Navigating Staff Turnover

In this episode, “Navigating Staff Turnover,” Elevate Youth Programming sat down with Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) grantees Melissa Ballard and Jill Gwilt from Mission West Virginia’s Teaching Health Instead of Nagging Kids (THINK) program to discuss program management and staff retention. Building a team of strong, consistent, youth-centered staff is essential to program implementation. The pandemic has increased challenges in staff recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction with employee turnover organizations have not experienced previously. The issue is compounded by taking longer to fill roles than pre-pandemic because of an expensive and competitive market, lack of clear career progression opportunities, unclear roles and responsibilities, lack of work/life balance, and a perceived lack of support from managers (Harvard Business Review, 2022, July). In this episode we speak with grantee Mission West Virginia to learn tips and strategies to increase staff retention, build organizational capacity, and deliver youth-centered programming. Ms. Ballard is a licensed social worker and serves as Program Manager for THINK. She has more than a decade of experience implementing and managing youth programs, including healthy relationship education, positive youth development, and APP. She manages 11 educators through 2 federal grants and 2 state grants that serve over 13,000 youth a year with full evidence-based curricula. Ms. Gwilt serves as the THINK Director. She is an innovative leader with 14 years of experience implementing and managing youth programs, including healthy relationship education, positive youth development, and APP. She oversees 2 federal grants and 2 state grants that serve over 13,000 youth a year with full evidence-based curricula. The Elevate Youth Programming podcast was developed by RTI International and funded by FYSB. The Elevate Youth Programming content does not reflect the opinions of FYSB nor its training and technical assistance contractors but offers topics to provoke thought and provide grantees with tips and strategies to enhance programming.