In the ever-evolving landscape of non-profit organizations, the pursuit of meaningful impact remains at the core of their mission. Thrive International, as a newly built organization, had been looking for ways we can measure practical impacts and changes in people’s lives. At this juncture, Loan, a dedicated fellow from the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP), joined the Thrive team in September.

According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the “Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP) is a two-way U.S. Department of State exchange program (partnered with the University of Montana) designed to strengthen people-to-people ties between young leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and the United States.” This year, Thrive International, in collaboration with Gonzaga University and University of Montana, was able to host Loan as a YSEALI PFP fellow who led the process of Theory of Change, Logical Model, Indicators, and Evaluation Tools to guide us on how to strategically measure the impacts of our work.

Loan is a smart, kind-hearted professional from Hanoi, Vietnam. With her specialties in grant management and social work, she has dedicated almost 10 years as a youth development officer and social worker for children, youth, and families living in poverty. Loan also earned her master’s in social work through the sponsorship of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship in Sweden, Norway, and Portugal, so she has experience living in different countries and obtaining diverse perspectives on how to see the world around her.

As Loan worked with youth and families for her career, she was interested in Thrive’s work serving children, women, and families from different cultures and countries. Joining Thrive, she saw a need for measurement and evaluation tools based on the framework of the Theory of Change. After having several meetings with Executive Director Mark and Director of Development Emily, Loan started her journey at Thrive to empower our staff to learn how to set goals, indicators, and measurement tools to help more families in effective ways. Thrive International's management team had high hopes for the fellowship, setting clear expectations and milestones for the collaboration.

Loan's unique perspective and experiences breathed new life into Thrive. At the staff meeting In the third week of September, Loan gave a thorough presentation exploring what “Thriving” means to staff. Although all of our staff work with passion to empower refugee/immigrant families to move from surviving to thriving, it was a meaningful time for the staff to deeply think about what it means to “thrive.” During that time, the staff split into departments and set specific goals and plans to achieve “thriving.”

In the first week of October, Loan gave Thrive a final presentation with specific guidelines to follow to measure “thriving” in the communities we serve. She brought a professionally organized introduction of Thrive International with a specified vision, mission, strategies, activities, and outcomes. Not only that, but Loan also contributed in developing  indicators, logic models, and wellness wheel assessments framework for Thrive.

Since Loan was here, Thrive was able to take one more step on a thriving journey. In turn, Loan also learned a valuable lesson from Thrive. She spent long years of her studies learning the Theory of Change and other tools, but explaining what she had learned was not easy. To let Thrive staff know about the Theory of Change and related concepts, Loan had to spend hours delivering the key message from the theory in simpler words. She said, “I mastered the process now. Later, I can apply this to other works. I can always adopt this approach to develop strategies for a certain service wherever I work. This is the biggest takeaway.”

Throughout her fellowship journey, Loan appreciated Thrive for welcoming her. She said, “I felt like I was welcomed by all the staff, and they were really friendly. I love working for Thrive because I feel like the team here is really warm-hearted.” Learning deeply about what Thrive does, she was also impressed by Thrive’s passion and idea of using a vacant hotel as a transitional housing for refugees.

Thrive International's collaboration with Loan not only helped them discover clear goals, indicators, and measurements of success but also enriched their perspective and rekindled their passion for the mission. This remarkable partnership serves as a testament to the power of global connections and the limitless potential for positive change when individuals come together to make a difference.