News
Youth sector data standard v 1.1 - July 20
We are pleased to announce the launch of the second version of the youth sector data standard, a collaborative initiative to develop a comparable national picture of the activities of the sector, and the challenges colleagues are currently facing.
With the support of a broad range of sector partners, we encourage any organisation working with young people across the UK to take part, by clicking on this link and completing the online form. It should take you 8-10 minutes in total.
Along with the addition of questions related to representation and voice, and the restarting of services over the summer period, a key feature of this version is that we have included the option for organisations to identify themselves, rather than remain anonymous.
This will enable us to build a clearer picture of who we are reaching with this initiative, avoid duplication, and provide specific updates, analysis and reporting. Over time, our aim is to provide the means for organisations to compare their data against national and regional benchmarks. Crucially, identification is entirely optional, and any identifying data provided will be stored securely and separately from all other information submitted.
You can read more about the initiative here.
Just one question – update
‘Just one question’ is a weekly survey for youth practitioners - take one minute every Friday afternoon to answer one key question and add your voice! Sign up here to take part.
Last month, we shared an update on what you’d been telling us through the #justonequestion survey, with a primary focus on moving provision for young people online.
Since then, we have shared a new series of questions, asking you about your listening practices with young people, and your concerns and experience as lockdown restrictions are lifted. Here are some headlines from these questions:
- Two thirds of respondents felt they currently have slightly or somewhat effective mechanisms in place for young people to influence the content and delivery of their online provision. A quarter felt confident that their mechanisms are very or extremely effective, whilst 6% felt that their mechanisms are not at all effective, and 6% have no mechanisms in place. You can read our reflections on this information here
- When asked about barriers to effective listening and responding to young people, you shared a wide range of answers. Some of the top issues flagged include: unsuitable online tools and platforms; practical logistics around managing safe numbers, schools being shut, and staff not being available; workload and capacity; disconnected services (e.g. a lack of sharing within the organisation); and low engagement from young people. There were many more, however, which you can read about here. It’s also worth noting that one participant reported that they are now finding it easier to listen and respond to young people now that they are communicating over the phone and in a different setting
- We then asked if you were planning to resume face-to-face services as soon as guidelines allow - a resounding 80% told us ‘yes’, with some uncertainty and concerns from other respondents, as well as a desire to ‘get back out there’ as soon as possible.
Over the past week, we’ve been digging further into this and asking about your biggest concerns with regard to resuming face-to-face work with young people. There’s still time to add your voice here and let us know before 17:00 today!
Our final question in this series, going live tomorrow afternoon, will be focused on how practitioners are currently feeling about their work. Taking inspiration again from Teacher Tapp, we aim to repeat this question over time, building a picture of how ongoing context and challenges can affect practitioner wellbeing.
We’re keen to make this picture as representative as possible, and need to do a bit more work to increase the geographical spread of responses. At the moment, the greatest number of respondents are based in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, Greater London, and working across England or the UK (rather than a local focus). If you are based in regions that are currently less well represented in the survey, please do register, spread the word to your colleagues and partner organisations, and let us know if there are any topics that you feel particularly interested in exploring. We’d love to hear your thoughts - get in touch at hello@youthimpact.uk.
#Listeningweek roundup
Between 15-19 June we ran a #listeningweek via twitter, to celebrate the release of our final learning report of The Listening Fund (England).
Over the past two years, we have been working with the funders (The Blagrave Trust, Comic Relief, the National Lottery Community Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) and youth organisations involved in the Listening Fund, a collaborative effort to support organisations to listen and respond to young people – and make this the norm.
The Fund focusses on improving organisational listening practices that enable young people to have a greater say in shaping the provision they receive and be agents of change on issues affecting them. For project partners it provided time and space to “think carefully and collectively about what it really means to involve young people’s voices in our context”, and for both ourselves as evaluators and the funders it has challenged thinking around fund and evaluation design, specifically in relation to how listening and co-production is incorporated into these aspects.
