A group of women from different backgrounds stand together with their arms around each other
January 29, 2019 - 4:20pm

Happy 2019! Here in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the weather has turned chilly, we’re reflecting on last year and turning to our hopes and goals for 2019.

Top 10 Mindful Moments of 2018
December 19, 2018 - 1:57pm

As 2018 comes to a close, we at IG are enjoying reflecting on a full, successful, and transformative year. As you may remember, we proclaimed 2018 the Year of Mindfulness. We found mindfulness to be a helpful tool as we grew as a staff, restructured our project teams, and relied on each other through challenges and busy times. With that in mind, here are our top 10 mindful moments from this year …

Headshot of Kayla Meyers
December 19, 2018 - 1:42pm

Headshot of Kayla MeyersHi! I’m Kayla Meyers, a senior consultant here at IG.

Quote from Leah Goldstein Moses that says "Being able to influence equity at this level is really powerful. Because Committee members represent such diverse areas of expertise and experience, we can be really creative in how the Met Council's work can promote greater equity"
December 19, 2018 - 1:28pm

ST. PAUL, Minnesota – The Twin Cities Metropolitan Council’s Equity Advisory Committee has invited Leah Goldstein Moses, Founder and CEO of The Improve Group, a locally based research and evaluation consulting firm, to join the committee and contribute to its work.

A collage of two images, the left image is a picture of IG Intern Sadman Rahman working with an MCN attendee on a data collection activity, the image on the right depicts IG Intern Yazmin Cespedes and IG CEO Leah Goldstein Moses helping a guest use the Hope-O-Meter
November 21, 2018 - 9:52am

Hope Bingo

Image of two banners from a mindfulness event we held at the AEA conference with a title that says "How can mindfulness make you a better evaluator?"
November 20, 2018 - 1:11pm

Earlier this fall at the American Evaluation Association conference in Cleveland, The Improve Group hosted a Mindfulness Space. In partnership with AEA, we created a calm space near some natural light (and a surprise urban farm in the area outside!) with meditation resources, an activities table, fruit-infused water, and other resources for mindfulness. We see mindfulness as closely tied with our value of thoughtfulness and wanted to create a space for conference attendees to take a mindful moment amid the conference.

Image of Alyssa Scott providing feedback to a student in Kenya as part of her photo storytelling project.
October 30, 2018 - 11:53am

My name is Alyssa Scott, and I’m an Associate Writer here at The Improve Group. Being a writer, my relationship to evaluation is different than our consultants because I write about the results of an evaluation rather than conduct or facilitate the evaluation process. But the influence of evaluation is present everywhere, and I want to share a recent experience I had testing out my idea for a photo storytelling project for two different international NGOs, one in Kenya and one in Tanzania.

Headshot of Christen Pentek
October 30, 2018 - 11:08am

Christen Pentek HeadshotHi! I’m Christen Pentek, an associate consultant here at IG. Following the theme of our article of the month on using photos in evaluation, I want to tell you about PhotoVoice, a data collection method that engages participants in taking photos and describing them in their own words.

Graphic Image that says "Conference Season is Coming..."
September 25, 2018 - 11:02am

The Improve Group is preparing for a flurry of presentations and trainings. Here is where you will find us this conference season:

Graphic of an animal meditating with a title that states "Stay Mindful This Conference Season"
September 25, 2018 - 10:48am

For many of us, the upcoming months are full of conferences. It’s an exciting time—this flurry of activity can easily make one want to learn everything! Meet everyone! Network everywhere! But all too often, conferences can leave us feeling overwhelmed with information.

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