Family and Young Person Feedback

Why Collect Family and Young Person Feedback?

CFES is a new initiative. It has been designed based on the first-hand experience and expertise of both service providers and ACS-involved families and young people. Its success relies on the continued input of these system participants and the iteration of its design based on that input.

In addition to data reporting from providers, it is essential to gather input from the families and young people being served by the program. What has their experience been like receiving support around Economic Security needs? What has made it successful? How could it be more successful?

Priority Areas of Desired Feedback

In order of priority, these were the five topic areas where ACS-connected family members most wanted to share feedback:

  1. Respect and Comfort: Did staff make you feel heard, respected, and not judged when sharing personal details?

  2. Accuracy of Needs: Did the provider correctly identify the specific things you actually needed (like food, housing, or childcare)?

  3. Final Results: Did the services actually help you meet your family's basic needs and feel more confident?

  4. Clear Explanations: Was it easy to understand why questions were being asked and what your next steps were?

  5. Hands-on Help: Did the ERN actually help you fill out forms, gather paperwork, or solve application problems?

Methods

ACS-connected family members reported willingness to provide feedback via a short survey. An SMS-based survey was most preferred. ACS and DSS would like to review the feedback collected through these surveys, but it  is not required for provider organizations to share it with them. 

Consider sending the survey as an SMS conversation (not a link) using a platform like one of the following:

Here is some sample text for the survey:

Message 1 (intro + consent)

Hi, this is [Agency Name]. We'd love to hear how things went with your worker — just 5 quick questions, reply with a number 1-5 (1 = not at all, 5 = completely). Reply STOP anytime to opt out.

  1. Did your team understand what you and your family needed?

  2. Did your team help you with paperwork or applications?

  3. Did your team explain things clearly, including what to expect next?

  4. Did the support you got make things easier for your family?

  5. Did you feel respected and heard when talking with your team?

Closing

Thanks so much — this really helps us do better.