The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Volume VII, Number 2, Spring 2001
Issue Topic: Out-of-School Time Issue #2
Promising Practices
Pizza, Transportation, and Transformation: Youth Involvement in Evaluation and Research
Jennifer Smith from HFRP writes about involving youth in evaluation and research.
“A lot of times adults think, oh, it’s a teenager, they’re just gonna come in here and be loud and obnoxious and annoying. And, a lot of times we’re not. We can make differences and we can make decisions and we can do good things. Our whole goal was, we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna show people that we can do positive things.”
[young person describing her research project]
How can after school programs attract older youth and keep them interested enough to come back? Program models and activities that work well with younger kids may flop with older youth who are becoming accustomed to making their own decisions, determining their own direction and priorities, and looking to affect change in their own lives and communities. Competing with the benefits that even the most tedious teen jobs can offer—the money and the opportunity to take on new responsibilities and meet new people—is a major challenge for after school programs that are interested in providing services for older youth.
To address these challenges, a growing number of after school and other youth development programs are trying a new strategy to engage older youth: they are involving them in research and evaluation projects related to the design and implementation of youth programming.
This article is based on focus groups and individual interviews that Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) staff conducted with adults and youth involved in youth-led evaluation and research projects around the country. The goals of HFRP’s research were to learn more about what it means to involve youth in evaluation and research and to compile some lessons for others. The HFRP team conducted four adult focus groups with 3–5 participants each (a total of 15 participants), several individual interviews, and three youth focus groups, with 3–4 participants each (for a total of 10 participants).
What does youth involvement look like?
Based on what we heard from focus group participants—youth and adults—there seems to be no “typical” evaluation or research project that involves youth. Most of those we talked to grounded their work in youth development practices that are assets-based, incorporating a positive youth development focus within the context of evaluation and research work. They mentioned different frameworks for this work, including: youth development, risk and prevention, participatory action research, community development, and empowerment evaluation. Those who engage in this work focus on establishing youth as partners or leaders in the research and evaluation endeavor, involving youth in determining the right questions to ask, designing and conducting the study, and engaging with the community and other decision-makers in a discussion of findings and action steps.
The fourteen organizations represented by the individuals in our focus group discussions include: schools, nonprofit institutions, including youth development agencies and research organizations, and universities in rural, urban, and suburban areas of the U.S. and Canada. They involve youth in a range of activities, including community mapping, evaluation of programs and services, community-based strategic planning, education and advocacy, and social change projects in areas such as the environment, health, and safety. Adults who work with youth in these research and evaluation efforts include volunteers and paid staff, community members, community-based and university researchers and evaluators, local graduate and undergraduate students, and experts in different areas of inquiry. Youth from the organizations represented in our focus groups ranged from elementary school age to high school graduates and college students, as well as high school dropouts, and they come from a variety of educational, socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities.
Among the youth who participated in our focus groups, several participated in the evaluation of after school programs and organizations, community service projects, and drop-in centers for street youth. Some led participatory action research projects on issues of concern to youth and their communities, such as youth health behaviors, immigration, youth violence, school drop-outs, and the environment. Youth indicated that they have been involved at all levels and stages: designing research projects, identifying research questions, creating data collection instruments (surveys and interview guides), collecting information, analyzing data, presenting information, and making recommendations for change. Some specific results of their work include: managing an adult-youth coffee house and “rap sessions”, creating a video project for teens about violence and substance abuse, producing a booklet on high-school dropouts, and bringing valuable jobs and positive activities for youth to the community by establishing an after school program.
What are the benefits of youth involvement?
According to those in our focus groups, youth involvement in research and evaluation offers benefits to youth as well as to adults, programs, organizations, and communities. Benefits mentioned by youth included developing healthy relationships with mentors and peers, gaining valuable skills, and making a positive impact on their community.
Adults in the group talked about how they benefit from the renewed energy and enthusiasm youth bring to the projects. Some adult focus group participants reported that youths’ lack of cynicism and altruistic motivations were an inspiration to the adults around them.
From the program perspective, adults in our focus groups suggested that youth involvement can mean better research and evaluation. Adult focus group members observed that some audiences view reports about youth that are done by youth as more legitimate and much more interesting. Focus group participants suggested that young people offer fresh perspectives and new insights into data collection and analysis, and that working with youth can help adults better understand youth, thus changing perceptions and leading to greater mutual trust and respect.
