Member maria
MemberForum Replies Created
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Hi everyone! Children First Canada is hosting a free two-day virtual summit for youth (from ages 12-18 across Canada), Youth Take Charge: Advocacy Incubator, on April 19th and 26th, from 11AM to 3PM ET. 💻📣✊
As adult allies of young people, we are on the frontlines and know the challenges young people in Canada face. One of the ways to support children and youth is to help them understand that they are not alone, and that collective action may help to reinforce a sense of belonging and hope. To work collectively, they also need the tools to amplify their voice. That is the ultimate goal of the Youth Take Charge: Advocacy Incubator.
The two-day event will feature incredible young keynote speakers, trainers, and facilitators, including Stephen Mensah of the Toronto Youth Cabinet. Sessions will be led by youth from partner organizations Jack.org, Leadnow.ca, and Amnesty International Canada, and will teach young people about strategy, the tools and tactics of making change, and how to communicate their message.
On Day 1, young people will work as teams to develop a campaign on an issue they care about (e.g., environment, poverty, racism). On Day 2, they will pitch their campaign to the other teams working on the same issue, and their peers will select the campaign to move forward.
Selected campaigns will then pitch to a panel of partner organizations that will select the campaign they will support after the event. All teams will be provided with a digital package of tools they can use if they want to continue to work on their campaigns after the event.
Young people can join as a team of 10, or, if they sign up individually, they will be grouped with others who are interested in the same issue.
Check it out and share with the young people in your networks!
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I definitely agree that the results should be presented through forms that youth gravitate towards. Some examples I have seen and used are short videos, graphic organizers, visuals and through storytelling as well if that is possible based on the results. I also believe (again depending on the content and results) having a hands on workshop could be beneficial to gain engagement and discuss critical components of the results would be beneficial.
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Data visualisation can be an engaging way to present findings. Infographics and interactive virtual visuals can be useful in communicating measured/gathered evidence of impact. Adding photos, videos, and personal connections to participants humanises the evaluation process, especially when the data/feedback is qualitative.
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We use a lot of visual graphics from Canva, Prezi and PowerPoint/Excel graphs to help numerical data be more digestable for our youth participants and external partners.
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Has anyone tried using pivot tables to analyze program data in spreadsheets? What are some pros and cons? (Using Spreadsheets in Program Evaluation Module 3 Discussion Topic)
Sonya Howard discussion post response:
Apart from this course, I haven’t actually had a chance or need to use pivot tables in order to analyze program data in spreadsheets. I keep meaning to teach myself how to do it using online resources, and this course is an excellent opportunity to try it.
I don’t really know the pros and cons of using pivot tables, beyond those mentioned in the lectures for the YouthREX course, Using Spreadsheets in Program Evaluation. One pro seems to be a quicker way of focusing in on and analyzing the data you may be most interested.
I am aware that there are some cloud-based tools, like Airtable, that may be perhaps more robust than a spreadsheet and that has some database-like functionality. From the minimal exposure I’ve had to Airtable, it seemed to take things perhaps a step further than pivot table, and allows the user to customize and program it even more. As robust as Airtable is, it does seem to take a lot of work and planning on the front end to develop the table exactly how you need. It also seems to involve a bit of a mental shift from 2-D spreadsheet to more of an almost 3-D view of connecting data across worksheets and databases (if that makes any sense.) It also costs money with an annual subscription (I believe) to set up and use (beyond perhaps a possible free smaller version; I’m not sure), but I think data can be imported up from Excel or Google Sheets into Airtable and exported back out again into a spreadsheet or possibly database format.
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I have seen some evaluators use Canva to develop clean, direct, and very engaging ways to present evaluation findings.
