May 8-9, 2008, Washington DC Youth voluntary service programs exist in dozens of countries around the world, and new programs and policy initiatives are currently being developed in many others, often with the help of international organizations like UNICEF, UNV/UNDP, and International Youth Foundation. This will result in many more young people being offered the opportunity to engage in youth service. Already, fully one quarter of young respondents to the World Values Survey in 2000 report some voluntary action with religious or secular organizations that promote social welfare, conservation, human rights, and many other goals. These programs attract a great deal of attention, and potentially enormous resources. To initiate a conversation among the stakeholders about the evidence base for youth service as a strategy for positive youth development, the Children and Youth unit at the World Bank together with ICP (Innovations in Civic Participation, a Washington-based NGO) invited a group of experts, academics, policy makers and practitioners from the fields of civic engagement, youth development and impact evaluation for a two day meeting in Washington DC on May 8-9, 2008. The objectives of the meeting were to assess the existing research on the impact of youth service programs on young people, explore different evaluation methods, develop a draft evaluation framework, identify gaps in the research, and develop a research agenda to address these gaps. Please find below the agenda of the event with links to the presentations made. A report summarizing the meeting and its conclusions will be added shortly. Meeting Agenda pdf. including the objectives, outputs and expected outcomes of the meeting: YouthVoluntaryServiceMeetingAgenda.doc Bios of the Presenters: SpeakerBios.pdf _________________________________________________________________________ Agenda Day One – May 8, 2008, 8:30am-5:30pm I Welcome & Setting the Stage: background and objectives of the meeting 9:00 – 9:45am 1. Opening Remarks - Wendy Cunningham, Advisor, Children and Youth unit, The World Bank 2. Definition and characteristics of youth service programs along the continuum of volunteering and service. Potential positive impacts of youth service on participants and the importance of measuring these impacts more effectively. - Susan Stroud, Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation Presentation 3. Framing the discussion on evaluation of youth civic participation and youth voluntary service programs. The importance and challenges associated with conducting evaluations to produce rigorous evidence of a program's net impact. Why are youth service programs not considered “proven” to be effective in the World Development Report 2007? - Mattias Lundberg, Senior Economist, Children and Youth unit, The World Bank |
II Evaluation Methods and their application to Youth Voluntary Service Programs 10:00 – 11:45am Chair: Shahrokh Fardoust, Sr Adviser, Independent Evaluation Group, The World Bank Presentations: - Ariel Fiszbein, Chief Economist, HDN, World Bank. Controlled Impact Evaluation. YSMeetingAFPresentation.pdf
- Michael Patton, Director, Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Alternative Methods for measuring the impact of Youth Voluntary Service Programs. YSMeetingMPPresentation.pdf
Topics: What needs to be proven? Can it be proven and if so, how? What are acceptable standards of evidence? Discussants: - Eva Mysliwiec, Founder, Youth Star Cambodia. Practitioner’s perspective YSMeetingEMPresentation.pdf
- Busani Ngcaweni, Senior Policy Analyst, Policy Coordination & Advisory Services, Office of the President, South Africa. Policymaker’s perspective
- Victor Karunan, Senior Advisor, Adolescent Development, and Participation (ADAP), UNICEF. International Agency’s perspective
Open Discussion Topics: What is the distinction between methods and approaches? What are the needs for evaluation from practitioners’, policymakers’ and funders’ perspectives? What needs to be proven and what are acceptable standards of evidence? What are the challenges? |
