6.3 Young people taking the lead

6.3

Young people taking the lead

As well as giving feedback, young people can also take leadership roles in designing and carrying out evaluation and assessments. This increases the level of participation (see Hart’s Ladder, Chapter 2). Rather than using evaluation to consult with young people on their views about evaluation topics, young people can be involved with decisions about the design and direction of the evaluation itself. This enables greater influence on the whole process, can lead to findings and viewpoints that would not otherwise have been uncovered and is a more meaningful approach to participation.

Youth information services can consider:

Young people inspecting or auditing services - young people are supported to take on volunteer roles involving grading or scoring services against fixed criteria or a set of quality standards. The criteria themselves can also be developed in a participatory way with young people. This approach is useful to create comparisons against a benchmark or between different services or organisations of the same type. Typically, young people visit the services they are inspecting, or may already be regular users of them. They work alongside youth information workers who may conduct other parts of the evaluation as well as supporting the young people. Young people acting as peer researchers - young people are supported to develop, design and carry out an evaluation or consultation. They develop evaluation topics, design the methodology and create their own conclusions or reports. The findings are then presented to the youth information service. Typically, the focus is on young people interviewing or holding focus groups with other young people. In this way young people are the ones responsible for gathering service user feedback. Young people often work alongside researchers and evaluators who can guide them on the evaluation’s design.

Involvement in evaluation steering groups - young people can participate in a steering group which guides and directs a piece of evaluation (see Chapter 4 for more information on steering groups).

Resources for youth-led evaluation

Involving young people in conducting research, evaluation and assessment is a complex but highly effective form of youth participation. More detailed guides can be found in these resources:

Barnardos - Young researchers toolkit Youth Focus North West Youth Inspection Toolkit �� CRIS - toolkit for young people interested in research and co-research