Is Your Nonprofit Working with New American Communities? Three Methods This Nonprofit Used to Identify Learner Needs with Trang Truong-Hill
When I decided to do an episode on identifying learner needs, I wanted to showcase an organization that used multiple approaches and saw results from their work. That's why I've invited Trang Truong-Hill from the YMCA of the USA to join me today to explore a project that we've worked on together as well as many other projects they have going on inside of their nonprofit.
Trang shares how her nonprofit identified what staff needed to be able to do to work with New American communities more effectively. I can't wait to dive into this conversation.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
02:13 Trang’s Career Journey
07:49 Unique programs and services that the Y is offering to New American communities
11:46 Identifying learner needs to deliver programs and services more effectively
14:52 Figuring out what to create to further the programs and services your nonprofit offers
17:51 No matter how effective a program is, you should always be looking for ways to improve it
19:49 Getting feedback from learners
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Is Your Nonprofit Working with New American Communities? Three Methods This Nonprofit Used to Identify Learner Needs
Do you remember when you first met your partner, your spouse, or your best friend?
You probably wanted to know everything about them. And the more you learned, the more intrigued you were. So you'd spend more time together and you'd ask more questions, and then you would learn even more about them.
And I bet over time, you were able to anticipate what the other person would say or do, how they would react, what they would order in a restaurant, where they wanted to go over the weekend, how they traveled and so many other things.
We want to do that for our learners too.
Maybe we won't find out their favorite ice cream flavor, but we do want to understand them and their needs.
When I decided to do a Learning for Good podcast episode on identifying learner needs, I wanted to showcase an organization that used multiple approaches and saw results from their work.
That's why on episode 45 of the podcast I invited Trang Truong-Hill from the YMCA of the USA to join me and share how her nonprofit identified what staff needed to be able to do to work with New American communities more effectively
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
Trang has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 17 years. Her nonprofit career started at the YMCA of Greater Long Beach in California where she worked with immigrant youth and families in 2013.
As the current Director of Newcomer Immigrant Community Engagement and Global Strategies at the YMCA of the USA, Trang leads and coordinates efforts to strengthen the capacity of local YMCAs to work with newcomer immigrant communities and successfully impact diverse communities.
1) Unique Programs and Services that the Y is Offering to New American communities
The Y has a range of unique programs and services that they offer to the community.
“What we've evolved is really looking at how to better organize the way that we serve the communities. So a lot of it is a methodology and framework.” - Trang Truong-Hill
The first program that Trang talks about is the new America Welcome Center Model and Framework, which helps provide people with the ability to be able to organize their work in an intentional effort.
“So for example, looking at how do we provide direct services, or referral services if we're not the ones that are providing it? And how do we also bring in the community bridge-building element of it? Not just working with a specific population and community, but also how do we bridge the differences and help folks build those connections or relationships.” - Trang Truong-Hill
A second program is the Youth Unity Project which is focused on bringing immigrant youth and receiving youth (which Trang defines as individuals with multiple generations in the United States) together to celebrate the diversity that exists within the receiving communities and also within the immigrant communities.
“I think what has been really important is listening to the community, understanding the needs, and not making assumptions of what community needs or even what learner needs are” - Trang Truong-Hill
Trang also points out that one of the things they focus on in their programs is how people receive information. Whether that be via social media, flyers, or texting apps.
If you don't know the community that you're trying to serve, then you could offer something that doesn't resonate with them or isn't a need for them. Or you could market it in a way that they would never receive it. It makes a lot of sense to get to know the community before you launch a program or service.
2) Three Ways to Identify Learner Needs
Just as we want to get to know the communities to figure out what those programs or services are that we offer as nonprofits, we also want to get to know our learners so that we know how to serve them, how they need or want to learn, and what their biggest gaps or needs are.
Trang shares three ways they identify what learners need to deliver programs and services more effectively at the Y.
1. Collaboration
The first method to identify learner needs is through collaboration.
“Sometimes we're not the expert. And how do we work with other organizations? So that partnership collaboration piece is really important. There are some organizations or other agencies that are closer to the work than we are. How do we lean on them and truly have it be a collaborative effort of understanding some of those nuances or needs.” - Trang Truong-Hill
Trang shares an example of a Y that partnered with a local mental health agency. The Y wanted to better serve the community by learning some of the issues that came up as folks came into the organization and tried to find services.
