New Neighbors Partnership Association

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

We serve refugee and asylum-seekers resettling in New York City. Our new neighbors come from all over the world: they’re journalists from Tajikistan and Nepal who were persecuted by their government, survivors of human trafficking from Honduras and El Salvador, and translators who assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan and were forced to flee when discovered by the Taliban. Refugees generally receive three months of assistance from a resettlement agency, after which they often struggle. Many Afghan evacuees are coming to the U.S. as Humanitarian Parolees, making them ineligible for most benefits. For those families, as well as asylum seekers still in the process of applying for work permits, our program is often the only form of support they have.

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

Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, 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?

We recently received feedback from refugee families that they enjoy and appreciate the notes that partner families send them inside the clothing packages, so we added a new section of our website to share guidelines and encouragement for partner families writing these letters. We shared this with participating parents through our social media channels and newsletter and saw an immediate increase in the number of letters included in clothing packages.

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?

Feedback from the families we serve has helped us tailor our services to better meed their needs (such as expanding to include donations of books, diapers, and baby supplies in our program) and give them access to more resources (we've developed more relationships with partner NGOs that can help fill the needs clients tell us about).

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 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, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,