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Program Monitoring And Evaluation – What Outcomes Are You Expecting?

April 11, 2012 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Program monitoring and evaluation
To get from A to B in your youth work program, you need to know what B is

I read about a study conducted about the organization One Laptop per Child (OLPC), which explored the value of their work since it hasn’t resulted in improved test scores.

It also posed the question as to whether or not the $200 invested in providing the laptops in the developing world was the best use of that aid money. Finally, it concluded that computers aren’t going to fix education, but will enhance positively or negatively the training already being delivered.

The article ended with the following question:

“Should the lack of evidence that students learn better with NCLB [No Child Left Behind] laptops change this equation, or are the benefits of individual laptops that can’t necessarily be measured more important?”

I’ll be honest, the article didn’t really work for me for a number of reasons, although none of those are why I’m writing this post. While I thought the questions raised in the study might have been worthwhile, and the question at the end of the article is also an important one, the bigger issue I took with both the study and the article is this: The questions being asked weren’t promising to be answered in the first place by One Laptop per Child or No Child Left Behind.  

One Laptop per Child’s aim is:

“to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.”

They are trying to engage children around the world in education and provide the access to technology and connectivity they might otherwise not have. They aren’t trying to improve test scores.

Now, No Child Left Behind is trying to improve test scores.  But there isn’t a mandate to do it by providing children with laptops. Some school boards are trying it. They are accessing the available programs and technologies available for their students in an effort to improve test scores, but they’re not promising to do it solely through the laptops.

Again, these aims show that neither OLPC nor NCLB is saying that providing laptops will improve test scores. At least, not in their mission or goal statements. Yet the value of the programming is being studied and critiqued based on that standard.

This got me thinking about youth work program monitoring and evaluation.

Make sure that what you’re monitoring and evaluating is what you are actually trying to achieve.

We’ve mentioned setting SMART and SMARTER targets before. By having specific and measurable goals, it’s much easier to see if you are achieving them. Make sure you set goals for any area you want to track improvement in.

If you want to see an improvement in attendance, set goals and track attendance.

If you want to see an improvement in youth behavior, conduct a pre and post assessment to measure behavioral changes in youth.

Don’t set a goal for attendance at the beginning of the year and then evaluate youth behavior at the end of the year. Track and monitor attendance and then evaluate the methods you did or didn’t use in order to improve or increase attendance. Set the standard for what you want to achieve in your program and then track, monitor and evaluate that standard.

If you’re going to evaluate your project, make sure you know what you’re actually trying to prove or disprove. Don’t set one goal and evaluate another.

Do you need help with youth work program monitoring and evaluation? Contact us today!

Question: What goals do you have for your youth program this year? Do you conduct program monitoring and evaluation? If you do, what trends are you seeing? If you aren’t, is there a reason?

You can also connect with us by:

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Top 5 Youth Work Administration Posts

February 22, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Use these youth work administration tips so you don’t end up like this

On Wednesdays, we like to give ideas for youth work administration – sometimes it’ll be tips for how to deal with paperwork, other times useful online resources for youth workers, etc.

Below, we’ve got our top 5 youth work administration posts, based on the number of page views for each one.

1) Create a SMART plan for your youth work

Maybe you’ve heard of SMART plans, maybe you haven’t. This post has essential information though if you want to have youth work aims and objectives that actually achieve something.

2) 3 free online tools to help your youth work

This post has three great online programs to use that can simplify your youth work administration (and your personal life).

3) Steps to planning a youth work session

This post does exactly that – goes through steps to take when planning a youth work session plan. This includes incorporating content for youth with different learning styles, how much time to allow for, activities, etc.

4) 3 steps to better time management for youth workers

Do you find it hard to be on time for meetings? Do deadlines come and go in a flash? Do misunderstandings occur at your organization due to you not knowing each other’s plans and schedules? Use these 3 steps to help remedy these common issues.

5) Not just SMART but SMARTER targets

We’ve already covered SMART plans above, but why not make your plans SMARTER?

 

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
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Basic Strategic Youth Work Planning Part 1

November 30, 2011 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Youth work planning
Become a Strategic Planning Grand Master

Youth work planning for the long term is vital for organizations and youth programs of any size.

This doesn’t mean that you need a lot of target-based youth work provision that only focuses on numbers or ‘butts on seats’. It means that by setting a few goals, you’ll have more focused, cohesive and holistic youth work, which will in turn provide better support and opportunities for your youth, volunteers and other youth workers.

There are two types of long-term youth work planning:

Long-range Planning

This is a way of planning that focuses on the future vision of your organization or youth program. The question it asks and answers is ‘What do I want this organization/program to look like in ‘X’ amount of time (usually 3-5 years)?’

