Spanish Build Evaluation I

Evaluation of the Spanish Build Program. Question Answer Number of staff hours for the Spanish Build (SB) Program Instructing SB = 0 staff hrs (it has all been volunteer hrs SB Admin = 35.75 total (started logging in Sept) Number of participants signed up for SB 13 (Two kids share one space). Four groups of three each. Percentage of drop outs SB 16.67% (12 people signed up, 2 people dropped out). 2 people dropped out, but their spots were immediately filled. Percentage of drop outs in overall Build ? Hrs devoted to outreach 20 hours all unpaid. (Volunteers took on the majority). Number of people on SB waiting list 12 Estimate of staff hrs to get a 2nd round 8-15 hrs a month for two staff program coordinators, and some wiki chart maintenance. Estimate of staff hrs to get a 2nd shift Additional 2 hours per month total. Stakeholder Testimonies Pre-Build coordinator and staff backup Richard - Vagrant's way of dealing with maintaining flow chart documents seems reasonable to do. When System Eval is half full of Spanish Prebuilders, then there are English Prebuilders that they can teach each other. When it's nearly full of Spanish Prebuilders, there is usually only room for one English Prebuilder, which does not work so well as we like to focus on people working together. One time at least, half the Spanish System Evaluators actually ended up going through Hardware ID instead of System Eval (at least for the first hour). They may not have been the same people who signed up for System Eval. On that day it did not disrupt Hardware ID as no one showed up for the shift, but it split the attention of the instructor into two places, and I think a few mistakes were made in System Eval as a result. People do seem very excited and do seem to be getting something out of the program. This has happened at a time when I am low on interns, so as often as not, it makes prebuild easier to run as a whole. But if I had a full complement of interns scheduled I wonder if they'd have enough to do when Spanish "replacement workers" walk in and do all the work. We might need to think more about alternate work for the English interns or something. Vagrant Build staff coordinators Caitlin - Overall, the Spanish Build Program has been a success in the Build Room. -Instructing: The Spanish-speaking Instructors have been almost entirely self-sufficient. I have observed great teaching techniques and one-on-one mentoring. Both Instructors and students appear to be learning and having a good time in the process. It seems rarely needed, but the Instructors are not afraid to ask questions of me or any other regularly-scheduled Volunteer Instructors. -Quality Control: I have not done any formal analysis of this, but it seems like Spanish Build Instructors are on par with Volunteer Build Instructors in terms of overseeing quality building and signing off on boxes. I have seen some mistakes, but no more than usual. My hope is for Spanish Build Instructors to attend the next Build Instructor Training. -Schedule: This goes fairly smoothly, but there have been some issues. Spanish Build Instructors have been late on multiple occasions which is problematic for the participants as well as the regularly scheduled Volunteer Instructors. My limited Spanish skills have just gotten us by, but it would be ideal if the Instructors showed up before we open. We should make sure all Instructors know that they can come in before we are officially open. There were also a couple of times when the people signed up did not reflect the reality. This is also true, however, for the Build Program in general. It might be a little more of an issue when we are actually blocking off space. -Staff time in the Build room: My time commitment in the Build room has actually decreased during the Spanish Build shifts because there are so many Volunteer Instructors. I am easily able to leave for periods of times and work on other duties, or focus on other projects in the Build room. -Volunteer retention: Volunteers recruited for the Spanish Build program are excited about Free Geek and moving on to Post-Build areas. Volunteers who were already in Build were offered a new challenging experience. The Spanish Build Program offered a great opportunity for growth for those individuals. -Personal: Being involved with the Spanish Build volunteers has been fun and inspirational (plus I'm brushing up on my measly Spanish skills). I would like to see this program continue. I would also like to see us put together an amazing program evaluation process and use this program as a loose model for other pilot projects. Meredith - I believe the Spanish Build program has thus far been very successful, in addition to making Free Geek more diverse and accessible to an under-represented group, and that it should continue and be supported by the rest of Free Geek. I have worked extensively with the Spanish Build instructors, which has been a very positive experience. They all are very enthusiastic and committed to this program. While part of this constitutes the kind of person each of them is, I think it also is the result of good, strategic planning and coordination, *and* speaks to the importance of the existence of this program. The only mild challenge was, in the training of the SB instructors, that sometimes the Build room would be very crowded because they tended to all come in together. However, their willingness to help other volunteers and with other Build room tasks definitely outweighed this challenge. Even non-Spanish Build instructors who are normally mostly ambivalent seem to think that this program is cool and a good thing for Free Geek. Elizabeth and Renee have done an excellent job in the planning, development, outreach and coordination of this program and I see no reason for it not to continue. Spanish Build coordinators Renee - Above all, I am wildly impressed with the Spanish Build interns' commitment to the program. They have shown responsibility and dedication beyond my expectations, and beyond the commitment that I see with many other internships at Free Geek. I feel that they have taken this project very personally and are committed to maintaining it. The majority of the Spanish Build instructors have themselves gone on to various post-Build stations: two in Mac, four in Advanced Testing. The participants also have shown a lot of interest and commitment to showing up, or advising us if they are not able to show up. They have shown a great interest in taking advantage of this opportunity and have shown me that they have made their own notes and charts to study when they are at home. They have been interested primarily in knowledge and learning what the Build program has to offer and secondarily in earning a computer. There is an entire family that is in the Spanish Build program and they come in together to learn and work together. This is a a great accomplishment for any program at Free Geek, one that is tough to obtain, and very important, particularly in the Latin community. There has been a lot of interest when the word has gotten out to people; many people in the Spanish speaking community were unaware of Free Geek or the fact that they could obtain for no cost the knowledge that the Build program offers. Elizabeth Bi-lingual instructors