Partner Organization Executive Director Interview Protocol

Appendix B

Partner Organization Executive Director Interview Protocol

CEY II

Longitudinal Site Visits

Partner Organization Interview Protocol

I. Staff Information

1. Could you tell me about your role with this organization and your professional background? How long have you been working for this organization? What did you do before working here?

2. What is your role on the CEY grant?

3. How is the CEY grant staffed by your organization? (probe: Vista volunteers)

4. What roles do staff from your organization play in the CEY partnership? (probe for: logistical support; providing capacity building activities; leadership)

II. Organization Background

5. Could you provide me with a brief history of your organization, including when and why it was established, current mission, and types of services performed?

6. What type of challenges do the youth in your community face? How have these challenges changed over time?

7. What type of challenges do organizations in your community face working with youth? (Probe for: issues associated with urban or rural service area – e.g., transportation.)

III. Past Partnership Experience

8. What kind of prior experience does your organization have in either participating as a member or leading partnerships? Are these partnerships currently operating? (If yes, probe for the mission; how these partnerships are organized and operated; capacity-building or youth service oriented; do these partnerships involve government agencies; partnership activities; partnership accomplishments/challenges)

9. Has your organization received any previous grants for partnership development, organizational capacity or partnership capacity building?

IV. Why CEY?

10. Why did your organization decide to join this CEY-funded partnership?

11. Do you have any past experience with CCF or CEY grants? If so, please describe.

12. What is your past experience working with the lead organization and the other partners? Is the CEY-funded partnership a continuation of a previous or existing partnership? Are there members of the existing partnership that are NOT part of this CEY-funded partnership?

13. How were roles and contracts arrived at for the current CEY partnership? How was it decided which organization would serve as the lead organization? (Probe for: fiscal arrangements; leadership selection; responsibilities; and any other relationships)

14. How much money does your organization receive from CEY? How was this amount determined/negotiated?

15. Has the CEY-funded partnership worked jointly with any other partnerships or collaborations with which your organization is currently involved? (Probe based on answers from past partnership experience section)

V. Needs Assessment

16. Before CEY, had your organization conducted a community needs assessment to guide services? When did this occur? What were the results and how did it impact the services your organization delivered?

17. Did your organization participate in the CEY community needs assessment? What were the results and how did it shape the development of the partnership?

VI. The Partnership

18. Does the partnership currently have a mission statement? If yes, describe. If no, how would you describe the partnership’s overarching goal? Did the needs assessment have an impact on the mission? How was this mission/goal devised? How will your organization contribute to the mission? Was this mission developed for an existing/previous partnership, or is it unique to the CEY-funded partnership?

19. Please describe how the partnership is currently structured. So far, has this structure been effective? What was the process for choosing this partnership structure? Were you satisfied with your level of input into developing the partnership structure?

20. What are your roles and responsibilities as a partner organization? Do the partners have different roles/responsibilities? If so, explain. How were these roles negotiated? Are you satisfied with your organization’s role?

21. In your view, how well does the lead follow through on its commitments?

22. Have the roles/responsibilities of each organization in the partnership changed over time? Could you provide some examples?

23. How is decision-making handled? Could you provide some examples? When has this worked well? Are there any instances where it has been problematic? Are decisions documented? Do you generally feel you know what decisions have been made?

24. Please describe the partnership’s formal and informal mechanisms for communication. What type of communication is most common? How often do you communicate with the lead and partners? Do you communicate more with some partners than others? If so, which ones? Explain.

25. How frequently does the partnership meet? Where do you meet?

26. Are the expectations on your time by this project more, less or about what you expected? Explain.

27. In your view, how well do you think the lead has done in building and maintaining relationships among the partners?

28. Will the partnership engage youth in any capacity?

29. How will the CEY partnership work with other broad community or governmental networks in your community? Is the partnership working with government agencies in the community, such as the police and the school district, or other youth-serving agencies?

30. How do you see the partnership and the governance of the partnership changing over time?

31. Are you satisfied with the dynamics of the partnership? Is there anything that could improve?

VII. Your Organization and Capacity Building

32. How did you assess your organization’s capacity? Did you do a formal organizational needs assessment? Describe the assessment process (Probe: who was involved, how long did it take, when did it occur? Ask for the name of the instrument or a copy of the assessment tool or questionnaire.)

33. Based on this assessment, what are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization? Did the assessment confirm your thoughts about your organization’s capacity? Were you surprised by any of the results?

34. In what ways are the capacity building activities that occur through the CEY-funded partnership directly tied to your organization’s needs? How did you prioritize which areas of capacity to focus on?

35. Describe the CEY capacity building activities that have occurred this year and how they are intended to help your organization. Who has conduct these capacity building activities? (Probe for: when; duration; number of participants, location of activities; intended impact; how impact twill be measured; and changes in organizational capacity)

36. Are you satisfied with the organizational capacity activities that have occurred?

37. What are your future capacity building plans for your organization?

38. Does your organization have any circumstances that will present challenges for participation in the partnership or capacity building activities?

VIII. Capacity Development of the Partnership

39. Considering the partnership as a whole – what are the strengths and weaknesses of the capacity of the partnership?

40. What are the capacity building plans for the entire partnership? What types of activities have occurred? What was the process for choosing these activities? Who delivered the partnership capacity building services?

41. How does the context of your local community affect your capacity building efforts?

42. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being low and 5 being high, how successful have capacity building efforts been thus far? Please describe.

43. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being low and 5 being high, how would you assess the capacity of the partnership to achieve its mission/goal? Please explain your choice?

44. Overall, what have been the biggest changes in the capacity of the partnership?

45. What aspects of the partnership still need the most work?

46. Are you satisfied with the progress of the partnership?

IX. Successes, Challenges and Promising Practices

47. Has the CEY funding helped your organization leverage other funding or resources? Please describe.

48. Overall, what have been the major successes associated with this grant and capacity building of the partnership?

49. Overall, what have been the major challenges associated with this grant and capacity building of the partnership?

50. Other than the specific capacity building described – how have CEY funds been used?

51. Throughout this process, what types of lessons have you learned?

52. If you were giving advice to other organizations attempting to establish a similar partnership and conduct capacity building efforts, what would it be?

53. If you were to start this process over again, is there anything you would do differently?

Appendix B B-1