Building on our Momentum, Growing our Impact - Strategic Plan April 2019-March 2022 - Big Brothers ...

Building on our Momentum,
    Growing our Impact

                                    Strategic Plan
                            April 2019-March 2022

Strategy Framework (April 2019-March 2022) 1

1
    See Appendix D for additional details on the Strategic Themes.

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Introduction and Overview

Between April 2019-March 2022, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area (“BBBS”) will build on our strong momentum and
both broaden and deepen our impact on children and youth. This strategic plan will guide our work and resource investments
over those three years. It is rooted in a theory of change we developed in 2018 that clearly defines who we aim to serve, what
specific impact we aim to achieve, and what programs, services and approaches we will pursue to generate that impact.

This plan also reflects the context of a funding environment that poses both challenges and opportunities, a potentially shifting
political environment, demographic trends that will directly affect our work, and opportunities to leverage technology in new
ways. Importantly, our plan is designed to enable us to build on the key strengths we have generated over our many years of
service, particularly over the past three years as we have strengthened our capacity and culture, deepened positive
relationships in the community, and established ourselves as credible leaders in the field of mentoring.

Over the next three years, we will focus our efforts on four strategic priorities:
  1. Align service delivery around our theory of change
  2. Increase understanding of who we serve, our work, and our impact externally
  3. Increase recruitment and retention of caring, competent, committed mentors
  4. Grow funding

While pursuing these strategic priorities and both measuring and monitoring our progress towards achieving them, we will also
deliberately address five strategic themes across all aspects of our work:
     Broadening and deepening our external partnerships
     Addressing the unique interests of Millennials as prospective mentors and donors
     Selectively incorporating technology to improve both our efficiency and our effectiveness
     Recognizing the critical importance of relationships in all aspects of our work
     Emphasizing external relations and spending time in the community to build engagement in our work

Our strategic priorities are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. They have been developed with input from all members of our
staff team and board of directors, each of whom will play an important role in ensuring we achieve our goals of building on our
momentum and growing our impact over the next three years, while at the same time maintaining our strong commitment to an
efficient use of our resources in all we do.

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Our Theory of Change

Between April-October 2018, a working group of senior staff members developed a three-year theory of change2 for
BBBS. Our theory of change articulates the characteristics of the young people we aim to serve, the specific,
measurable impact we aim to achieve for those individuals and, based on evidence and our experience, the programs,
services and approaches we need to prioritize to generate that impact. Significant research and consultation, including
input from our full staff team and board, informed the development of this theory of change3.

The highlights of our theory of change include:
    Clearly defining those we aim to serve4 as children (ages 6-12) and youth (ages 13-24) in Calgary and Area
      who face adversity, are in need of additional supportive, consistent relationships, are open to mentoring and can
      be safely matched, and have a parent or guardian who is open to mentoring for their child or youth.
    Articulating the specific, measurable outcomes we will hold ourselves accountable for achieving, namely
      that, by program completion, 100% of the children and youth who are matched will experience a developmental
      relationship with their mentor and therefore also experience improved executive functioning and self-regulation,
      and that 80% of those individuals will also experience improvement in one or more social emotional competencies.
    Explicitly committing to 1-to-1 mentoring as the core of our work, based on the evidence of its impact on young
      people and our unique expertise in matching those in need with volunteer mentors.
    Identifying the key set of foundational constructs that will inform all our work, including the core story of brain
      development, strengths-based and trauma-informed practice, and evidence-informed mentoring.
    Emphasizing the importance of engaging parents and guardians throughout the mentoring process more
      intentionally than we have in the past, in order to achieve our intended outcomes.

Living into this theory of change will enable us to deepen our impact by ensuring that every child achieves a developmental
relationship and improved executive functioning and self-regulation, and that the majority of those matched also experience
improved social emotional learning. Our strategic priorities are designed to help us align everything we do, across all aspects of
our work, to these important outcomes, while at the same time enabling us to broaden our impact by ensuring that more of those
young people in Calgary and Area who we aim to serve are matched with mentors.

2
  See next page for theory of change diagram.
3
  See Appendix A for overview of strategy development process.
4
  See Appendix C for additional detail on who we aim to serve.

