CLIENT CASE STUDY
Nashville Adult Literacy Council
Project: Evaluation
Sector: Nonprofit
Focus: Literacy, Adult Education
Project Length: 6 months
Gathering data for future storytelling.
The Nashville Adult Literacy (NALC) has been supporting adults as they learn to read, write, and speak English for over 30 years. NALC exists as a response to the low literacy rates in Nashville, where currently one in five adults is at the lowest level of literacy. NALC provides a safe learning environment for Adult Basic Literacy (ABL) students and English Language Learners (ELL) who speak 36+ different languages. Part of their mission is to help their learners reach their own personal goals so that they can live the life they want. Because NALC knows that literacy is a foundational part of community well-being, they wanted to be able to strategically measure and communicate their impact.
Services
Session facilitation
Program evaluation strategy and design
Evaluation plan
Our approach
Elevate partnered with the NALC team to develop and implement an evaluation plan for their organization to strategically measure and communicate their impact. In collaboration with NALC staff and leadership, Elevate supported NALC in identifying their theory of change, identifying key student outcomes, mapping existing data collection tools, and filling any gaps with new tools.
Despite the complexity of collecting data from folks at differing levels of literacy and who speak many different languages, NALC was committed to hearing from all of their participants. We worked collaboratively with them to successfully identify the translator resources required to achieve their vision in making sure everyone was heard.
“NALC partnered with Elevate Consulting to review our existing evaluation processes and tools, and to help us create a new theory of change and updated data collection tools. With guidance and support from Elevate we were able to create a comprehensive evaluation guide that allows us to receive feedback from all of our clients so that we can make informed decisions and better tell the story of the impact of our mission.”
Project Team
Alyssa Reynolds, M. Ed.
Consultant, Project Lead
Hannah Wohltjen, M.A., M.P.H.
Chief Research & Evaluation Officer, Project Principal
Maria Urias, M. Ed., M.T.S.
Associate Consultant, Project Support
“We were truly impressed by the NALC team. While it is clear they are doing incredible and impactful work in the community, the work they do with their data behind the scenes is equally impressive. NALC truly cares about the effectiveness of their programs and measures their value by tracking the specific goals of the learners.”
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