Dispute Settlement Center, Inc.

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

All ages and demographics, through referrals from court system, schools, other nonprofits, and self-referrals.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Paper surveys, Case management notes,

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?

We have made a lot of adaptions in response to client needs during pandemic conditions, including developing short training segments delivered virtually. An example was "How to Facilitate Virtual Meetings" which filled up in done day.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

Our staff, Our board, Our funders,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

During the pandemic, it has helped us figure out how to best deliver trainings and mediation. We've learned that short segments (rather than day-long sessions we used to have in person) better serve the clients.

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,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,