Evaluation and Youth Work
How can evaluation support youth programs to share the REAL story of their programs? We invite you to... View more
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Organizational Capacity for Evaluation
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Organizational Capacity for Evaluation
One of the biggest barriers to evaluation work can be a lack of capacity (e.g., time, resources, and staff). Check out this article by Carmen and Fredericks (2010) that examines capacity for evaluation in non-profit organizations.
Article Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1098214009352361)
What are some barriers that your organization has experienced when it comes to evaluation?
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2 Replies
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In my experience working with small Grass Roots organization in the GTA, finding an independent evaluator that they can afford has been a big challenge and a topic of discussion among management that can sometimes drag on. Community non-profit organizations are underfunded as is and have taken big hits in recent years under the current Premier, allotting the time and resources necessary to undergo a proper evaluation can place extra stress onto organizations that already have their hands full keeping the doors open.
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Definitely, Caroline! Evaluation capacity is a big barrier to engaging in evaluation by too many youth programs. Two of the key findings from YouthREX’s Beyond Measure study that examined evaluation practices in youth organizations found that they do understand the benefits of evaluation and are enthusiastic about it but need evaluation processes and practices that can make evaluation less burdensome.
Let’s use this Community of Practice to share any processes and practices that make evaluation less burdensome.
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