Bringing More Women Into Tech

One of the biggest goals of the VISTA Code Corps program is to give kids who would be less likely to participate in computer science, including girls, a chance to start working with CS. In my time as a VISTA, I've had the privilege of attending a few different trainings on including girls in computer science as well as STEM. Here is some of what I've learned.

Appathon!

Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland held its first-ever Appathon last Saturday, November 7th! Our theme was Balancing a Healthy Lifestyle.

Bridging the Gulf: Why BGCP Would Benefit From More Admin Site Visits

Disclaimer: today's post is largely about Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland.  There's a good chance that what I'm talking about applies to management in other organizations, but this entry will be more focused on the process at BGCP.

There are two groups of staff at Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland. On one hand, we have the Administrative staff: various executives, officers, and coordinators (and the VISTA team). On the other, we have Program staff: these people work in the Clubhouses and are dedicated to day-to-day delivery of program to all of BGC Portland's kids.

The problem is this: there is a gulf between the two groups. The Admin staff spend most of their time in their offices working to keep the back end of the clubs running. They are not able to spend much, if any, time working with the kids and the Program staff. This is no one's fault: their job is vital to keeping the organization running smoothly and they take it seriously. I know that many of them, myself included, would love to take more time out to spend working directly with the kids. After all, the desire to help kids grow and succeed is the glue that sticks everyone here together.

What isn't apparent to most Admin staff though, is how huge the gulf seems to those on the other side.

Why Community History Matters in a Volunteer Orientation

In revamping Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland's volunteering system, I had the opportunity to take a ten-week course on the AmeriCorps VISTA site all about volunteers. I learned a great deal in the process, and one of the main things I took away from the course was the importance of a strong volunteer orientation. In our meeting with the Clubs to discuss the volunteering system today, though, I was given a perfect example of why one of the aspects of a strong orientation, the "Cause" section, includes the history and populations of the neighborhood.

Meeting with the Clubs on Volunteers

As part of my VISTA assignment this year, I was asked, along with my co-VISTA, to entirely revamp Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland's volunteering program. This has been a very exciting process over the last few months, and we were excited to hear that BGCP has put a new position in place to continue this process. Over the past month or so, we have been working with this new Coordinator of Program Collaborations and Volunteerism, Tonya Peshel. Tonya and I just finished meeting with two of our Boys & Girls Clubs to talk to them about their perception of the volunteering system as it stands and their vision of how the program can change to benefit the Clubs' operations.

Let Kids Lead: CS First Members as Advocates and Program Assistants

The Goal: Kids as Leaders

One of the primary goals of the Boys & Girls Club movement is to foster leadership skills and self-confidence in our members. Each of our programs is targeted at one or more of our five Core Program Areas: The Arts; Character and Leadership; Sports, Fitness and Recreation; Health and Life Skills; and Education and Career. Our experience with CS First has been exciting because, in running the program, we have found that kids are sharing with each other and finding the confidence to become leaders in the group.

"Can I Talk About the Program?"

I was at our Blazers Boys & Girls Club in Northeast Portland to do one of our new monthly check-ins with the staff there, when something very cool happened at Club Meeting prior to the program. We had a new CS First module starting up and one of the staff members was standing at the front of Club Meeting telling the kids about CS First. This staff member was fairly new at the Club, and had not had the opportunity to run CS First yet, so it wasn't the most compelling introduction. So, one of our kids raised his hand and asked to come up and tell the group about the program instead.

Now, this is not a usual occurrence, at least in Portland. Before I came on board with Code Corps, I spent two and a half years working directly with kids delivering programs, and I can count on one hand the number of times kids were so excited about a program that they wanted to get up in front of their peers and try to convince them all to join. This is what has been so awesome about CS First: it has inspired kids to talk to other kids and let them know that they can learn about technology, and it's great.

Collaborative Problem Solving

One of the core ideas of CS First is that in technology, as in many things, you don't always succeed the first time you try. One of the great things about CS First and Scratch is that kids are encouraged to help their neighbors solve problems, and in the process they gain confidence in their own ability as leaders. In July, I ran CS First at two different Clubhouses and in each case we found children who excelled at solving problems they came across. In each case, these kids (one boy and one girl, both of demographics that are underrepresented in the tech community at large) were excited to help their peers solve problems, and in both cases we were able to have these kids become helpers for the whole group. CS First further supports this process by asking kids to put up sticky notes thanking those who helped them solve problems during the program. It is an enormous confidence booster to know that your peers are looking to you for guidance, and to see yourself as a knowledgeable leader who knows about computer science.

Building on the Foundation

We've already seen that CS First builds a strong foundation of kids helping other kids and naturally developing their leadership skills. The task for us as facilitators, then, is to help nurture this process and provide opportunities for these kids to keep building on the foundation of leadership we've established. In the very near future, I'll be speaking to our Club Directors about establishing a process for these kids to become official helpers for CS First. The perception of what kind of person succeeds in computer science is a huge determining factor in what kind of kid chooses to pursue it. As kids from backgrounds that are underrepresented in IT practice leadership in the field, and others see people like them succeeding, we can change that perception and allow kids to succeed where they would have struggled before.