Eval Academy (run by Three Hive Consulting), for example, has a free pre-made Canva template for logic models available here: https://www.evalacademy.com/resources/canva-design-templates-for-creating-your-own-logic-model
They also have some tips for creating chart templates: https://www.evalacademy.com/articles/chart-templates-the-time-saver-you-should-be-using
They also have some data visualization tips (which are all very much along the same lines as those presented in the YouthREX course, Using Spreadsheets in Program Evaluation), plus links to additional data viz tools and websites at the bottom: https://www.evalacademy.com/articles/7-tips-for-better-data-visualizations
EvalAcademy has more free evaluation resources available on their website, https://www.evalacademy.com/resources-collection.
They also have a free monthly newsletter that anyone can sign up for where they share a roundup of evaluation tools, resources, events, and workshops, both domestically and internationally. The sign up is at the bottom of their website.
We All Count – Project for Data Equity also has free tools and resources on their website, as well as a newsletter: https://weallcount.com/tools/
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The individual delivery partners for the national Indigenous youth internship program I helped review do maintain an inventory, of sorts, of the program data it collects, to be able to report on their progress towards meeting expected results of the project management framework (PMF).
For each expected result (by ultimate outcome, intermediate outcome, and outputs), they list the indicators, baseline data (typically a quantitative number representing number and/or percentage related to that indicator), targets, data sources (interns, community members, participants in community activities supported by interns, program teams, overseas partners, programming team), and data collection methods (including things like interns final narrative report, end of project evaluation survey, pre- and post-internship self-assessment questionnaire, pre- and post-internship career assessment activity, project manager’s reports, interns’ reports, partners’ narrative and monthly reports, end of project survey and/or focus groups, internal reports, interns monthly and annual reports, overseas partners annual reports, and intern pre-departure and re-entry evaluations.)
Individual delivery partners may have more detailed data inventories they developed and use in-house to deliver and evaluate their own project delivery (for things like registration forms, training session evaluation forms completed by youth interns, work placement evaluation forms completed by youth interns, etc.) beyond this PMF that they report on and provide to their national funding department.
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*performance measurement framework (PMF)
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Data already collected
Rolled-up annual cohort data collected as part of national Indigenous youth internship program I helped review includes:
– total number of participants, status (number of early terminations, unemployed, student, employed)
– education or studies (high school, college, university completed, bachelor completed, masters/doctorate uncomplete, masters/doctorate completed)
– visible minorities (person with disability, women, other gender)
– early termination (number, reasons)
Individual program delivery partners collect additional data to be able to report on their progress towards meeting the expected results of the program’s project management framework. This data includes (non-exhaustive) items like youth-reported (male, female) improved skills in communication, critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, monitoring and evaluation, networking, and project management. Data collected also includes whether or not Indigenous youth interns have developed a career plan by the end of their internship.
Data could collect that not already
Based on the program review, additional data this program might consider collecting could be related to outcomes that Indigenous youth interns had identified as being most meaningful to them, which could include (non-exhaustive):
– Personal growth
– Spiritual growth
– Deep relationships with new groups of people (among participants, with mentors and Elders and/or with international co-participants)
– Self-confidence
– Stress management skills
– Capacity to leverage emotional growth into informed action
– Employment skills (e.g., planning, coordination, implementation of project, early childhood education, community mobilization
– Sense of self-direction in life and career and life aims
– Sense of self-agency and self-determination in moving through colonial impacts on their lives in relation to gender and social justice
– Awareness of self and family and community in context of shared Indigenous colonial experiences
– Motivation to contribute to community development back home
While many of these would typically be considered qualitative data, it might be possible to develop quantitative data measures for some items to ask youth interns pre and post if they have experienced any shifts in these items and if they could quantify how much, on a scale. This could be augmented by collecting qualitative data from the youth interns.
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This is a great question. Some strategies I have seen are;
Collapsing categories: If participant ethnicity is part of the data that is collected, perhaps, they can be collapsed into broader categories such as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino.
Regarding sharing this type of data, visualization is a great concept to adapt. The use of a Pie chart, and Barchart can be used to showcase the represented categories.
I am curious to hear other methods and concepts.
