Partnership with LA Works

[staceyrebekahscott]

Overview

We are updating our working partnership with LA Works. Jordan Smith is leaving at the end of 2022, and has already reduced hours for training.

We are going to work on designing a role for a designated Volunteer coordinator focused PM. They will develop and conduct trainings using LA Works as a volunteer recruiting platform.

Action Items

We need to have a better understanding of:

• - What is envisioned for the LA Works partnership long term
• - How LA Works works and how we can work with them better (see issues re: Volunteer, PM: Volunteers)
• - How can the Impact Sprints contribute to the volunteer recruiting effort (Democracy Lab)
• - Schedule time to discuss the partnership with Jordan (PM at LA Works)

Resources/Instructions

Food Oasis- Volunteer via LA Works

New Leadership at LA Works:
Rachel Niesen: Disaster Relief Program Coordinator | LA Works
SJ Oska: Director of Community Impact | LA Works
Gyasi Parker Ross: Vice President of Programs | LA Works

Meeting Notes:
10/13/22: (2022) LA WORKS MEETING | Stacey <> Jordan
11/15/22: (2022) LA WORKS MEETING | Stacey <> Rachel, SJ & Gyasi

Folder in Google Drive: VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT > LA WORKS

[staceyrebekahscott]

I will ask Jordan to explain his process for how he goes through the Admin portal and approves listings, etc. We will then create documentation for all PMs, make sure all PMs have Admin access and can work through any updates or update requests.

This should address #922, which I will close as Stale and note that it will be addressed in this issue. Check steps in issue #922 to confirm all has been considered.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Update 10/17/22

Below in [[ ]] are notes based on the premise that our partnership with LA Works was in danger because of a competitor app. This is not the case. There was never any risk of losing our partnership with LA Works. Jordan suspects that this was a misunderstanding of something said at one point. I am adding these notes here so they are documented in the issue but wanted to separate them from the current scope.

I am revising the Overview to follow up on next steps I discussed with Jordan during my call on Thursday 10/13/22.

[[We need to confirm our partnership with LA Works for the long term. Currently there is a competitor app that LA Works is working with, and we want to see if that competitor will use the Food Oasis data on their app for their food pantry location validation. This will help solidify our partnership with LA Works.

Competitor App: Our Community LA

Overview Update (10/03/22)

The process listed above may no longer be needed. As per the comment below from 10/03, we will be transitioning the volunteer training back to Food Oasis control. We still want be listed on the LA Works website, but are not going to be dependent on them for training. I will discuss with Jordan to understand what else we need to do to improve the partnership.]]

[staceyrebekahscott]

Jordan sent me an email today:

[[Hi Rachel and SJ,

I've copied my colleague from Food Oasis, Stacey Scott. Stacey is a Project Manager at Food Oasis. And Stacey: Rachel and SJ have been my main points of contact at LA Works since Denise left.

Unfortunately, I will be stepping away from Food Oasis and LA Works by the end of the year, and Stacey will be coordinating from the Food Oasis side on who should replace me and how.

Now that you all have each other's contact info, please let me know if and how I can help in the transition - thank you!]]

Rachel Niesen: [email protected]
SJ: [email protected]

[staceyrebekahscott]

Next volunteer training sessions are Nov 12, Dec 3 and Dec 17. I'll check in with the new contacts to find out why the schedule is changed and what are the next steps to getting a new point person established.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Emailed Rachel and SJ:

[[ Hi Rachel & SJ, 
I'd like to schedule a time next week to discuss what's next for Food Oasis and LA Works as Jordan prepares to step away. 

Food Oasis would very much like to continue working with LA Works for our food pantry verification volunteers. There are a few things we would like to address going forward: 

• Updating our listing for volunteers: https://volunteer.laworks.com/opportunity/a0C3l00000r3wLvEAI/%E2%9A%99-help-the-hungry-with-phone-calls-and-research
• Changing the search criteria for our listing so it is more easily found on the LA Works website
• Changing the day/time for the volunteer training (currently Saturday mornings at 10AM)
• Evaluating the training process for volunteers and the criteria for the project manager assigned to our projectWhen I spoke to

Jordan he mentioned that these things haven't changed much since we started working with LA Works, so hopefully it's reasonable that they could use a re-think. 

Might we be able to schedule a call or a Google Meet for Tuesday, Nov 15 between 11-5PM or Wednesday, Nov 16 between 11-2PM? 

I look forward to meeting you both and thank you for helping Food Oasis continue our work in helping to reduce food insecurity in Los Angeles. ]]

[staceyrebekahscott]

Meeting scheduled with Rachel and SJ on Tues, Nov 15 at 12PM.