Throughout #listeningweek we shared relevant resources and key learnings from the evaluation, to support youth organisations in their listening practices. Our series of blogs focussed on enablers and barriers to listening; the design and wider utility of our self-assessment survey; reflections on fund design; and listening activities during COVID-19.
We also produced a series of case studies as part of our evaluation, giving diverse examples of how partners embedded listening within their organisations and the challenges they faced along the way.
The Centre is evaluating both the England and Scotland Fund, so look out for further reports as our Scotland evaluation progresses. You can also access further resources and information on the Listening Fund website.
Diving into COVID survey data, part 1
Adam Peel, Research and Learning Manager at the National Youth Agency has written a blog looking at all the surveys launched during the pandemic and current learnings. You can read it here.
Reflections on an existential crisis
Bethia McNeil, CEO, reflects on the Centre’s existential crisis in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
At the Centre for Youth Impact, we had something of an existential crisis at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It turns out that a good theory of change does not constitute an effective emergency response, and evaluation probably won’t save the world on this occasion. It still matters though, and we are not alone in reflecting on evaluation during the pandemic – its role, how to do it at a distance, and how to adapt in the face of rapidly changing plans. NPC and Evaluation Support Scotland are amongst those who have been giving detailed thought to these questions, and have published a range of resources to support and inform.
Never waste a good existential crisis though, I say. It’s created some interesting challenges in how we think and work, and I hope that some might represent permanent shifts. Specifically, I’ve been wondering whether there’s an even more profound opportunity for framing evaluation in the youth sector.
You can read on here
‘Kickstart job scheme’ for young people
We’re pleased to see the Chancellor’s announcement about the ‘kickstart scheme’ for young people to support their entry into the labour market. Congratulations to the sterling work of colleagues on the Youth Employment Group who have been pushing for focused support for young people since the start of the lockdown period in March.
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Our Thoughts
In this section of the newsletter, our team members set out what’s currently occupying their thoughts. This month, our regional network lead in the North West, Stuart Dunne gives us a perspective from his region
Like many other youth services from across the length and breadth of England, youth organisations in the North West have continued to work effectively in partnership with each other and young people, whilst trying to make some sense of the world in front of them. We are pleased to say that like many others, we have done our best during this difficult period. This is not some self-celebration as the North West is not alone or special in doing this. We are just pleased that amidst the added pressures and complexities surrounding youth work, the sector is finding ways to navigate ourselves and young people through the confusing and sometimes contradicting messages. It is clear that the architecture of our work has changed significantly, so we need to focus on how we stay rational at a time where uncertainty is rife.
Among other things, as a region we are continuing to be the youth workers we have always been by supporting and developing partnerships and relationships. These are not predefined or prescribed partnerships but partnerships built on principles and values. Through the increased use of digital, the service heads and staff are engaging in more gatherings, more often. Like the old TV show “Swap Shop”, youth work managers are sharing knowledge, advice and resources, such as redefined project plans and risk assessments (of which there are many). Furthermore, and fundamentally, we are continuing to maintain relationships with young people. Listening to and acting upon their voices seems more key now than ever before, especially as young people will be the ones picking up much of the economic pain from COVID. Nevertheless, we should be listening not only for ‘recovery’ reasons, but because listening is morally right. In doing this we get to understand people's hopes, fears and anxieties. Anxieties such as ones currently directed towards reopening. In the North West, fear of reopening services appears strong at present. Anxiety about gathering in person again and anxiety about using public transport are but a few reasons. Therefore, as a sector, do we need to ask what is best for young people before we get excited about reopening services on a mass scale?
Stuart is CEO at Youth Focus North West @YouthFocusNW
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What we're reading
This month we’ve continued to gather readings focused on young people, youth work, and learning, evaluation, and quality. As we work to improve our own learning and understanding, we’re also sharing a number of resources related to racial justice and anti-oppressive practice that have been helpful as we reflect on what our own practical next steps for action need to be.
Working with young people
Launched at the end of June, DigiSafe is a comprehensive, step-by-step digital safeguarding guide, written for charities designing new digital services or taking existing ones online. It’s written in a GitBook format and was brought together by a network of organisations working to the Catalyst charter.
