Boys and Girls Club of Hawaii

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

BGCH serves youth aged 7 – 17 years on the islands of Oahu and Kauai and our 10 clubhouses are located on or near Title I schools. Our youth come from all backgrounds, ethnicities, race and genders. BGCH charges only $25/year youth and $10/year teen membership fees to ensure that a family’s ability to pay is never a barrier to their child accessing our programs. This is particularly important since currently 79% of our families are designated low to extremely low income according to HUD standards. BGCH recognizes that not all youth have equal access to resources to help them succeed, which is why we bring resources to our clubhouses through partnerships with education institutions, government, trade unions, corporations and other community based organizations.

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?

Through the Covid-19 pandemic one of the first challenges BGCH identified through a survey to our families was a broadband inequity. 25% of our member families did not have access to quality and reliable WiFi connectivity and/or technology in their homes. This was a huge concern since families were required to shelter in place; children taking part in their school lessons virtually and adults working remotely wherever possible. BGCH made it a priority to find resources in free WiFi through local companies and donations of laptops, tablets and computers to those who did not have them. When we were allowed to open our clubhouses safely, we changed our operations from "after school" to "out of school", doubling our operating hours and offering our clubhouses as distance learning centers.

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

What challenges does the organization face when collecting 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, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, Language barriers