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Theory of Change

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Our Context

In addition to enabling us to implement our theory of change and achieve our intended outcomes between April 2019-March
2022, the priorities outlined in this plan are designed to ensure we build on our strengths and address the opportunities and
challenges likely to be posed by our external context during that timeframe5.

Internally, over the past few years, we have established a team of passionate, committed, adaptable staff who find creative
ways to make change happen. We have built strong, trusting relationships with key external stakeholders with whom we will
continue to collaborate. We have also focused on quality service delivery and the integration of research and evaluation to
guide our work and better measure and communicate our outcomes. We have intentionally integrated brain science into all
aspects of our work, and thereby elevated the urgency of mentoring as a critical intervention for children and youth facing
adversity by demonstrating to the community that caring relationships that buffer the impact of toxic stress are critical for lifelong
health and wellness. In short, we have developed and become known for unique expertise in the intervention of mentoring that
is grounded in research and evidence and proven to generate a measurable and compelling impact in the lives of young people.
We will build on these strengths and the momentum we have created to deepen and broaden our impact over the coming years.

Externally, several important trends pose both opportunities and challenges for our work. From a funding perspective, we
continue to face a challenging economic environment, but indications of a stabilizing and diversifying corporate sector in Calgary
present the opportunity to pursue more corporate partnerships for funding. Indications are that government funding for social
services is unlikely to increase over the next three years. This reality requires us to “get ahead of” government priorities through
government relations to at least maintain current funding levels, and to continue pursuing a broad set of funding opportunities.

We recognize increasing diversity among those we serve, which presents the opportunity for us to tailor service delivery
somewhat to the specific needs of specific populations. Shifting demographics will also make it important for us to engage
‘Millennials’ more intentionally as both donors and mentors.

The increasing use of technology in society for information sharing and automation presents the opportunity for us to use
technology in new ways for efficiencies and more effective engagement with mentors, parents/guardians and other stakeholders
(while recognizing that maintaining personal relationships is critical in many aspects of our work).

5
    See Appendices A and B for an overview of the strategy development process and inputs into the contextual assessment.

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The trend toward collaboration presents the opportunity for us to leverage stronger partnerships of all kinds. Pursuing
partnerships, while at the same time continuing to build our strong presence in the community as a leader in mentoring, will
benefit our fund development and recruitment efforts. We will continue emphasizing the importance of relationships in all
aspects of our work both internally and externally. Deepening and expanding our referral relationships, specifically, will allow us
to serve even more of those children and youth who are most in need of mentoring, while also ensuring that those who would
most benefit from other services receive that support from agencies best positioned to provide it.

Strategic Priorities and Enabling Strategies

Between April 2019-March 2022, our strategic goals are to build on our strong momentum, and both broaden and deepen our
impact on children and youth6. We will know we have deepened our impact when we demonstrate that, by program completion,
100% of those matched have formed a developmental relationship with their mentor and 80% of those children and youth also
experience improvement on at least once social emotional competency. We will know we have broadened our impact when
more children and youth in Calgary and Area who fit our target criteria have been matched with mentors.

Our four interrelated, mutually-reinforcing strategic priorities will direct our work toward achieving those goals, and the enabling
strategies within each priority will guide our efforts.

1. Align Service Delivery Around Our Theory of Change

      The extensive staff input gathered during strategy development identified four ways in which our work throughout the
      mentoring process needs to be refined to align with our theory of change and achieve our intended outcomes for the children
      and youth we will match.

      1.1 Increase parent/guardian engagement throughout the mentoring process
          Achieving our intended outcomes will require us to engage parents/guardians more intentionally throughout the
          mentoring process, particularly during the needs assessment, post-match training and support, and evaluation. We will
          consult with parents and guardians for input on how we can engage them more effectively, and we will redesign our
          approaches for working in schools and community, and with children and youth, to achieve that deeper engagement.

6
    See page 10 for summary of Strategy Framework

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1.2 Enhance training for staff, mentors and parents/guardians on our intended outcomes and foundational
      constructs
      Staff, mentors and parents/guardians need to understand the research and evidence on building developmental
      relationships, executive functioning and self-regulation, and social emotional learning so they can fully participate in
      helping to bring about those outcomes for the children and youth we match. We will update our training content and
      approaches, so those important participants have the knowledge they need to be effective in their roles.

