Purpose Built Families Foundation

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

Purpose Built Families Foundation serves veterans experience homelessness or facing the imminent risk of homelessness through the agency's Operation Sacred Trust program. The nonprofit helps disrupt homelessness and suicide through evidence-based PAIRS skills training for clergy and behavioral health professionals throughout the world, including nearly 1,000 VA chaplains and mental health professionals who have completed certification training to deliver the agency's Warrior to Soul and PAIRS Essentials programs.

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, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

Added two full time attorneys to provide direct legal assistance, expanded housing department to deepen relationships with local landlords and property managers and encourage prioritization for homeless veterans, expanded services to include 45-bed transitional housing community.

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 inception, our programs have requested and valued feedback from participants and stakeholders at every level. Purpose Built Families Foundation's commitment to client-centered best practices are the heart of our approach.

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

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?

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,