Youth Engagement in Research and Evaluation

High-quality youth engagement within an organization can be an all-around win. Involving young people in research and evaluation improves the quality and relevance of both the research and ultimately the programs, policies, and organizations that serve young people. It also helps youth develop skills that they’ll need to thrive as contributing adults.

The challenge is to engage youth in research in ways that actually create meaningful and effective youth engagement that truly integrates young people’s perspectives and capabilities. This requires planning, appropriate resources, skills, and capacities from the adults facilitating the program.

We recently worked with The Annie E. Casey Foundation to create two guides to help youth-serving organizations and those who fund them to invest in and build the type of meaningful, effective youth engagement programs that help young people and those who work with them succeed.

Youth Engagement Guide for Practitioners

Including youth as partners in program evaluation is one way to give them voice and increase opportunities for equity. This guide is designed to help organizations partner with young people to evaluate and improve their programs, policies, and services. Young people may also find this guide useful if they have ideas about ways to improve things but don’t know how to get their input heard.

Guide for Practitioners

Youth Engagement Guide for Funders

Effective, strategic, meaningful youth engagement has the greatest potential for success. Funders and youth allies who engage in the necessary planning prior to implementation have the greatest chance of working with youth in a way that best serves young people, programs, and organizations, and maximizes the potential for meaningful social change. This guide provides a tool to evaluate the developmental appropriateness of youth-engaged research and evaluation strategies.

Guide for Funders

Online Panel Discussion

In this online panel discussion, the creators of UCLA CDA’s recently released youth-engagement guides discussed how funders and youth-serving organizations can invest in and build youth-engagement programs that help young people and those who work with them succeed.