They worked together to identify areas of need.
“I think one approach could be really leaning in on other partners and collaborators that have a closer pulse to what's happening and working with them to identify a plan to help support” - Trang Truong-Hill
Just like you might partner with another organization to meet community needs, you can also partner with other organizations to meet learner needs. For example, if you discover that mental health needs are on the rise, you might decide to bring in mental health first aid training for your staff.
2. Learner Feedback
The second method that Trang highlights to identify learner needs is through learner feedback.
“A lot of the projects that I'm involved in, we ensure that there's a space and place for the folks that are involved to share input. So that can look like monthly meetings or a virtual space where they can connect and share some of their challenges or struggles or just some things that they are hoping to learn.” - Trang Truong-Hill
This is a collaborative space where learners can learn from each other. And so they're able to share what they're doing, what's working, and what's not working.
Trang is a big believer in always ending meetings with the question - what else is needed, or what are some things that can help better support your work? She wants to serve her program and project participants in the same way.
Trang says that they try to build the feedback that they receive from learners into project team check-ins. Whether that’s through micro-learnings built into meetings or pre-recorded webinars.
Hearing directly from the learner is a great way to create, double-check, and provide resources, and reinforce learning because you can hear what those challenges and experiences are firsthand.
Another way to gain learner feedback is through surveys. This is a little bit different because you may not have that two-way communication but you're able to gather a lot of input in a single place.
3. Creating Continuous Feedback Loops
The third method that Trang highlights to identify learner needs is through a continuous feedback loop. But, this only works if you've built trusting relationships with your learners.
“There's always room for improvement and ways that we can be more intentional with how we engage learners, but also how do we help provide the tools and resources to the learners who are then turning around and supporting their direct community as well?” - Trang Truong-Hill
Tang points out that a lot of this work is relational.
“If we don't have trust within the community or trust within the folks that we're trying to help, a lot of this work would be very not aligned with our values as an organization. So how do we ensure that we are doing our due diligence and building trust building relationships and that we are being authentic in the way that we are trying to support and serve?” - Trang Truong-Hill
At the Y, Trang says that they do harvest sessions to bring everyone who is a part of a project together to share their feedback, and their growing pains and to engage in a visioning exercise to think through the next steps for a project.
“How do we really, truly partner with the folks that are proud of these different projects that I'm involved in to really get their input, because at the end of the day, the folks that are implementing, testing, or piloting the project, they're the ones that are really going to be reaching the community.” - Trang Truong-Hill
Trang explains that as folks are helping to coordinate the learners and put together these learning solutions, they have to rely on their experiences to help inform them on how to adjust or look at different ways of doing the work if it's not currently effective.
It’s a constant feedback loop.
I know a lot of times in Learning and Development, we think about everything on a project basis. And so there's a certain finish date to a project. And there is some truth to that, but there's also this iterative process that is kind of amazing if you allow it to happen. Because you can constantly get that feedback from learners, what's working, and what's not working, and you can adapt and make things better, even as you scale.
I think sometimes iterative is a scary word when you think about scaling, but it is possible.
3) Centering Programs Around The Individual
Trang points out that your organization's programs need to be centered around the community, the individual, and the human aspects of it rather than getting stuck in the metrics and outcomes.
“At the end of the day, we have to really listen and understand the human experience of learning.” - Trang Truong-Hill
Trang emphasizes that helping an individual to reach their goals is not going to happen overnight.
“We're in the industry to help people and serve communities, that's going to be an ongoing effort. So how do we ensure that we are helping people along the way to reach their goals?” - Trang Truong-Hill
Trang points out that putting together individual case management approaches centered around the individual and their goals is a good practice when working with communities. We can apply that same concept to our learners, creating personalized learning opportunities based on their needs and goals.
“I think another thing that I've heard too is asset-based case management focusing on the deficits of the individual, but what are some of the strengths that they have? So how do we just look at that strength-based approach versus coming in from a deficit approach?” - Trang Truong-Hill
To hear the full conversation I had with Trang Truong-Hill on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 45.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
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