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In My role as an engagement lead, I see the significance of partnership with our EDI Coordinator to ensure meaningful engagement is happening and cultural relevance is being considered in the work we do. Thank you!
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I see how important letting the client lead the way and be the expert on their life and experience is to ensuring good care is offered along with educating staff to be aware of how to listen, check biases and advocate for black youth and their families. I see this as a huge opportunity for our organization.
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Check out Harnessing the Digital Community to Center Black Youth Wellbeing, DIVERT Mental Health‘s inaugural education session in honour of Black History/Futures Month, on Monday, February 13th, online, from 12PM to 1PM ET.
Panelists Dr. Uzo Anucha (Academic Director for YouthREX), Dr. Carol Wade (Academic Member, YouthREX), and Kamau Davis-Locke (Learning and Research Associate, YouthREX) will chat about their experience launching Centering Black Youth Wellbeing. They will reflect on the possibilities and limitations of anti-Black racism trainings, such as this certificate, to contribute to organizational equity shifts and overall knowledge, awareness, and sense of safety in organizations.
To participate, register as an Associate Fellow for DIVERT. It’s free and only takes a few minutes. After registering, you will receive a calendar invitation for the event within one business day. As a registered member, DIVERT will be keeping track of your attendance so that you can receive a record of attendance for these sessions. Each session will be live captioned in French.
DIVERT Mental Health, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Platform, is dedicated to disrupting mental health research and practice with children, youth, and families through integrating inclusivity and accessibility within university training programs and within communities of practice outside academia. Harnessing technology to increase the reach of the mental health system requires breaking down silos between disciplines, between universities, and between sectors. Their Associate Fellows stream is open to anyone and everyone interested in joining the DIVERT Mental Health training community as a learner, a mentor, or a teacher. Once registered, Associate Fellows get free access to DIVERT’s monthly virtual educational activities (one session and one professional development workshop a month), an invite to annual in-person regional meetings, and limited access to mentorship affinity groups with leaders in the field. Check it out!
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We wanted to share this opportunity to join DIVERT Mental Health‘s online community and to participate in their inaugural education session about YouthREX’s Centering Black Youth Wellbeing certificate.
In honour of Black History/Futures Month, DIVERT is launching their virtual educational series on mental health research and care that integrates inclusivity and technology (accessibility) with Harnessing the Digital Community to Center Black Youth Wellbeing (Monday, February 13th, online from 12PM to 1PM EST). Panelists Dr. Uzo Anucha (Academic Director for YouthREX), Dr. Carol Wade (Academic Member, YouthREX), and Kamau Davis-Locke (Learning and Research Associate, YouthREX) will chat about their experience launching Centering Black Youth Wellbeing. They will reflect on the possibilities and limitations of anti-Black racism trainings, such as this certificate, to contribute to organizational equity shifts and overall knowledge, awareness, and sense of safety in organizations.
To participate, register as an Associate Fellow for DIVERT. It’s free and only takes a few minutes. After registering, you will receive a calendar invitation for the event within one business day. As a registered member, DIVERT will be keeping track of your attendance so that you can receive a record of attendance for these sessions. Each session will be live captioned in French.
DIVERT Mental Health, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Platform, is dedicated to disrupting mental health research and practice with children, youth, and families through integrating inclusivity and accessibility within university training programs and within communities of practice outside academia. Harnessing technology to increase the reach of the mental health system requires breaking down silos between disciplines, between universities, and between sectors. Their Associate Fellows stream is open to anyone and everyone interested in joining the DIVERT Mental Health training community as a learner, a mentor, or a teacher. Once registered, Associate Fellows get free access to DIVERT’s monthly virtual educational activities (one session and one professional development workshop a month), an invite to annual in-person regional meetings, and limited access to mentorship affinity groups with leaders in the field. Check it out!
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Plan International Canada is hosting a Solutions Lab, a free program that supports young people to be active drivers of change, similar to a ‘hackathon’ or a ‘design jam’. 📢
The event is open to all youth in Canada between the ages of 14 to 24. This year, it will be in a hybrid format (online and in-person) and will take place on Saturday, February 25th, from 1PM to 5PM ET.