  1.3 Refine processes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery
      At every step of the mentoring process, from screening through matching, training and monitoring and support, we face
      opportunities to more intentionally align our work around our theory of change. Building on all the input gathered from
      staff during the strategy development process, we will critically examine each step of the mentoring process and identify
      and implement ways of being even more effective at matching those young people who fit our description of those we
      aim to serve and managing and supporting the mentoring relationship so that our intended outcomes are achieved.

      At the same time, we recognize that there are ways of improving the efficiency of our work. We will engage service
      delivery staff in identifying and implementing process improvements that enable us to achieve timely matches in ways
      that contain our ‘cost per match’ within our targets.

  1.4 Align program evaluation and reporting with the theory of change
      Evaluating the achievement of our intended outcomes will enable us to prove our impact, for the benefit of increasing
      understanding of our work externally, recruiting mentors, and growing our funding. We will update our program
      evaluation processes to ensure we are measuring our achievement of developmental relationships and improvements in
      social emotional learning and update our reporting processes to enable us to 1) incorporate learning back into our
      service delivery, 2) ‘make our case’ to build understand externally, 3) drive recruitment and 4) grow funding.

2. Increase Understanding of Who We Serve, Our Work and Our Impact Externally

   We have made strong strides in building awareness of BBBS in the community over the past several years. At this juncture,
   our focus will shift to building not just awareness, but greater understanding of who we aim to serve, what we do, and what
   impact we achieve for those young people. We will focus on three strategies for pursuing this priority.

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2.1 Diversify the capturing and dissemination of impact stories
      Our work has a transformative impact on the lives of the young people we match with mentors. To accentuate the
      evaluation data we will gather to prove our outcomes, we will capture impact stories that better reflect the diversity of our
      matches, in terms of the ages, demographic characteristics and needs of the young people we match, and the different
      geographies we serve within Calgary and Area. And, to increase the understanding of our work and our impact
      externally, we will disseminate those stories via more diverse means of communication and to more diverse target
      audiences.

  2.2 Refine external messaging and communications to better reflect our current brand promise
      The newly-defined outcomes we will strive to achieve, the specific beneficiaries we aim to serve, the mentoring process
      we will pursue, and our commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion and the foundational constructs underpinning all
      our work are, in combination, forming a new brand promise for BBBS. To ensure an increased understanding of our
      work externally that reflects that brand promise, we will update our external messaging and use it consistently across all
      aspects of our external communications, including for recruitment and fund development.

  2.3 Refine our social media strategy to build engagement
      One channel of particular importance for our external communications over the next three years will be social media. To
      increase understanding of our work externally, we will refine our social media strategy to build greater engagement in
      our work. As in all other forms of external communications, we will draw upon our stories of impact and refined external
      messaging as we share information about our work through social media.

3. Increase Recruitment and Retention of Caring, Competent, Committed Mentors

  Critical to our ability to deepen and broaden our impact on young people will be our ability to recruit and retain a greater
  number of caring, competent and committed mentors over the next three years. This priority will involve three strategies.

  3.1 Expand and deepen recruiting capacity within the organization
      Increasing recruitment will require us to both expand and deepen the recruiting capacity within the organization.
      Expanding our capacity will include involving all staff in recruiting efforts and engaging our volunteers, alumni (both
      mentors and mentees) and ‘champions’ in sharing their impact stories to attract new mentors. Deepening our capacity
      will require ensuring that all the staff, volunteers, alumni and champions involved in recruiting are trained and

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knowledgeable about the recruiting and mentoring processes and key messages. Onboarding and ongoing training will
      be updated to reflect the content necessary for staff to fully and confidently participate in recruiting efforts.

  3.2 Develop and implement a recruiting strategy including diverse groups of potential mentors
      We will develop and implement a recruiting strategy that includes multiple approaches and targets multiple diverse
      groups, recognizing opportunities to leverage corporate partnerships, connections to Millennials, retirees, and other
      populations as potential mentors. Our recruiting strategy will include plans for attracting, screening, training and
      matching a greater number of mentors who possess the skills and personal characteristics required to form
      developmental relationships with their mentees.

  3.3 Enhance the recognition and retention of mentors
      Beyond recruiting a greater number of new mentors, we will increase our focus on recognizing and retaining the mentors
      we have. Our aim will be to retain caring, competent and committed mentors who are willing to stay on after program
      completion with a mentee and serve as ambassadors to help recruit new mentors and expand our reach in the
      community.

