City on a Hill, and 3) to contribute to the evaluation of programs and services of the organization. Since that time, the Council has been instrumental to guide the evolution of our program initiatives and transformed the culture of how we go about designing or scaling programs. Once new additional, for example, was deciding to incorporate COVID-19 education efforts, including the provision of the COVID-19 vaccine, as a result of stated client needs.

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, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,