The Same Page: Getting the Organization Working Together

Looking Back on the CS First Rollout

CS First has now been running at Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland for 4 weeks. In that time, we've seen some major successes in the program and some notable hurdles. Apart from technical issues and difficulties with having a large number of volunteers in place for a new program with short notice, we've had some challenges with implementing the program according to our vision. A lot of this comes down to sharing our vision accurately and effectively with the Unit Directors and Program Directors of the various Clubhouses: something it has become clear we could have done better.

 

"I Thought You'd Have a PowerPoint."

 

A few days after coming on board at BGCP, my co-VISTA and I made a brief presentation at one of the Unit Director meetings. We introduced ourselves and gave a one-minute spiel about CS First and our purpose at the organization. After the meeting, one of the Directors and a friend of mine told me something that's stuck in my mind ever since: "I thought you'd have a PowerPoint." The purpose of our presentation was just a brief introduction, but I think that comment hints at one of the big gaps of our project rollout: we never gave a purposeful, planned project overview to all of the Directors at once.

 

The In-House Interview

 

In the first weeks of our planning for summer CS First, we adopted a very fluid model for introducing the program to the Clubhouses. We scheduled a meeting with each Club's directors and drove out in person to discuss the program and how we could fit it into their existing summer plans. We came in to the organization late in the game, and the summer schedule was already mostly set, so we needed to tailor our approach to each individual Club's needs to a greater extent than most programs. This approach had some significant advantages:

• We met Directors on their terms. We showed the Directors that their concerns were important and that we were willing to work with their needs right from the get-go. We also demonstrated our willingness to go the (literal) extra mile to make sure each club got the attention it needed

• We saw the Clubhouses in person. We were able to personally visit each of the sites and figure out specific technological challenges to overcome, and plan how the program would look in each location.

• We had a personalized experience. We took time to discuss with each of the Directors their needs and concerns individually, and give them the information and reassurance they needed, as well as learn about the specific needs of each Clubhouse.

This approach had some limitations, though. For one thing, it took two weeks to schedule and travel to each location. Having a personalized experience was a double-edged sword, too: though we gave each Director personal attention, our presentation and our expectations were not unified and consistent. It didn't help that we were just starting, either: we were new enough that articulating our specific expectations was difficult, and we didn't have all the pieces of information we would need from our sponsoring organizations to give the complete picture.

 

Outcomes

 

Some of the outcomes of our approach to rolling out the program through in-house interviews have been awesome. We've been able to tailor the scheduling and themes of CS First to each Clubhouse, rather than subjecting them to a one-size-fits-all approach. Our personalized attention has increased the enthusiasm and buy-in at each of the Clubhouses, and the staff there are, for the most part, excited about CS First. We've identified some shortcomings to our current implementation, though:

• Lack of Registration. In most of our Clubhouses, the program was not promoted well beforehand, and kids were not registered for the program ahead of time. This has resulted in a fluctuating roster of kids, and in some cases only a small core of members completing the entire module.

•  Missing Pieces. Some of this comes down to us not having all the information ahead of time, but some parts of the program are not being implemented in all cases. None of the Clubhouses have updated their demographic survey sheets for any modules so far, and it remains to be seen if the pre- and post-assessments are being run at any locations where my co-VISTA and myself have not been present. Group e-mail has not proven to be a successful way of communicating to the Directors, and a presence at UD meetings would be a significant help in this regard.

• Communication Disconnect. Communication is understood to be a major stumbling block within the BGCP organizationally, and our current model is contributing to that. In speaking to the Unit Directors individually and not to the whole group, we gave up our presence at the discussions they have with each other regarding the program. We are missing a big piece of the puzzle in their understanding and what information regarding the program, if any, they share with each other. There may be practices or understandings forming within the group that are harmful to the program's intended implementation, and we have no way of addressing the community of directors about them, or indeed knowing if they are there at all.

• Lack of Group Accountability. This ties into the previous one. As the group was never formally addressed regarding our expectations for the CS First program, there is no accountability or forum for addressing the shortcomings of the implementation, Club-side. As e-mail fails to create the changes we need, we have no way of making the group accountable to each other and making our requirements real to the UD community.

 

 Next Steps

 

As we move forward into planning for the school year, I think it's important that we create a presence for ourselves at UD meetings. We need to be able to speak to the group regarding the needs of the program and the changes that are necessary in a way that is not a unilateral, easily-ignored e-mail or individual follow-up. Creating a space where Directors and we, the VISTAs, can speak to each other and agree to make changes is vital to the program's improvement.

The organization currently holds that VISTAs should not regularly attend Unit Director meetings, and this is unavoidable due to some internal necessities. However, we need to be able to address that forum in some capacity. I plan to speak to my supervisor and our VP of Programs about our need to have a presence there, and hopefully arrange for time to address the group as necessary.

What methods have you found useful in getting directors or managers from different areas on the same page for a program? Let me know in the comments!