4. Grow Funding

  Achieving our goals of deepening and broadening our impact will require us to grow our funding over the next three years.
  This priority will involve three strategies, all of which will draw upon and benefit from the evaluation data that proves our
  impact, our increasingly diverse impact stories, updated external messaging that reflects our current brand promise, and
  involvement of a broad group of staff, alumni and champions who can help communicate our impact to prospective funders.

   4.1 Diversify and increase individual giving
       We will develop and implement a plan for increasing individual giving, which includes major gifts and recurring gifts.
       Work in this area will involve addressing the unique needs and interests of Millennials as potential donors.

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4.2 Diversify and increase corporate funding
    We will develop and implement a plan for diversifying and increasing corporate funding, which could include pursuing
    corporate partnerships for both funding and employee volunteerism where appropriate, and/or targeting SME’s (small
    and medium sized enterprises) in Calgary and Area.

4.3 Strengthen government relations to maintain government funding
    We will pursue strengthened relationships with leaders in key ministries and government programs, to stay apprised of
    evolving government priorities with the goal of maintaining our sources of government funding.

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Appendix A: Overview of Strategy Development Process

Phase 1: Development of Theory of Change (April-September 2018)
     Generated a theory of change and identified a set of its implications on BBBS’ work and remaining questions to explore
     Working Group of six senior staff members led the process with extensive consultation with the full staff team and board
       of directors throughout

Phase 2: Strategic Planning (October 2018-January 2019)
     Generated the strategic plan outlining 3-year strategic priorities and enabling strategies
     Inputs included:
          o Analysis of internal context
                  Results from Organizational Effectiveness Survey (all staff, January 2018)
                  Discussion on organizational strengths and gaps (management team and leads, October 2018)
                  Discussion on organizational strengths to build upon (board of directors, November 2018)
          o Analysis of external context7
                  Survey on opportunities and challenges (management team, leads and board of directors, October 2018)
                  Interviews on opportunities and challenges (16 external stakeholders, October 2018)
                  Environmental scan summarizing trends from 9 relevant contextual documents (October 2018)
          o Input into and feedback on strategic priorities and enabling strategies
                  Identification of key themes to address and priorities to pursue (board of directors, November 2018)
                  Development of draft strategic priorities (management team and leads, strategy and visioning committee,
                     November 2018)
                  Input into enabling strategies (management team and leads, full staff team, December-January 2018)

Phase 3: Operational Planning and Budgeting (February-March 2019)
     Will generate operational plan and budget outlining 1-year actions, projects and resource requirements; will include key
       performance indicators for each strategic priority and enabling strategy so each can be measured and monitored

7
    See Appendix B for additional detail on inputs into external context assessment.

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Appendix B: Inputs into External Context Assessment

Stakeholder Interviews on External Trends, Opportunities and Challenges
      Craig Foley - United Way of Calgary & Area (All In For Youth)
      Michelle Gagnon - Palix Foundation
      Michelle Clarke - Burns Foundation
      Jerilynn Daniels – RBC
      David Pickersgill - Former BBBS Board member, Donor
      Gary Nissen - Donor
      Matthew Chater - President & CEO, BBBS of Canada
      Leanne Nicolle - President & CEO, BBBS Toronto
      Kim Megyesi - Executive Director, BBBS of Saskatoon
      Valerie Lambert - Big Sisters Lower Mainland
      Liz O’Neill - Executive Director, BGCBigs
      Marni Pearce - Works with AB Education but is currently seconded to Children’s Services
      Ken Dropko - Government of Alberta
      Rachelle Tong - Coordination Lead (AMP), also with Children’s Services
      Emma Anderson - HRJ Consulting

Board and Senior Staff Survey on External Trends, Opportunities and Challenges
      12 responses from Board members, management team members, and team leads

Environmental Scan
      Alberta Health, Valuing Mental Health: Next Steps, June 2017
      Calgary Foundation, Vital Signs 2018
      City of Calgary, Action Plan 2015-2018
      CCVO, Lighting the Way: The State of the Alberta Nonprofit Sector 2018
      Government of Alberta, 2016-19 Government of Alberta Strategic Plan
      Government of Canada, Recommendations of the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy Co-Creation Steering Group
      Institute for Community Prosperity, Terra Cognito, December 2017
      United Way, Environmental Scan 2017
      University of Calgary, Environmental Scan Working Paper 2017, January 2017

