Coaching Leadership on Collecting, Understanding, & Using Data

Easterseals Crossroads began in 1936 when Mrs. William E. Gavin headed a club of 12 teenagers with disabilities with the main goal of socialization. In 1939, the group became formally organized under the leadership of The Indiana Society for Crippled Children. A year later, it became an affiliate of what is now National Easterseals. Today, Easterseals Crossroads works with children and adults with disabilities and special needs and their families to promote growth, dignity and independence by providing appropriate and progressive services in central Indiana. 

In providing their services, Easterseals collects and uses a substantial amount of data. However, collecting data, using the provided databases, and understanding how to use the data to inform strategies often presents challenges to many of our nonprofit partners. 

To help Easterseals Crossroads overcome this issue, we created a coaching guide and held a training session for their program directors. Our coaching guide focused on three major training goals that included:

1. why data usage is important,

2. how to collect data and use the provided databases,

3. and how to use the collected data to inform insights on strategies and tactics.

We conducted an organizational analysis and survey to help inform the coaching guide created. 

After creating the coaching guide, we used it and insight from the Easterseals leadership team to craft a full training toolkit. We then held a training session in which we reviewed the toolkit and trained the Easterseals program directors. Finally, we conducted a survey to identify gaps and successes in the training program and then initiated a second training session to fill gaps.