Focus group members suggested that research and evaluation work provides the opportunity for youth to play a public role in the community, and in this way, youth are able to demonstrate a more positive image.
What are some of the challenges to involving youth in research and evaluation projects?
Clarifying the goals of the project
Those embarking on this work are sometimes faced with the challenge of balancing multiple goals: fostering youth development and empowerment, producing a high quality product that meets rigorous standards for research and evaluation, and effecting community change. How these are balanced affects how a project is set up, who gets involved and when, how much structure is necessary, what supports are used, and even which and how funding sources are identified and approached.
Readiness
Focus group members stressed that youth involvement is not for everyone. Adult study participants spoke about three forms of readiness: organizational readiness (is the organization one in which youth-led evaluation and research can work?), adult readiness (are the adults who will be working with the youth ready to engage in this type of a partnership?), and community readiness (is the community on board with this work and a new way to think about youth and their contribution?).
Readiness, participants stressed, is also not an all-or-nothing proposition. Some observed that one of the most effective approaches to youth-involved research and evaluation is a gradual one. Youth in Focus (formerly Community LORE), a technical assistance organization in Oakland, CA, has a model to help organizations locate where they are along a continuum of youth involvement. The point is that while youth involvement does require a fundamental paradigm shift, not everyone needs to begin by doing it comprehensively. In the same way that activities need to be developmentally appropriate for youth, the work needs to be developmentally appropriate for the organization undertaking it.
From the youth perspective, the challenge is preparing adults to work with youth in a different way than they may be used to. Adult participants admitted that staff need to be ready to work in honest partnership with youth—truly cooperating, and allowing youth to lead. One youth advised, “[adults] have to be ready to hear what the youth have to say. And it’s not always what adults expect. So if you can, keep an open mind, and [go] in there to learn something and [be] honestly ready to learn something from youth.”
Training and support for youth
Providing the right training and support to staff and youth is, according to our focus group participants, absolutely critical to the success of youth research and evaluation activities. The critical challenge is how much structure and support to provide throughout the course of the project and how to make the project meet the skill levels of the youth.
Overcoming “adultism”
Fighting adult perceptions of youth—what one group referred to as “adultism”—is one of the major challenges cited by both adults and youth. Youth often feel they don’t have representation; adults who work with youth can inadvertently reinforce this by making decisions for youth and overlooking their input. They can also do this by using technical jargon that is unfamiliar to youth. For many youth, the opportunity to change adults’ images of youth is an important motivating factor for participation in these projects. Those involved in these projects must make sure that these opportunities exist.
What makes youth involvement successful?
Link research and evaluation to action and change
For youth focus group members, the most common motivator for involvement in research and evaluation was the ability to use research and evaluation as a vehicle for change. These youth were not satisfied with a report to a funder that sits on the shelf; they needed to see the results of their work in tangible, immediate, and important ways, either through program changes or the fact that others were willing to listen and consider what youth had to say. As one youth noted, “we saw results and it [gave us] such a feeling of like, 'oooh!' It inspires you to do more. And it makes you feel like you can take on the world and just fix everything!”
Compensate for work
Many focus group members stressed the importance of providing youth with rewards and validation for their work. This validation can take the form of: monetary compensation, a concrete product, utilization of results, presentation of findings to various audiences, travel to present or collect data and work with others, making an impact in the community. Monetary compensation can be key for youth that have financial need, or whose parents want them to have a job. Youth also cited the opportunity to gain skills, both practical and personal, as a form of compensation. Youth expressed a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, and found that evidence of their impact inspired them to want to do more.
Make it more than evaluation and research
Youth and adult focus group members also cited the importance of making the experience of these projects be more than the “work” of research and evaluation. Youth members stressed the value of developing close relationships with peers and adults. Both adults and youth observed that these relationships extended far beyond the bounds of the research or evaluation endeavor including, for example, attending youths’ sports games and recitals and getting to know parents. As one youth noted, “[a] reason why I think [our director] is so successful in what he does is he’s not afraid to get involved with our lives.”
Provide food and transportation
Adults agreed that the two main secrets to sustaining youth participation are to provide them with transportation and lots of food. Youth cannot participate if they cannot get there, and they will not be productive if they are hungry.
This article is a shortened version of a soon-to-be published working paper on youth involvement in research and evaluation.
Jennifer C. Smith, Senior Research Assistant, HFRP