Drop by The Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas, any given afternoon and it’s all smiles.
“Our whole goal is to create a place where kids really want to be,” says Ben Rediske, founder and executive director of SOAR Afterschool, which serves students at the center.
The Jones Center is now one of five locations for SOAR, a trusted after-school resource for families that enrolls nearly 600 students a year in Northwest Arkansas. Beyond providing free, critical support for working families to fill the childcare gap, SOAR is helping to build the leadership, academic and social-emotional skills for the region’s diverse students, including those from the growing Marshallese and Hispanic communities.
“We want to make sure that our kids are the ones to decide how far they can go – not the adults around them who might [unknowingly] be capping their potential. And too often, what we believe about kids is what we allow them to be,” says Ben.
But, he cautions, “Fun can only go so far. We have to figure out what’s effective and what’s not.”
To better understand the impact of SOAR programming, Ben has partnered with Southern Methodist University’s The Addy Foundation Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) to help decipher existing data and refine its collection practice moving forward.
Dr. Celeste Fernandez, a post-graduate fellow with CORE’s Advancing Evaluation in Philanthropy (AEP) Fellowship, is the evaluator working with SOAR.
“I think it requires a lot of vulnerability to be open to evaluation, and SOAR has been very enthusiastic and eager to take on this work,” says Celeste. “They're very data-driven, and they recognize the value of having evidence-based tools. They're very open to changing and doing whatever it takes to improve their program.”
The Walton Family Foundation supports the AEP fellowship as part of our commitment to being a learning organization – one that evaluates grants alongside the grantee using a more collaborative process.
A native Texan, Celeste grew up in a family of educators. As she progressed through her own education, completing a Ph.D., it became clear that when it comes to student achievement, context matters.
“I try to understand why an outcome gap might exist,” Celeste says of her evaluation process.
“I recognize that various systemic factors can influence the educational opportunities available to students, keeping certain students from getting the educational experiences that they deserve.”
Her focus now is using data to help improve outcomes.
Celeste is working with SOAR – and the critically important data their partners in the Springdale School District provide – to assess their current programming, revise survey materials and data collection, and adjust it to future needs.
“I get to help them figure out what's working and who it’s working for. Because programming may not work for all students equally. Stronger evaluation provides the information SOAR needs to adapt and grow their program to suit the needs of the students that they're serving.”
Through evaluation, SOAR is working to gain insight into a number of areas, from academic achievement to economic security for families.
“We found out students enrolled in our program have significantly less enrollment gaps in their school year, which is a big deal because it points back to parent surveys that said our program allowed families to keep the jobs that they have or get the job or shift that they want. The job stability that our program provides leads to housing stability, which leads to school stability. Then that leads to educational growth and relationship- and community-building. It’s been really cool to see,” says Ben.
Working within an education context also means creating a data collection system that doesn’t overwhelm a team whose first priority is providing a safe, fun experience for children.
“The staff at SOAR, they're focused on so many different things, and the last thing I want to do is add burden to what they're already doing,” says Celeste.
To streamline processes, she is working to safely and securely link data SOAR has collected with existing data sources like Springdale School District attendance records and academic assessments.
Beyond supporting students, improved evaluation is also helping SOAR demonstrate impact to its philanthropic funders, who increasingly measure growth, sustainability, and scalability through data collection and analysis.
To support the longevity of SOAR Afterschool in its current format, Ben says collaboration with Celeste and others is making a real difference for their program.
“I always say to our team that we are not the experts on anything that we're doing here, but through partnership, we're able to become experts collectively.”
Ben offers himself as an example: “I was an outdoor leadership major. I was not a data guy. But now? I love it. Because I understand that when you set up the right program, with the right support, it’s going to help us stay sustainable for the long term.”