Long-range youth work planning focuses on creating the vision for the organization or program. While it can be more vague than annual or operational planning, it creates aims, SMART objectives and timelines for future development.

Strategic Planning

Strategic youth work planning focuses on how you’ll practically achieve the vision you’ve determined for your program or organization. The question it asks and answers is ‘What are we actually going to do and how can we measure it, to ensure our organization/program looks like ‘this (insert vision here)’ in ‘X’ amount of time?’

Strategic youth work planning therefore focuses on the guidelines, policies and procedures needed to achieve goals and realize the program or organization’s vision.

A new calendar year is approaching, or maybe you’re reading this because your new school year or fiscal year is approaching. All are good times to consider planning. Even though the types of youth work planning above are considered long-term, you can use the principles to create school term, quarterly or annual plans for your youth work programs.

Over time we’ll provide more ways to plan, more comprehensive planning options and more examples, but over the next two Wednesdays we’ll provide a basic 2-page strategic planning worksheet to help get you started – you can find part 2 here and part 3 here.

Question: Do you think strategic youth work planning is important? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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How To Create A Youth Work Session Plan – Part 2

September 28, 2011 By Shae Pepper 2 Comments

How to create a youth work session planLast week we shared the first 7 items to include when creating a youth work session plan.

Here are the other 7 items I include in my youth session plans – not only do they help me plan accurately for most eventualities in a session, they provide a log for monitoring and evaluation that helps with my reporting for internal and external stakeholders.

 

  1. Aims – The goal for each activity (e.g. Ball Name Game – Each person to learn the names of everyone else in the group)
  2. Objectives – Identify how you know the goal was met (e.g. 100% participation in activity). Remember to set SMART Targets or SMARTER Targets
  3. Teaching Syle or Group Facilitation Method – Write down if it’s a group discussion, individual activity, worksheet or lecture-style activity. This helps me to mix up the activities for each youth work session, ensuring we don’t just have discussions or only activities
  4. Learning Style – We’ll talk more about youth learning styles in coming posts, but I would identify if an activity was designed for auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners. This helps keep activities relevant for all learners, ensuring maximum learning potential
  5. Risk Assessment – Does the activity need a risk assessment? If so, you can link to the document that includes the risk assessment
  6. Notes – A section to jot down ideas that you might want to make sure you cover during the activity
  7. Session Evaluation – A youth work session evaluation should be done to evaluate each activity at the end of the session with the other staff available (and youth evaluations) to inform future programs and keep records for reporting.
Question: What do you include in your youth work session plans? Let us and other youth workers know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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Not Just SMART But SMARTER Targets And Goals

September 14, 2011 By Shae Pepper 2 Comments

SMARTER targets in youth workIn a previous post we talked about how to create SMART targets for your youth work.  Well, why just work SMART if you can work SMARTER?

We start with the same SMART acronym:

S – Specific

M – Measureable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Timebound

but now we add the ER to make SMARTER targets:

E is for Evaluate

Come back and evaluate the success or areas for improvement within your goal and target setting. For example:

  • I want to increase attendance at my youth group by 20% by May 15 next year. You can evaluate both during and at the end of your SMARTER target’s timeline. Therefore, in December of the previous year you might evaluate how close you are to achieving that goal. Maybe you increased by 18% – decide what worked well and what didn’t and how you might achieve the other 2% growth by May. Or maybe you increased your attendance by 50% and it’s time to set a new goal for May. Monitoring and Evaluation is a fluid process and should be happening regularly in your youth work.

R is for Reassess or Re-evaluate (it can also mean Record)

Once you reach the time allotted for achieving your goal (remember T in SMART is for time-bound), take the time to reassess the goals for your program, your youth work and any personal goals you may have had as a practitioner.

Even if you didn’t reach your goals, take the time to re-evaluate what went well and what could be improved (use the SMART acronym to help you identify areas for improvement: was it Specific, Measurable, etc.) and how you might achieve the goal the next time around.

You might also find that this is the time (as well as throughout the process) to record your youth work in a report form, case studies or other measuring tool to identify which goals you reached, which you did not and why. This helps create evidence-based programs which will give support to funding applications and requests to continue with programs within your organization.

  • Reassess all of your goals at the end of the time you have given yourself to achieve each one. Record the outcomes in a report or spreadsheet. Did you grow your youth group by 20% by May of the following year? What are some case studies of the change that was affected by your program in the lives of your young people during that time?

Creating SMARTER targets will help you work within a framework for creating, managing, evaluating and recording goals for your youth group or youth program.

If you would like further support in creating SMARTER targets or helping you with the monitoring and evaluation of your project, please check out our consultancy services or contact us to schedule a free 30-minute virtual consultation.

Question: How have you used SMARTER targets for your youth work? Has it helped? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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501 Would You Rather Questions

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas

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How To Plan A Youth Retreat

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