Growth Project Implementation

How were local leaders deployed in the target regions? What was their coverage area? How did they organize their efforts and where did they spend their time? To what extent did they achieve their growth goals?

1. Regional Parameters

Initial determinations about which areas of the country to target were made in concert with prospective funders (Tomar and DES) and included consideration of which regions had pre-established relationships with YSI (schools and local authorities). Then, an assessment of county-level demographics was completed to insure a balance of urban and rural settings, and in particular to insure an adequate representation of DEIS schools (schools in economically disadvantaged communities). Schools were not open from January through April 2021, and therefore the work of the local leaders was completed remotely. Throughout the Pandemic year, YSI re-designed its programme offerings to include online training, events, assessment and related activities.

The final process of delineating what schools (institutions) and geographical areas would comprise each local leaders’ region was, in part, a function of travel and personal requirements, and there was an initial negotiation period from which a final set of school/institution assignments was derived. Upon completion, there were a handful of instances in which schools slightly outside the geographical boundary were shifted for convenience or practicality.

In the final analysis, each leader was assigned post-primary schools and related target sites as follows:

Within each of these regions, data were provided to local leaders showing: (1) all schools/sites in the region (the above # of target schools), (2) schools/sites that had a YSI Senior, Junior, or R4G programme operational during 2019-20 (the baseline year), (3) schools/sites in which there had been YSI engagement prior to 2019-20 but not for that year, and (4) schools/sites that had never engaged with YSI.  Information about these features was initially used to plan recruitment efforts for the 2020/2021 effort.

2. Patterns of Communication

Following their initial training, the first several months of the work of the local leaders was devoted to recruitment and retention efforts. Roughly, this comprised the period of August through early October of 2020 (when applications were due). From that point, much of the remainder of the year was comprised of interactions and activities in support of participating schools, Guides, students and community members. These activities were tracked and documented through regular submissions of data through Excel spreadsheets in two formatted applications, a Communications Tracker and Weekly Progress Reports. The charts that follow provide a visual analysis of the extensive scope of targeted communications and interactions of the local leaders over the course of the year and were derived from the afore-mentioned data systems.

Note: Because full Communications Tracker were unable for Dublin City due to staffing changes, complete data were unavailable for that region. 

The below chart provides a month-by-month analysis of the types and volumes of communication engaged in by the local leaders as a group. It shows how the pattern and content of communications shifted from the initial introduction/entry period (through about November of 2020) to the support and consultation period (through the end of the year). A shift from mass communications to more targeted communication (more likely with participating individuals and schools) appears evident.

More specifically, emails and phone calls constituted the bulk of the attempted communications during the introduction/recruitment period. Leaders were instructed to initially target schools that had never engaged with YSI, then move to those that engaged prior to but not including 2019-20, and finally to attempt to re=engage schools that participated in 2019-20. The vast majority of these time-consuming communications were not responded to, despite multiple follow-ups. As the focus shifted to support and consultation, phone calling was largely abandoned in favor of emailing and texting, in part as a function of having narrowed the scope to schools that were participating and now having a relationship with the target of the transaction. This reduced the volume of communications, but these transactions were far more likely to be interactive and fruitful.

Communications patterns with various role groups is portrayed in the next chart. During the initial phase of introduction and recruitment, the targets of most communications were principals and TY coordinators. There was a significant disparity of engagement relative to engagement of these two groups. Principals were virtually inaccessible. TY coordinators, in contrast, were much more readily accessible. Communications targeted to Junior cycle staff were more challenging and difficult to engage. In contrast, during the support and consultation phase, the overwhelming majority of communications were targeted toward YSI Guides and community members.

The final communications chart portrays the purpose of communication for the period of January through May of 2021, which primarily involved support and consultation activities. During this phase, local leaders were required to track every communication as to purpose, content, and result. Many of these extensive textual entries were logistical, some were conversation summaries, some informational, and often they recorded phone calls or emails that went unanswered. The purpose field was open-ended, rendering many entries unclassifiable. However, six broad categories emerged from the remainder.  Perhaps the most notable is the increasing use of online support as the process evolved.  

3. Growth Goal Attainment

The charts below summarise the extent to which Growth Project goals were attained across and within the target areas. In total, across the six target areas, in the prior academic year (2019/2020) 121 schools participated in YSI; during 2020, the number of participating schools increased to 151 in the target regions (an increase of 24.8%). More significantly, YSI and local leaders added 66 new schools relative to the prior academic year. This exceeded their target of adding an average of 10 new schools during the first year of operation. However, primarily due to the impact of the Pandemic, 17 of the new schools did not complete the programme and withdrew prior to year’s end.

The effect of the increases in participating schools is shown in the table below, indicating cumulative increases the number of students, Guides, and projects across the six regions. 

4. Engagement Maps

In the preceding section, entitled Growth Goal Attainment, bar graphs portray target area 2019-20 applications as compared with 2020/21 applications, new schools/sites in 2020/21 relative to the prior year, and patterns of withdrawals during the Pandemic year.

The maps that follow portray these same application/registration, new participant, and withdrawal data in geographical form.

·  The first map shows all schools/sites across the target regions and indicates whether the site prior engagement with YSI. Three categories of prior engagement are shown: (1) no prior engagement, (2) prior YSI engagement but not in 2019/2021 (the baseline year), and (3) engaged with YSI in 2019/20.

·  The second map portrays the schools/sites within the target regions that engaged in 2020/2021, indicating which YSI programme they applied for.

·  The third map shows new school sites recruited in 2020/2021 (relative to the baseline year) and indicates if the new site had engaged prior to 2019/2020. The map also shows which of these new sites withdrew over the course of the year.

To view the data layers that comprise each map individually, click “View larger map” and click on the arrow in the upper left corner, and select the data layer(s) to be viewed.

To view data points (locations) on each map more closely, zoom in by clicking on the "+" button.