Southwest Partnership

The Client

The Southwest Partnership (SWP) is a community-led community development organization. They work to revitalize seven neighborhoods in southwest Baltimore City and implement the 'Vision Plan' created by area residents. The Southwest Partnership’s work is done through seven Program Committees made up of community members, led by an elected Chair, and supported by staff.

The Southwest Partnership’s workforce development program, Southwest Works (SWW), exists to advance the Workforce Development Committee’s goal of working towards full, appropriate employment at a living wage for all community members. It covers three main program areas -- working with individual community members, working with other workforce development organizations in the area, and working with local anchor institutions on advancing their local hiring goals and increasing the number of community members hired at local anchors. Each of these areas is connected, but all have distinct evaluation, data management, and analysis goals.

The Problem

SWW sought to improve its capacity to communicate its quantifiable impact on workforce development. They wanted to measure performance so they would be able to identify areas for further investment. SWP received funding to meet targets for its workforce development programming, outreach, and data management, which included the purchase of case management software. To demonstrate the impact of their work, they needed to update their data analytics capabilities and effective use of the new software.

The Approach

Our volunteer team began with a review of their current data then conducted stakeholder interviews to understand the data measures for which the stakeholders would like to receive reports. The team met with the client to determine measures, metrics, target values, and the current state of the metrics and then provided recommendations for how to capture needed data using the new case management software. As the client continues to capture data, they will be ready to perform analysis.

The Solution

The project scope included guidance on how SWP can use their case management software more effectively with workflows, forms, and other available tools. The team created quick reference guides for SWW to use with the case management software, with a data visualization software, and with creating process maps for dataflows as they continue to update their analytics capability.