Nesta has published a rapid evidence summary on effective youth mentoring programmes. The report and accompanying evidence guide, brought together in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University, include a number of recommendations relating to programme design and delivery, mentor and mentee characteristics, and relationships.
In this blog on creating safe spaces for young people online, Kelly Bradshaw-Walsh (previous Director of Research, Design and Insight here at the Centre) explores how social distancing has led to a new focus on safe online spaces, sharing a number of helpful resources that focus on safeguarding, quality in online environments, and staying human in a digital world. This follows on from our work in partnership with NPC, evaluating the ‘youth strand’ of the Building Connections Fund.
This blog explores how youth and community work can respond to a community-led movement, with a specific focus on Black Lives Matter and anti-oppressive practice in youth work. Steph Green speaks of a responsibility ‘to pick up on the opportunities for this anti-oppressive dialogue with the young people that [youth workers] have relationships with’, explores supporting young people and other community members to be involved in the protests and movement, and reflects on how youth and community work spaces can be both cathartic and political.
As Steph Green notes, if we are to do any of this effectively then we need to have a good grasp of the issues ourselves - ‘we need to do our homework’. Intended as a starting point for those looking to do their own work, Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages is a project by Dr. Nicole A Cooke, the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair at the University of South Carolina, which shares a wide range of resources including a number aimed specifically at young people (highlighted in green). Cooke emphasises that this compilation is intended to be a starting point for those looking to start their own hard conversations. Chicago Beyond has also shared a toolkit for beginning anti-racism work, including 23 resources that their own team have found helpful in their own learning.
Learning, evaluation, and quality work amid a crisis (and beyond)
Last month, we shared a blog from Measuring SEL detailing how Guildford County Schools (GCS) in the US have been pursuing continuous improvement for systemic SEL implementation, using an ‘organize, implement, and improve’ cycle. Where this looked specifically at the ‘organize’ stage, this month we enjoyed reading about how a group of Minneapolis Public Schools have been pursuing the ‘implement’ stage. We were particularly interested to learn how the Schoolwide SEL Walkthrough Protocol tool provides concrete items to look for in relation to student experience and staff practice - similar to the Programme Quality Assessment (PQA) that we use within the YPQI - and how practitioners were supported to use the data from the Walkthroughs.
The Tamarack Institute have shared highlights from ‘Collective Impact Lessons Learned’, a recent keynote by Nation Cheong, VP of United Way Greater Toronto, at the 2020 Communities Building Youth Futures Gathering. The key points challenge us ‘to be radically relational’ in our leadership structures in order to effectively ‘equip youth to be actors on the stage.’ We especially liked the end prompt:
“If this feels risky, ask yourself—what could go wrong with this initiative if it isn’t youth-led? If your answers feel even riskier, then you’re on the right track.”
You can watch the whole speech here.
On a related note, this blog from Jara Dean-Coffey has prompted us to reflect further on how ‘values, voices, and validity’ are at play when thinking about listening, and equity, in knowledge development. We’ve also been learning a lot from Jara’s work over at the Equitable Evaluation Initiative (EEI). The EEI Framing Paper sets out a number of equitable evaluation principles, along with a number of ‘orthodoxies’ focused on philanthropic evaluation practices, and is complemented by another blog from Jara on why we should be prioritising equity in evaluation practices.
Another resource that we’ve found helpful is How to Apply a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Lens to Strengthen Evidence Building in the Social Sector from Project Evident, which shares a framework of foundational activities necessary for evidence building. The framework looks at: fostering a learning culture; developing a theory of change and measurement strategy; collecting, analysing and using data; and sharing data and evidence. It offers a number of recommendations for best practice within these areas.
Finally - and on the topic of pooling data and data transparency - we have really enjoyed reading Open Data Services’ reflection on their work with 360 Giving on open grants data, and an update from Social Investment Business on their Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund. We will be taking inspiration from both as we launch the next iteration of the youth sector data standard, and the subsequent findings.
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If you have any questions or comments about anything featured in this newsletter, please Tweet us @YouthImpactUK or get in touch at hello@youthimpact.uk
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