During this year’s event, youth participants will work to build their knowledge of the impact of social media on body confidence and self-esteem issues that affect girls globally, and how Plan International Canada works to address the issue. After doing so, they will work in teams to design innovative responses to the issues. They will then present to a panel of experts with the goal of receiving seed funding to bring their amazing ideas to life.
This event presents a great opportunity for young people to learn how they can get involved in issues they’re passionate about here in Canada and around the world, while also hearing from subject matter experts on strategies and tools young people can use to become active leaders. ✊
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Listening is very important when working with Youth in general but particularly with racialized Youth especially if they are subjected to prejudice and discrimination. Being able to hear their experiences of marginalization without responding with overwhelming anger is difficult but a key to creating a safe place.
Developing an anti-black racism strategy in my organization is very important in making sure we will address it in all aspects of our work.
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The first step to pro-actively designing pathways to inclusion in the youth sector is to make anti-black racism training programs mandatory for all youth workers from teachers to community center workers. It is also necessary for the youth sector to have specific anti-black racism policies that have consequences and are taken as seriously as bullying or sexual harassment.
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Research is a key element in DEI, particularly for a sensitive topic like racism. It allows the conversation to be more credible and less anecdotal, numbers also make issues less personal. Data make the case for the urgency of Black Racism in Ontario and the rest of Canada. It can challenge the denial of the discrimination happening nationwide and put pressure on lawmakers and politicians to make important changes. Data has no color and no loyalty, data is not politically correct or in denial, data depicts reality and is central to any in depth social change
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Dismantling Anti-Black Racism requires multifaceted efforts, however at its core is the importance of political organization and lobbying in order to change the laws, the policies, the educational system, the prison reform, the housing disparities, etc… Real change is not possible without leverage and political power, without it, anti-black racism initiatives are mostly performative.
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Anti-Black Racism is still a problem in Ontario due to the denial of different systems to acknowledge its presence and consequences and the refusal to take action and provide the necessary resources to counter it.
Although it has been a hot topic in the last 3 years, it is not considered by politicians, policymakers, and the overall population as an emergency issue.
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Anti-Black racism in Ontario has consistently failed to be addressed by politicians and policy-makers, and even when changes are made to recognize and change this they are often repealed when new conservative governments come into power. The 1992 Stephen Lewis report identified anti-Black racism as being a major issue in Ontario, and although recommendations were made, there was little lasting or effective change that came from this report due to the election of the Harris government 3 years after it was published. After the “summer of the gun” in 2005, the school resource officer (SRO) program was introduced and police officers were put into schools. The SRO program has since ceased due to the harm it caused racialized youth, specifically Black youth. Anti-Black racism in Ontario is a direct reflection of the widespread anti-Black racism in Canada.
Canada has always been seen as a polite and caring nation, so much so that many Canadians tend to joke about our overuse of the word “sorry”. Although interestingly enough this penchant for being overly apologetic cannot absolve Canada for its participation in the colonial project, anti-Black racist policies, and the systemic injustices that continue to be perpetuated by White supremacy. White supremacy has always been a key part of Canada’s nation-building and the erasure of Black contributions, histories and the communities themselves are no accident. The history of enslavement in Canada has been sanitized and re-packaged to a point where I have heard young children confidently proclaim that enslavement did not exist in Canada. This, of course, indicates a failure of our historical recollection and dissemination, but one that is as purposeful as it is harmful. The historical tradition of erasing Black voices is an attempt to silence those speaking today. The myth of racial tolerance has been weaved into our history books and it continues to shroud the existence of deeply systemic anti-Black racism in Canada and in our most populated province of Ontario. This exclusionary and inaccurate portrayal of Canadian history is easier for White Canadians digest because it means we don’t have to change, we don’t have to give up power and platform, and we don’t have to actively work to identify how we have benefitted from White supremacy. It is easier for us to utter a platitude that has become almost meaningless, but what is being sorry without working to change?
