Youth event evaluation

Once your session is over, comes the time for debriefing, evaluation and feedback. This method of closing a session is important for participants to take a step back and observe what they learned and what they will bring back home from the day. The feedback is also crucial for the organiser, and to optimise future events.

This evaluation tool is used both at the very beginning of an event, and at the end, for evaluation purposes. The first phase of this process usually takes place on the first hour or day, after the Welcoming words and introduction of the event. It needs to occur before diving into the topic, so that the participants don’t know many details on the topic yet. • Dedicate a wall or board in your room to the outcomes of this session. • Distribute 3 small papers of 3 different colours. Show your participants the meaning of each colour: one color for their Fears, one color for their Expectations, one colour for their Contributions. • Open a reflection time so your participants can write in each paper their feelings before entering your event: ➡ Fears - What about this event are they a little bit anxious about? What challenge would they be uncomfortable to face? Present this category as a way to lay down some apprehensions your participants might have. ➡ Expectations - Why did they join this event? What are your participants hoping to learn and bring back from this event? What do they expect will happen? ➡ Contributions - What will your participants be able to bring to the table, from their skills, knowledge or personality? • Once all of the participants have finished filling their papers, invite them to stick them on the dedicated wall. Open the floor for each category so anyone who wants to share their thoughts can. • This wall or board of feelings will be helpful for you and your team to get an idea of the direction to go towards in order to fulfill your participants’ expectations. • This tool also comes handy as an evaluation tool. During the evaluation process, invite your participants to go back to their post it and reflect, and assess how their expectations, fears and contributions were met.

A more formal way to go would be to create an online form to receive the feedback and evaluation of your participants. Using an online application, create a detailed form to gather evaluation on various criteria such as: methodology, learning outcomes, group’s contribution, personal contribution, realisation of expectations, logistics (accommodation, food, rooms, working rooms, material). You can also ask for suggestions or feedback on the atmosphere, team, organisation… This evaluation form can be combined with a more non-formal evaluation such as the one we presented above.