CASE STUDY: PROGRAM EVALUATION

The New England Network (NEN) is a membership organization that provides technical assistance to grantees serving runaway and homeless youth. “We had to find a way to help agencies gather and organize information, and evaluate their success in meeting objectives,” says Doug Tanner, PERC/ImProve Project Coordinator. “The organizations we work with also need to be able to do the complex reporting that demonstrates to funders and community members that they are doing something worthwhile.” NEN partnered with the Innovation Center to develop systems and tools to support this process.

Particular benefits to working with the Innovation Center include its customized approach. Tanner explains, “In the past, agencies that serve youth measured outcomes according to: how many youth attended and quantity of services provided. We want our agencies to keep track of changes that happen in individuals: levels of mastery, levels of knowledge, levels of application.” NEN’s innovative approach also takes into account the length and type of services provided—one youth may only need services for two weeks and another may stay involved for two years. “We’ve developed a process for gathering this information fairly easily and effectively, and are currently training workers to use the databases.”

Tanner notes how valuable it is to NEN that the Innovation Center brings a youth development perspective. “Youth development infuses everything that they do,” says Tanner. “Like creating a database—people tend to measure the negative: ‘youth won’t do this; youth won’t do that.’ But we recognize that the paths to good health are positive, and the Innovation Center understood and supported us in using a resiliency model to measure positive changes and assets. ”

NEN and others’ participation in PERC/Project ImProve has helped to shape the PERC web site and several Innovation Center publications and training curricula related to planning and evaluation.

PROJECTS

Planning & Evaluation Resource Center (PERC) is a nationwide pilot project involving three groups of community organizations focusing on activism, youth development and evaluation; information management in homeless and runaway organizations; and youth leadership in evaluation and research.. The goal of PERC is to strengthen the program planning and evaluation cycle of these agencies and to make the results and learning available to scholars, funders, and practitioners everywhere. PERC works by:

• collecting, testing, and offering resources in support of training and capacity building;
• maintaining a electronic clearinghouse of youth development evaluation materials and training opportunities;
• developing customized, site specific tools, and sustainable services for community based organizations;
• providing opportunities for individual and group skill development in the areas of planning and evaluation through peer learning, community-based trainings, and other types of meetings;
• supporting the participation of a diverse mix of scholars and practitioners, and
• convening people and organizations across the field of youth development in order to build further support and connections, while sharing lessons and products.