241 - LISTEN! Strategies for Equitably Gathering Feedback when Power Asymmetry May Exist

Abstract Information: Since 2015, CAI has been funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent health programming in Buffalo, NY, and has done so by establishing the HOPE Buffalo collaborative. HOPE Buffalo uses the collective impact framework, with CAI acting as the backbone organization and contracting with multiple community-based organizations to deliver evidence-based sexual education curricula and other supportive services to youth and caregivers throughout the city. From 2016 to 2020, CAI contracted with a third-party evaluator Via Evaluation (VIA) to conduct a collective impact survey, assessing the collaborative based on the 5 conditions of collective impact, including Backbone Support, which is the presence of a team or organization that works to align and coordinate participating organizations. These 5 conditions were ranked by their average positive score over time, with Backbone Support being ranked 3rd of 5 in 2016 and moving to 5th of 5 in 2020. Because this project requires the support and cooperation of multiple organizations, CAI prioritized better understanding why this shift in backbone support scores was happening. One challenge that CAI faces around building trusting relationships and coordinating efforts is that they are also a funding intermediary, redistributing grant funds to partner organizations. Thus, it was important to acknowledge that being in this role could create a power imbalance that might skew responses on any qualitative investigative methods that CAI were to lead. To address this, CAI again contracted with VIA so that they could act as a neutral, third-party to gather more in-depth feedback. This poster will share information on the methods CAI and VIA have used since 2021 to gather partner and community feedback to improve CAI’s leadership and support, including: • Semi-structured interviews and focus groups, with feedback being kept anonymous and summarized in a key findings and recommendations report, • Ripple Effects Mapping to examine the long-term impact of HOPE Buffalo on their organizations and the community, and • A series of creative listening sessions with youth to learn more about their experiences with sexual and reproductive health. This poster will also share information around how these methods have supported CAI’s organizational learning and performance as a backbone support agency and funding intermediary, including: • Receiving actionable next steps to improve program implementation, technical assistance, and coordination; • Creating a deeper understanding of how CAI’s perspectives on HOPE Buffalo’s impact differed from partners’ perspectives; and • Involving people with lived experience (youth) in the design and adaptation of HOPE Buffalo’s strategies. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of strategies they can use to equitably gather feedback and identify actionable next steps with power asymmetry exists.