Youth Participatory Evaluation

Youth Participatory Evaluation: Strategies for Engaging Young People is a groundbreaking book that provides step-by-step, playful, and accessible activities that have proven effective and can be used by evaluators, educators, youth workers, researchers, funders, and children’s and human rights advocates in their efforts to more effectively engage young people.

Preface x

The Author xiii

Foreword by Naomi Ortiz xiv

PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS OF YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION

CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION 3

What Is Youth Participatory Evaluation? 6

The Benefits of Youth Participatory Evaluation 9

CHAPTER TWO: DEVELOPMENT, PLAY, AND PERFORMANCE 19

Development and Play 24

Transformation of Totalities and Development 26

PART TWO: DESIGNING AND CONDUCTING YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION PROJECTS

CHAPTER THREE: STARTING YOUR OWN YPE PROJECT 35

Do Youth Really Want to Participate in Evaluation? 36

Which Youth Should Participate? 37

How Many Youth Should Be Involved? 38

Should Youth Be Compensated for Their Participation? 38

How Old Does Someone Have to Be to Participate? 39

What Is the Value of Engaging Youth of Different Ages and Capacities? 40

Can Young People Really Conduct Effective and Useful Evaluations That We Can Trust? 40

Who Should Facilitate the YPE Process? 41

What Happens When a YPE Project Is Conducted in a Program That Is Not Participatory? 41

How Do We Engage and Prepare Additional Stakeholders in the Process, Particularly Those in Positions of Power? 44

CHAPTER FOUR: DEVELOPING THE ENSEMBLE YPE TEAM 45

Getting Started 46

Moving from Adult Facilitator to Performance Director 47

Discovering All That the YPE Team Members Have to Offer 49

Performing the Ensemble 55

Creating the Environment 60

Monitoring the Ensemble 66

Summary 72

CHAPTER FIVE: DEVELOPING A YPE PLAN 73

Articulating How Your Program Operates 76

Formulating Evaluation Questions 86

CHAPTER SIX: TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE AS INTERVIEWERS 90

CHAPTER SEVEN: TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE AS CREATIVE FOCUS GROUP FACILITATORS 102

Helping Young People Conduct Focus Groups 104

Creative Group and Focus Group Activities 110

CHAPTER EIGHT: WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE TO DEVELOP SURVEYS 117

Hints for Creating and Administering Surveys 119

Creative Approaches to Surveying 125

CHAPTER NINE: USING PERFORMANCE AS A DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY 130

CHAPTER TEN: USING JOURNALING IN EVALUATION 140

CHAPTER ELEVEN: APPROACHING DATA ANALYSIS AND REPORT WRITING CREATIVELY 146

Creative Approaches to Data Analysis 147

Creative Strategies for Presenting Data 155

CHAPTER TWELVE: ENCOURAGEMENTS 160

Five Tips for Maintaining Your Performatory Posture 162

Concluding Thought 164

Appendix A: Tips for the Interviewer 165

Tips for the Note Taker 167

Appendix B: Tips for Conducting Focus Groups 168

Tips for the Facilitator 169

Tips for the Note Taker 170

Appendix C: How to Determine the Appropriate Sample Size 171

References 173

Index 176

"… serves as a good resource for practitioners looking to engage youth in both evaluation and research." (Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, March 2008) Kim Sabo Flores is the founder and principal of Kim Sabo Flores Consulting. She generates collaborative projects that educate not only program staff but also their funders about ways that participatory evaluation can help to build organizational capacity.

Youth Participatory Evaluation

Youth Participatory Evaluation: Strategies for Engaging Young People is a groundbreaking book that provides step-by-step, playful, and accessible activities that have proven effective and can be used by evaluators, educators, youth workers, researchers, funders, and children's and human rights advocates in their efforts to more effectively engage young people.

Youth Participatory Evaluation brings a much-needed theoretical framework to the important new field of YPE. Drawing on theories of children's play, evaluation, and youth development, the book outlines evidence that including youth as members of participatory evaluation teams benefits young people, their programs and communities, and the field of evaluation itself.

Praise for Youth Participatory Evaluation

"This is a step-by-step guide to using Kim Sabo Flores' practical and playful tools for engaging youth, but also a passionate message about young people's capacity and desire to develop through performing."

Lois Holzman, director, East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy

"Dr. Sabo Flores does an excellent job of laying out the process of participatory evaluation and how to make it an inclusive, relevant, and valuable experience for both adults and young people."

Anne H. Lawrence, program officer, the Robert Browne Foundation

"Youth Participatory Evaluation demonstrates what youth can do with the tool of self-assessment. The ripple effect of this work in the pond of evaluation thought is deep and far reaching. It begs the question: if youth can do it to improve their lives, why can't adults use empowerment and participatory approaches to take control of their lives as well?"

David Fetterman, director of evaluation, School of Medicine, Stanford University and past president, American Evaluation Association

"As youth participatory evaluation emerges from youth development, community participation, and program evaluation, this book will advance its understanding as an interdisciplinary field of practice and subject of study."

Barry Checkoway, professor of social work, University of Michigan, and author, Participatory Evaluation with Young People