The redesigned YOS and COS will be revealed to the BBBS network on August 5, 2020 and will go-live in Matchforce on August 31, 2020. These events are the culmination of over five months of intense work led by a diverse group of ten agency task force members. Let’s take a look at how the members of the YOS/COS Redesign Project agency task force feel about their work on the project.

After the final revisions were made to the new YOS and COS, each agency task force member was asked to complete a twelve-question anonymous survey about their experience working on the project. The information that follows is from the results of this survey.

At the beginning of work on the redesigned YOS and COS, the project team established the following four objectives for the project:

1. Address BBBS network concerns about the length of the YOS and COS
2. Address BBBS network concerns about the appropriateness of the YOS and COS
3. Maintain the reliability and validity of the YOS and COS as a research tool
4. Allow for the collection of data to meet the multiple needs of the BBBS network

The first set of questions on the post redesign survey asked agency task force members to rate on a scale of 1-10 (1 = Did not meet the objective at all, 10 = Completely met the objective) how well they believed the project had achieved these four objectives. The following table shows the results from these questions.

As these numbers indicate, the members of the YOS/COS agency task force strongly believe the project achieved its four objectives. This sentiment is echoed in many of the anonymous comments agency task force members provided on their surveys. In regards to the length of the redesigned YOS and COS, one task force member wrote, “Significantly shorter, streamlined responses, instructions, etc.” Another task force member wrote the following about the appropriateness of content of the redesigned YOS and COS, “I feel we did a great job of parsing through each and every question in relation to appropriateness of content.”

Another very important aspect of the YOS/COS Redesign Project is that it was an agency led initiative. The project was designed to allow agency task force members to be the final decision makers about what changes were made to the YOS and COS. About this matter, the post redesign survey asked agency task force members the following question:

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “Did not meet the goal at all” and 10 being “Completely met the goal,” how well do you believe the project achieved the goal of being 100% agency led?

The average response to this question was 8.6 and the median response was 9.0, indicating the members of the agency task force believe the project met the goal of being 100% agency led. This is also borne out in the comments of agency task force members. One task force member wrote, “Through surveys and task force voices, I feel this was completely led by agency voices.”

The final question on the post redesign survey asked task force members to rate on a scale of 1-10 (1 = Horrible, 10 = Fantastic) their overall experience serving on the YOS/COS Redesign Project agency task force. The average response for this question was 9.2 and the median score was 9. While this indicates the agency task force members had a good experience serving on the redesign task force, it does not necessarily mean the work was easy. As one task force member commented, “…it was very time consuming. I knew that going in, but the reality was even more brutal at times. Very worthwhile, but a heavy lift at a tough time.”

THANK YOU to all the agency task force members and National Office and external subjects matter experts who worked on the YOS/COS Redesign Project!

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.