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Spread awareness, run campaigns to make public more aware of the issue of racism in Canada. We must not forget to check our own biases first.
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Anti-Black racism is still a problem in Ontario because it is not a one time fix thing. Continuous work needs to be done. There has to be policies, programs, training, etc. for everybody including authorities such as school authorities, police etc. to learn anti-racism practices and develop policies that would be more inclusive of black youth. Though, much have improved from past, but we still have a lot of racism issues going on in everyday lives of our black youth.
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There is immense research encompassing the negative effects of racism not only on the individual but also on their families. In schools when black students are disproportionately represented in suspension records, given harsher punishments than their white counterparts, are expelled from school often, criminally charged more than their white counterparts, it doesn’t only take an emotional, psychological toll on the individual but on their families too.
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As discussed in the lecture videos, ability criteria, hiring processes for youth jobs, etc. should not be based according to the white eligibility criterion. Black youth lived experiences and their challenges should be kept in mind and more inclusive approaches should be developed.
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I will try to keep my own biases under check because I believe this is the first thing I would need to be able to listen and understand the perspectives of black youth and to hear their stories/ lived experiences without judging them.
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One thing I can do is always remember that Black youth know what they need. Creating opportunities for them to have a voice and amplify that voice in spaces that they may not have access is something I start to work on immediately.
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Designing, creating, and offering spaces, services, programs for Black youth by Black youth. This can be done by actively engaging Black youth and their voices in the creation and implementation of services and programs, advocating for the resources needed to effectively do this work, and holding ourselves accountable to avoid “lip service” and the “tokenization” of Black youth, but also holding Black youth accountable to their full potential and power so they actively engage in challenging the sector to create pathways for their full inclusion and participation. The work is done as much for Black youth as it is by Black youth, and that’s the piece around empowerment, raising critical consciousness, and providing the pathway for Black youth to be active change agents in their lives, their communities, and society as whole.
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Canadian Friends Service Committee is looking for youth with experience growing up with incarcerated parents to join their Youth Advisory Group.
Youth participants will meet other young people with similar lived experiences, and work with others to improve conditions for children and youth with incarcerated parents in Canada.
Youth knowledge and participation will create informed conversations, help to raise awareness, and may influence policy and law, stopping the stigma and silence around children and families of incarcerated people by promoting:
- alternatives to prison
- family and community-based sentencing
- education and public awareness about children of incarcerated parents: keeping families together, children’s rights, impact, and trauma
- the need for a National Child Rights Commissioner
This opportunity is open to youth living in Canada, ages 14-18 and emerging adults (over 18). Honoraria will be provided. A trauma-informed approach (Safety, Trust, and Choice) will be used, and professional mental health support will be available for participants.
Contact Nancy at nancy@quakerservice.ca or at the CFSC office (416-920 5213).
Note that this group is only being offered to English-speaking participants.
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First, it is important that we engage with the available research on ABR and its effects on youth and their families with intention, setting aside time in our workday to engage with the literature, research findings, community voices and resources on ABR to increase our knowledge base so we can effectively challenge ABR, within our own individual work/lives, in our organization, the sector, and society in general. There are so many resources shared in the certificate modules, and YouthREX’s website and it’s important for me to continue learning and reflecting on my work with Black youth. I also got to reflect on not undermining anecdotal evidence in Module 4. Although we are a very scientific society now, and put a huge emphasis on data and research, there is still so much to learn from anecdotal evidence and the lived experiences of each Black youth we work with, especially when the data and research on this population is lacking, specifically in a Canadian context. It also got me reflecting on valuing intuitive understanding of the work, even when the data and research is lacking, especially from our own lived experiences and wisdom that comes from working in the sector over the years, and how one can implement that in their work without “comparing youth’s experience with yours,” and understanding every Black youth is a unique individual.
