Capturing Outcomes of Youth Programs

Supported by funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

What Can You Expect from this Course?

This six-week course provides practical knowledge and skills in assessing outcomes of youth programs that can be used to rethink, redesign, and advocate for the development and offering of youth-related services for and with your community.
 

How do we know if the programs and services that we are offering for children and youth are meeting the goals that we aspire to? What are the assessment tools that we can create or adapt to measure outcomes of our youth-related programs and services? How do we strategically rethink our priorities and offerings and programs based on the feedback that we receive from youth?

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate the terms evaluation, assessment, and outcomes
• Create an evaluation plan for youth-related programs/services
• Identify relevant outcomes for youth-related programs/services
• Identify, modify, or build assessment instruments that measure the identified outcomes
• Collect data using assessment instruments
• Analyze data using appropriate data analysis techniques
• Utilize the findings from analysis to improve/revise programs, and advocate for youth programs in their communities through the development and use of impact stories

These intensive participatory training sessions will help you explore & experiment with tools and techniques to capture outcomes of your programs for children and young people.
 

In the first session, we will examine the different terms associated with the process of capturing outcomes such as assessment and evaluation. We will also examine how we are currently measuring success in our programs, and how (and if) we are using these measures to improve our programs and services for youth. We will also begin formulating the questions that we want to answer that will allow us to measure the success of those programs and services.

In the second session, we will examine different types of assessment instruments that are available, and adapt and map them to the questions that we have identified in the first session.
 

The third and fourth sessions are 30-minute check-ins. The facilitator will open up four “office hour” style sessions during a period of two weeks for participants to drop by and share their questions (“What do they want to know as a result of conducting these assessments?”). They can share their chosen assessment instruments with the facilitator and their peers for feedback before they collect data. It is expected that participants will use these instruments to collect “pilot” data during these two weeks. Participants are encouraged to come to as many sessions as they would like to but should attend at least one session.
 

The fifth session will be dedicated to learning about simple and quick data analysis. In this session, participants will be introduced to multiple ways data can be used and presented to tell the impact story of their programs and services, and how it can be used to improve their programs. Participants will bring their collected data and discuss with peers what analysis that they can do with their data.
 

In the final session, participants are invited to share how they have used what they have learned through this course to improve their programs, and/or how they might share their impact story to their supervisors and management.
 

The course will be highly participatory, with whole group activities and smaller sessions in Zoom breakout rooms throughout. You'll have a chance to discuss and design new ways to assess outcomes and share the impact that you have on Washington's children and young people. There will be some work outside of the official meetings -- up to approximately one hour per week.

Who Should Participate?

This course is designed to be completed by teams of staff from the same library or library system. Teams can consist of up to four people, and ideally will consist of those who work directly with youth and their families, their supervisors, district level youth services decision makers, and those who tell the story of the library's impact. Depending on your library, these could include: District Managers, Youth Services Coordinators, Data Coordinators, Youth Services Supervisors, Deputy Directors, Community Engagement Librarians, Building Managers, Youth Associates, Youth Services Librarians, etc.

Throughout the duration of the course, you will be working with your team to complete assignments, so be sure you choose people who are able to collaborate in-person or virtually outside of the course meetings.