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Appendix C: Who We Aim to Serve

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Appendix D: Recognition of Five Strategic Themes
In light of the external trends that will affect our work and the key factors that will influence our ability to implement our theory of
change, we will maintain a focus on our strategic themes while pursuing our strategic priorities. As highlighted in our Strategic
Framework, we will focus on partnerships, Millennials and technology and continue to focus on relationships and a strong
community presence across all aspects of our work. While none of these themes represents a goal or “end” in and of itself,
each is instead an important part of how or the “means” by which we will accomplish our goals. They can be broken down into
five strategic themes which will be incorporated into our annual operational plans and budgets.

      Broadening and deepening our external partnerships – We will be mindful of opportunities to cultivate partnerships
       across all aspects of our work, ranging from referrals, training and evaluation in service delivery to fund development and
       recruitment.

      Addressing the unique interests of Millennials as prospective mentors and donors – We will develop a perspective
       on the interests and needs of the Millennial generation and incorporate that learning into our external messaging, social
       media strategy, mentor recruitment plans and fund development approaches.

      Selectively incorporating technology to improve both our efficiency and effectiveness – After identifying
       opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our service delivery work throughout each step of the
       mentoring process, we will determine cost-effective ways of incorporating technology to improve our work; these efforts
       may involve collaboration with our affiliated BBBS agencies or our national office.

      Recognizing the critical importance of relationships in all aspects of our work – We will remain focused on
       maintaining personal relationships in all aspects of our work. We believe that the trust we build with staff, mentors,
       parents/guardians, children and youth, partner agencies, funders and other stakeholders is a key element of our success,
       and we believe that cultivating human connections and personal relationships is critical for building that trust.

      Emphasizing external relations and spending time in the community to build engagement in our work – We will
       take an external focus and strengthen our community presence in all aspects of our work. We believe that ‘getting out
       there’ into schools and community and forming relationships with potential mentors and funders will be critical for our
       success in building on our momentum and achieving our goals of deepening and broadening our impact.

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Appendix E: Glossary of Key Terms

•   Children: Aged 6-12
•   Youth: Aged 13-24
•   Calgary and Area: Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks and neighbouring communities in Rockyview County and MD Foothills
•   Adversity: Experiencing at least one of the following…
        • Abuse
        • Bullying
        • Poverty and/or hunger
        • Illness or death in the family
        • Loss of a parent (through death, divorce or other absence)
        • Immigration, including as a refugee
        • Parental mental illness / addiction
        • Family history or substance abuse or domestic violence
        • Being in care
        • Social isolation
        • Loneliness
        • Peer relationship challenges
        • Social emotional challenges
•   Developmental Relationship: Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people discover
    who they are, cultivate abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around
    them (Search Institute)
•   Executive Functioning skills: The mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and
    juggle multiple tasks successfully (Centre on the Developing Child, Harvard University)
•   Aspects of Social-Emotional Learning: Knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions,
    set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make
    responsible decisions (CASEL)
•   Supportive, consistent relationships: A Developmental Relationship that expresses care, challenges growth, provides
    support, shares power, and expands possibilities
•   Open to mentoring: Open to mentoring (mentees); supportive of mentoring (parents/guardians)
•   Can be safely matched: Can understand Strong From the Start Safety concepts; Do not pose a safety threat to the mentor

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•   Equity: The quality of being fair and impartial
•   Diversity: The inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races, cultures, gender expressions, gender
    identities) in a group or organization
•   Inclusion: The action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure
•   Strengths Based Approach: An approach that values the capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in
    individuals and communities
•   Trauma-Informed Approach: A program, organization, or system that is trauma-informed: Realizes the widespread impact
    of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families,
    staff, and others involved with the system; Responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures,
    and practices; and Seeks to actively resist re-traumatization. (SAMHSA)
•   Evidence-Informed Practice: A process which involves critical thinking and evaluation of information to determine the most
    effective and efficient treatment for your client or community
•   Natural Supports: An approach that recognizes that natural supports play a critical role in promoting youth resiliency, social
    integration, and positive development. Natural supports include family, friends, romantic partners, neighbours, coaches,
    team-mates, and others who comprise our social network

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