What makes a community-based organization (CBO) feel trustworthy to youth? How well do city-funded CBOs serve youth? Those were the kinds of questions that drove Youth IMPACT, a project of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF). Through comprehensive youth-led evaluations, Youth IMPACT gave young people a voice in how San Francisco invested resources for children and youth who live in the city. The findings of Youth IMPACT evaluations fed into the department’s strategic planning, funding and technical assistance processes. Youth In Focus first piloted the project with DCYF, and then trained the San Francisco-based Literacy for Environmental Justice to facilitate the next several years of work.

In the first spring of the project, the Youth IMPACT team gathered together one afternoon for their weekly meeting. Exhausted and excited, they had just collected data from over 40 youth- serving organizations across San Francisco. Their data included over 850 questionnaires, transcripts from 35 focus groups, and summaries of 35 program observations. Their task was to analyze the data to answer two questions: How well are youth being served by CBOs funded by DCYF? And what makes a trustworthy youth-serving organization? Given the amount and the complexity of the data, this was no small task.

By far the biggest challenge was to analyze the 850 surveys. The ten Youth IMPACT evaluators tackled this with Analyze-It Kits (which can be found in Stepping Stone 7). The kits helped team members focus their data analysis and break it down into bite-size pieces. Each Analyze-It Kit had a set of key questions and relevant statistical analysis of survey data (analyses were run by JMPT Consulting). Team members worked in small groups to complete the tasks set out in the kits. When all the kits were completed, the team was finished with the survey analysis. The next task was to analyze the focus groups. The whole team combed the data for key trends and evidence to back up findings. A quote scavenger hunt was playfully organized to find and pull spicy statements from the notes.

All their hard work paid off! On the strength of their analysis the team developed the Ten Commandments for Youth Programs, which were published in “Youth Voices Inspiring Positive Change.” The commandments spelled out ten must-haves for every youth program in San Francisco. DCYF took Youth IMPACT’s findings very seriously. At a budget conference the following year, DCYF staff handed the booklet to every single organization applying for funding and said that all proposals would be partially evaluated based on Youth IMPACT’s ten commandments. DCYF committed to continue Youth IMPACT and to make youth-led evaluation “the way the City does business,” in the words of former DCYF Director Deborah Alvarez- Rodriguez.

Collaborating Organization: Youth In Focus

Photo Credit: “Youth Voices Inspiring Creative Change,” Youth IMPACT Youth-led Evaluation, 2001