[staceyrebekahscott]

See Overview for updates and notes from the meeting on 11/15/22.
Created an account with LA Works and emailed Rachel to grant access to the project portal.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Email received from Rachel today:

[[ Hi Stacey,

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with us last week.

I went ahead and updated your account so the email, [email protected], should have access to the Partner Portal. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out. ]]

I checked and confirmed we have access to the portal. Credentials are in 1Password.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Email received by Food Oasis re: Portal access:

[[ Hi ,

Congratulations! You now have Partner Staff access to the organization, Food Oasis. This means you can add and update volunteer opportunities for the organization Food Oasis through the L.A. Works website. To access the Partner Portal, log in to your account via the L.A. Works website. In the Partner Portal, you can view your Organizations Details, Volunteer Opportunities, Volunteer Sign-Ups, and Volunteer Attendance. ]]

There are docs linked in the email, for which I have added shortcuts to in our LA Works folder in Drive.

I will be reviewing these docs and the portal in the coming weeks in preparation for the transition to a new PM role.

[staceyrebekahscott]

@itserindean As per my comment in Slack, I'd like to evaluate whether continuing working with LA Works is of value to the project, or if we should put more attention to expanding working with college students for data validation work. A reason to consider this is that there is are advantages to establishing partnerships with colleges/ universities (for volunteers, for research, for measuring outcomes with a group that experiences food insecurity).

I am not recommending ending the partnership with LA Works at this time, but rather shifting resources to expanding on the college/ universities idea to see if the ROI is better.

[staceyrebekahscott]

As per the feedback during our Leads and Design meetings, and the Research meeting I had with Jelena and Sarah, we will be pursuing using college students as our data validation volunteers. Erin will be working with a new group of students in the coming weeks and testing an async training process. And we will be researching how to build on this program with other colleges and universities.

I will reach out to LA Works and find out what we would need to do to update our partnership terms and what is the best way to keep this partnership open if we want to reengage in the future.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Sent email to SJ, Rachel and Gyasi:

[[ Hi SJ, Rachel and Gyasi, 

Happy New Year! I hope you are all doing well. 

I wanted to share an update with you regarding our efforts to recruit volunteers for Food Oasis. We worked with a group of students from UCLA during their Fall quarter to do data validation for our pantry listings. Based on some preliminary research, we have seen promising results as to the effectiveness of working with these student volunteers, in terms of onboarding and training, consistency of volunteer engagement over time, and an increase in the number of pantry listings that were updated and verified. We are getting ready to onboard another group of volunteers for the Winter quarter next week. 

We would like to see if we have continued success working with the student volunteers, so in the short term we will not be using LA Works to recruit volunteers. 

Should we remove the listing for our project from the LA Works website? And is there a way we can do this through our portal access? And what would be the process we should follow if we want to re-engage and use LA Works in the future? 

Since we are in the early stages of evaluating the student volunteer program we want to keep our options open, but we also want to adhere to any requirements from LA Works regarding listing Food Oasis as a volunteer opportunity on the site. 
Please advise how we should move forward. Thank You! ]]

[staceyrebekahscott]

Sent Follow Up email:

[[ Hi SJ, Rachel and Gyasi,

I am following up on my email from last week regarding Food Oasis and our plans for volunteer recruitment. 

Please advise on how we should proceed, as we will not be using LA Works for the near term but want to maintain our partnership should we re-engage in the future. ]]

To Do:

• Log in to LA Works portal to see if there is an option to take down our listing.
• If so, confirm with PMs that we will be removing the listing for the near future as we assess the UCLA volunteer program.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Received email from SJ:

[[Hi Stacey,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We hosted our big MLK Day of Service event last Monday at the LA Coliseum, so it’s been a little hectic around here.

You’re welcome to post as much or as little on our website! Your team can access the partner portal at any time to post your own opportunities for L.A. Works’ volunteers to join. I don’t see any opportunities for Food Oasis that are currently live, so there’s no need to worry about removing them. Please let us know in the future if you need assistance with this process.

Cheers,
Sarah-Jane]]

The listing on the LA Works website states that "The opportunity date and time you are looking for is no longer available." And as per SJ's message we don't need to remove anything from the site, and we can control the listing details from our portal.

I have made notes on the docs for the Content team to remove any language pertaining to volunteering for Food Oasis from our website. They will incorporate that into their designs.

[staceyrebekahscott]

Closing this issue, and will work on the documentation of the progress made here in issue #1530.