III Existing Evaluations and Challenges 1-5:30pm Topics: Existing evaluations and evidence on youth voluntary service programs. Evaluation challenges and success stories. Presenters will present their program evaluations referring to the main challenges they encountered, including technical issues such as internal and external validity, externalities and spill-over effects, short/long term impact, follow-up & attrition rates, outcomes, indicators & measurement, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness. Session A. 1-2:30pm Chair: Varun Gauri, Senior Economist, DECRG, The World Bank Presentations: 1. Kevin Cramer, Deputy Director, Research and Policy Development, Corporation for National and Community Service. YSMeetingKCPresentation.pdf 2. Ami Thakkar, Program Director, International Youth Foundation YSMeetingATPresentation.pdf 3. Licio Palazzini, Director, Arci Servizio Civile YSMeetingLPPresentation.pdf Presenter-Discussant: 4. Steve Powell, Country Researcher, PROMENTE, Bosnia Plenary Q&A YSMeetingSPPresentation.pdf Session B. 2:45-4:15pm Chair: Ron Kassimir, Associate Provost, The New School Presentations: - Manish Subharwal, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, and Nicholas Hartley, Director of Operations & Programmes, Student Partnership Worldwide YSMeetingMSNHPresentation.pdf
- Ryan Cooper, Evaluation Coordinator, "Un Techo para mi Pais" project in El Salvador and Peru YSMeetingRCPresentation.pdf
- Tim Cross, President, YouthBuild International/COO YouthBuild USA YSMeetingTCPresentation.pdf
Presenter-Discussant: - Peter Levine, Director, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, CIRCLE
Plenary Q&A Chaired Small Group Discussion: 4:30 – 5:30pm Discussion on the existing evidence base and challenges of evaluating the impact of volunteer programs. Each group will focus on one of the main research topics identified during the preceding plenary discussion. Total of 6 groups. |
Closing of Day 1 5:30pm Day Two – May 9, 2008, 8:30am-5:00pm I Knowledge and Research Gaps 9 – 10:30am 1. Presentation on the outcomes of the discussions and conclusions of Day 1: Review on the existing evidence base and key research questions remaining 2. Comments and inputs on the presented review, and identifying the main gaps in knowledge and research Chair: Andrew Furco, Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, University of Minnesota Discussants: 1. Constance Flanagan, Professor of Youth Civic Development, College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State University 2. James Youniss, Professor of Psychology, Catholic University 3. Yuanzhu Ding Director, Research Center for Volunteering and Welfare, Peking University YSMeetingYDPresentation.pdf 4. Lonnie Sherrod, Professor of Psychology and Director of Applied Developmental Psychology Program at Fordham University YSMeetingLSPresentation.zip Facilitated Discussion Outcomes: Assessment of the existing evidence base and gaps in it |
II Evaluation Clinic for upcoming youth service projects Case studies to be reviewed and commented by a panel of experts Clinic I: South-African National Youth Service 11am – 12:30pm Chair: Arianna Legovini, Lead Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, AFTRL, World Bank - Presentation on the basic features of the project,
- Busani Ngcaweni, Senior Policy Analyst, Policy Coordination & Advisory Services, Office of the President, South Africa YSMeetingBNPresentation.pdf
- Considerations for an Evaluation Design,
- JoAnn Jastrzab, Principal Associate, Abt Associates
- Open Discussion: floor opened by discussants' comments on the evaluation:
Michael Baizerman, Director of Youth Programs, University of Minnesota James Radner, Executive Director, The Boreal Institute for Civil Society, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.
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Clinic II: Youth Star Cambodia Program 1:30 – 3:00pm Chair: Chris Blattman, Yale University - Presentation on the basic features of the project
- Considerations for an Evaluation Design
Open Discussion (1 hour): floor opened by discussant's comments on the evaluation: Alan Melchior, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Youth and Communities, Brandeis University
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III Research & Evaluation Framework and Agenda 3:15pm – 5pm Evaluation Framework: Presentation on the draft Evaluation Framework for building further evidence Charmagne Campbell-Patton , Program Associate and Susan Stroud , Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation (15 min)
- Facilitated discussion on the Framework; Incorporating suggested Changes (20 min)
Research and Evaluation Agenda: - Discussion on the Research and Evaluation Agenda: Roles and Responsibilities and Next Steps (20 min)
- Small Group Discussions on the Agenda (20 min)
- Inputs and suggested changes on the Agenda and Commitments to moving the Agenda forward. (30 min)
Outcomes: New draft of the Evaluation Framework and Agenda for moving forward |
Closing Remarks 5pm - Mattias Lundberg, Senior Economist, Children and Youth unit, The World Bank
- Susan Stroud, Executive Director, ICP
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