Youth Focused Evaluation TIG Week: Reflections on Working with Youth Evaluators by Holly Gavin

Date: Thursday, April 2, 2026

Youth Focused Evaluation Topical Interest Group is for Evaluation About Youth, for Youth, and with Youth. The Youth Focused Evaluation TIG aims to collaboratively create learning spaces for all evaluators and researchers (adult and youth) that focus on the practices and outcomes of positive youth development and participatory approaches across informal and formal contexts. The YFE-TIG speaks to youth and adult evaluators’ and researchers’ unique needs by promoting the development and use of responsive tools and methods leading to practical and transformative outcomes for young people. The YFE-TIG helps youth and adult evaluators and researchers develop effective practices in professional development, program quality, measurement, ethics, youth participation, and amplifying youth voice and power. Ultimately, we want to support more profound youth-informed or youth-led evaluation and decision-making.

Hi, my name is Holly Gavin and I am a Project Coordinator at Indiana University Southeast’s Applied Research and Education Center (AREC). Partnering with community and supporting the development of young professionals is at the heart of our work, so we were excited to embark on an innovation in our evaluation of a youth program – hiring youth to join the evaluation team. Today, I’ll be reflecting on our experiences and how we engaged youth as evaluators in our project.

Since 2021, our center partnered with the YMCA to evaluate their innovative teen program, the Teen Vibe Camp. The program’s evaluation includes methods designed with Youth-Engaged Participatory Action Research framework, meaningfully incorporating youth expertise and feedback with qualitative and quantitative methods.

During the AEA conference, it was always inspiring to talk to other evaluators employing youth in their evaluation in different ways – as advisors, as co-evaluators, or leading sub-projects within the evaluations. We knew we wanted to try it.

We started by utilizing an advisory approach, having in-depth conversations and feedback from our Youth Evaluators about evaluation methods and their relevance to youth today, program outcomes, and data findings exploration. We are also utilizing a hands-on project approach where youth co-develop instruments to evaluate a youth leadership event, implement those instruments to collect data, analyze data findings, and share back recommendations to program leaders.

Hot Tips

When designing what the Youth Evaluator role might look like, we took the following considerations:

• Transportation & Community Assets: To minimize the demand for transportation as much as possible, we chose meeting locations at YMCA branches closest to youth. We recognize transportation as the greatest barrier to participation for people in our region, especially young people.
• In-Person Collaboration: Work was conducted in six, two-hour sessions, with collaboration between youth and adult evaluators. We were open to meeting virtually if necessary, but prioritized in-person experiences. Access to technology and internet may be a barrier for low-income or under-resourced youth. Meeting in-person made it easier to use technology and perform demonstrations side-by-side, build rapport, and connect as a team.
• Compensation: With any demand of youth time and contribution, we respect that they are valuable, and choosing to show up is no small feat. Competitive compensation matched other local wages for jobs youth were likely to be working.
• Reciprocity: Our goal was to expose youth to ideas, networks, skills, and institutions they may not otherwise have access to, and to connect them with university opportunities, including a college tour.

Lessons Learned

• Team Building: Start meetings with youth with an icebreaker. Short cooperative games build community and rapport. This is especially helpful when the time meeting with youth is limited.
• Near-Peers: Near-peers (young adults closer to youth in age) are a great asset when working with youth. Having a range of intergenerational contributors bridges the gap between adult evaluators and youth.
• Adjust to Youth Needs & Capabilities: Make the work engaging and accessible – embrace a variety of modalities, movement, visuals, and activities. Be mindful of attention span and energy levels, and if there is a certain point you start to lose their engagement.
• Value Contributions: Show youth how their contributions are used and give them opportunities to present their work.

We seek to continue to grow and innovate our methods of engaging youth in evaluation, finding new ways to partner with youth with positive youth development and reciprocity at its center.

Rad Resources

Learn about WestEd’s work with youth co-evaluators

The American Evaluation Association is hosting YFE TIG Week with our colleagues in the Youth Focused Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our YFE TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.