Later this summer, the Big Brothers Big Sisters network will begin using redesigned versions of the Youth and Child Outcome Surveys (YOS and COS). By the time these new surveys go live in late August or early September, their redesign will be a little over a year in the making.

The redesign of the YOS and COS has its roots in last year’s BBBS National Conference. During this conference, several BBBS agencies expressed concerns to National Office leadership about difficulties administering the current versions of the surveys. Shortly after last year’s National Conference, BBBSA hired the project and change management firm True Owl to create a comprehensive plan for the redesign of the YOS and COS. The resulting plan was approved by BBBSA leadership in December 2019.

Immediately following the approval of the project plan, work began on pulling together a team to execute the redesign of the YOS and COS. Headed by BBBSA Chief Agency Officer, Mandy Bisceglia, and then BBBSA Associate Director of Research and Evaluation, Jessica Mitchell, the final YOS/COS redesign project team consisted of 13 BBBS agency staff members tasked with making final determinations of what changes to make to the surveys and 12 National Office and external subject matter experts in supporting, non-decision making roles.

The project team began work on redesigning the YOS and COS with a two-day onsite meeting at the BBBS National Office in early February 2020. Through March 2020, the team met virtually two times per week to produce the first drafts of the redesigned YOS and COS. These drafts were released to the entire BBBS network for review and comment in late March 2020. In April 2020, the project team turned its attention to drafting the final versions of the redesigned YOS and COS. These final surveys will be revealed to the BBBS network in late July 2020.

The work of the YOS/COS redesign team was extensively guided by direct input from the BBBS network. Much of this input was gathered by three surveys that were conducted in association with the redesign effort. The first of these surveys, the “YOS and COS Sentiment Survey”, was conducted in November 2019. This survey aimed to determine the extent of network concern regarding the current versions of the YOS and COS. The results of this survey were used extensively in planning the overall YOS/COS redesign effort as well as in drafting the first versions of the redesigned surveys. The second survey of the BBBS network, the “YOS and COS Content Survey”, was conducted in January 2020. This survey sought to determine in more detail the specific changes to the YOS and COS desired by the BBBS network. Like the results of the Sentiment Survey, the results of this survey were used extensively in creating the first drafts of the redesigned YOS and COS. The final survey of the BBBS network, the “Draft YOS and COS Content Survey”, accompanied the release of the draft versions of new YOS and COS and sought to determine what additional changes to the surveys were required to meet the needs of BBBS agencies. The results of this survey were the primary driver for the changes made to the draft surveys during the final editing process.

This brings us to where we are currently at in the redesign of the YOS and COS. The final versions of the new surveys are almost complete and will be revealed to the BBBS network in late July 2020. Training on the new surveys will begin in early August and continue through the go-live of the surveys in late August or early September.

If you have any questions about the redesign of the YOS and COS, please email the project team by clicking here. We will get back to you as soon as possible.