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Session Title: Building Capacity for Youth Participatory Evaluation
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Panel Session 401 to be held in REPUBLIC C on Thursday, Nov 11, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Jane Powers, Cornell University, jlp5@cornell.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Shep Zeldin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, rszeldin@wisc.edu
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| Abstract:
As the field of Youth Participatory Evaluation (YPE) has grown, a variety of resources have been developed to support its implementation and enhance its practice. Our four panelists have had extensive experience engaging youth in a variety of participatory evaluation projects, roles and contexts (including cyber environments). They will describe effective training approaches and strategies, and share their collective lessons learned in building the capacity of youth and adults to carry out YPE efforts. This will include their experience with proven effective curricula, tools, and processes, and recommendations on how to successfully conduct YPE in a high quality, authentic manner. There will be ample time for dialogue with the audience to enable discussion about the application of these resources to potential YPE efforts.
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Putting Evaluation Into the Hands of Children and Youth: Are We Ready?
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| Kim Sabo Flores, Evaluation Access and ActKnowledge, kimsabo@aol.com
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Over the years, my colleagues at the Center for Human Environments and I have been developing tool kits and curricula to support both national and international efforts in youth-led evaluation and research. YEA! (Youth Evaluation Access) is the result of our of research, exploration and experimentation in working with hundreds of youth-led evaluation and research teams. YEA is an online learning community that offers specific workshops, coaching, and resources for children, youth, and their adult allies to evaluate their own programs and organizations.
The presenter will share the various elements of this online coaching and training tool, including the real-time face-to-face meeting space, the online interactive website, blogging and networking features, and the resource center. In addition, the presenter will discuss some of the possibilities and challenges of working with youth evaluation teams in this type of cyber environment
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Personal and Contextual Relationships That Affect Youth Participatory Evaluation
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| David White, Oregon State University, david.white@oregonstate.edu
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Youth participatory evaluation (YPE) is an inherently personal and social enterprise. Youth conducting research and evaluation bring with them the totality of their personal and contextual relationships. Why do some youth achieve a level of success as youth researchers and evaluators while others do not? Adolescent realities and adultism significantly impact youth-led initiatives. Youth conducting research and evaluation still operate in an adult-led world where the power differential is a significant barrier to YPE. With adult assistance, motivation, and encouragement, our adolescent colleagues can see youth-led research and evaluation projects through tough and trying times. Several procedural and methodological recommendations are proposed that are intended to improve the transformative and practical benefits of youth participatory evaluation. These recommendations are based on experience working with senior 4-H youth trained in YPE using Participatory evaluation with youth: Building skills for youth community action by Arnold & Wells (2007).
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Participatory Evaluation With Youth: Education, Training, and Capacity Building for Change
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| Katie Richards-Schuster, University of Michigan, kers@umich.edu
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| Berry Checkoway, University of Michigan, barrych@umich.edu
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In this presentation, we share lessons learned from a three-year program to build the capacity of young people to engage in participatory evaluation research. The program, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, engaged youth-led and intergenerational teams in intensive regional and national education and training workshops.
Using our workbook Participatory Evaluation With Young People as a basic framework, we developed a set of workshop principles and basic curriculum. We collaborated with community partners to host local, regional, and national workshops focused on building youth leadership for change, developing practical skills for research and evaluation, and creating evaluation plans for community action.
This presentation will describe the program’s goals, activities and outcomes; analyze factors that facilitate education and training programs, and provide observations about lessons learned for future efforts.
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Enhancing Program Quality Through Engaging Youth in Evaluation
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| Jane Powers, Cornell University, jlp5@cornell.edu
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| Shep Zeldin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, rszeldin@wisc.edu
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The Youth Adult Leaders for Program Excellence (YALPE) Resource Kit helps youth-serving organizations enhance program quality by building their capacity to engage youth in evaluation and research. This innovative resource provides a simple, structured way for youth-serving organizations to conduct rigorous self-assessment in order to strengthen their programming, including maximizing youth participation, youth voice, and youth/adult partnerships. A key component of the approach is the formation of youth/adult teams which are trained to lead organizations through an evaluation process that involves self assessment and reflection. It provides easily accessible instruction on how to use the assessment findings to guide action planning and create organizational change. The YALPE has been used across a full range of contexts from after-school programs, to community-based organizations, to residential settings. Examples of its successful use will be presented highlighting how it enhances youth participation and builds capacity for programs to conduct Youth Participatory Evaluation.
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