I love how you represented evaluation as an experience in this metaphor. Awesome, Jayal!

Absolutely, Satabdi! And similar to board games, we’re given some instructions at the beginning on how to start, but we don’t know where we will end up!

This is such a nice interpretation, Ivy. Thanks for sharing!

Love this! And if I might add, sometimes there are some tears involved 😉 JK!

And as we see with evaluation, some of the best learning comes from those unexpected instances!

Not far-fetched at all, Jeannie 😀 I love how this metaphor provides a more broad conceptualization of the evaluation process and highlights the importance of effective communication within it.

Definitely agree with you here, Alexandra! Evaluation can be an extremely powerful tool for unlocking important information.

Love the concept of an “adventurous” roadmap! 🙂

I love this idea of a “wrap-party”. Thanks for sharing this, Jayal. Do you have any tips for others interested in using a similar approach?

Absolutely, Daniel. Your target audience is key! I’m still trying to learn the ins and outs of TikTok since it certainly is the popular platform for youth 🙂

That’s great, Marco! Sounds like your organization is already collecting a lot of valuable data. I like how you mentioned registration/attendance records- this is a source of data that a lot of organizations collect that they forget can be used for evaluation purposes!

Thanks for sharing, Jayal. Almost everything you shared can be categorized as a lack of capacity for evaluation, which is one of the biggest barriers that a lot of organizations experience. Whether it’s time, human resources, money or knowledge, there are many aspects that go into successful evaluation design, planning, and implementation!

Fantastic point about creating a safe, trusting environment. This is foundational not only for boosting incentive to participate, but for youth to feel comfortable sharing open, honest feedback as well.

Yes! While we’d love all of our youth to participate in evaluation, we want to make it clear that participation is not mandatory.

Good point, Daniel. I’d argue that a lot of adults feel this around sharing feedback too!

All excellent points, Marco!

Hi, Sheila! This is a great question to ask. I’ll share one barrier that I’ve encountered as someone who helps sports organizations with their evaluations. Some of the groups I’ve worked with have specific outcomes they want to measure through their programs, but there is no sport-specific evaluation tool (e.g., survey) available for them to…

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This is also a great one. Thanks, TP! You’re absolutely right- evaluation plans give us an idea of the outcomes we want to see from a program, but there is no guarantee that those outcomes will be achieved.

Love this analogy, Stephanie. I like your inclusion of roadblocks- it shows that you understand how evaluation is not always “perfect”. Roadblocks are a natural part of the evaluation process and don’t deter us from getting to our destination!

This is a “sweet”metaphor, Andrew! Thanks for sharing. If only all evaluations actually included cake!

Absolutely, Lulu! And you bring up an excellent point here- evaluating our programs can simultaneously allow us to “evaluate our evaluations”. Are we asking the right questions? Are we using the right methods? Sometimes an unexpected learning curve can happen that enables us to rework evaluation components for the future!

How do you go from moving evaluation being the “downer” of your organizational meetings to being the “fun” part? In this short blog post by Dr. Joanna Prout (lead evaluator for the National Center for School Mental Health), two simple tricks are provided to leverage data visualization in your next evaluation meeting.

Link: …

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Youth-serving organizations benefit from effective and cost-efficient solutions to build evidence and
advance their impact. Evaluation advisory boards (EABs) are a low-
cost solution to add evaluation capacity and can be mutually beneficial to both youth-serving
organizations and evaluation experts. Check out the article (linked below) to…

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YouthREX is excited to partner with professional information designer Chris Lysy
to offer two interactive webinars to support your youth program evaluations: User Experience (UX) Evaluation and Creative Reporting in Evaulation. To learn more about what each webinar involves, please visit https://youthrex.com/webinars/.

🔗Register for User…

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Program evaluation is important for youth sector stakeholders, but it can be tricky remembering its various components. Our team at YouthREX has created a user-friendly glossary that provides a summary of all of the key evaluation terms. Check it out below!

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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…

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