Reflections, refinement and reciprocity - youth voice in the iWill fund
This blog, focused on young people’s involvement in evaluating the impact of Youth Social Action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of how to best support young people to be involved in evaluating YSA, set out some benefits of involving young people in evaluating YSA, and share key learning from our process so far from the perspective of young people themselves.
The Young Evaluators Network (YEN) aims to investigate how youth voice practices and disciplines are embedded into the #iwill Fund. The evaluation is conducted by a consortium of organisations - Dartington Service Design Lab, Renaisi-TSIP,YMCA George Williams College, and Ipsos. The work of the YEN is centred around analysing lots of data from #iwill Fund funded projects to better inform youth voice practices, grant-giving, and decision-making processes in the #iwill Fund.
This blog was written by two members of the Young Evaluators Network - Thomas Williams and Irys Chick
As we have just passed the year mark in our involvement in the Young Evaluators Network, we wanted to take this opportunity to share some insights, discussions, and the ups and downs of our project.
Setting up a youth evaluation network – how it began with the #iwill Fund
Our journey started with eight passionate youth researchers from around the UK, bringing their own unique experiences and insights to the work that we do. An introductory residential to meet the team and partners kicked things off. We undertook training for our role, understanding the types of data to be collected and the project's timeline. We all thought it was the coolest residential we had all been on!
Next, we met the youth panel of the previous #iwill Fund Learning Hub. We established the aims for the new project and created the discussion and observation guide (aka the questions we ask when doing our research). A second residential provided further training, including a session on communications (something we were all super interested in). The super cool residential included country walks and trips through the Brighton Lanes!
We continued with monthly calls and many pieces of work. We helped develop a learning survey which gathered insights from young people, provided feedback on privacy and confidentiality notices for research and surveys, and started our scoping calls. The scoping calls were used to learn more about the #iwill Fund Match Funder organisations and to identify the five organisations that we wanted to evaluate in our first year of research. After these organisations were chosen, we were individually matched with them with the aim of starting in-person and online data collection.
When evaluation goes wrong – preparing organisational ‘readiness’
At this point the project went a bit downhill. The research was initially supposed to take place in February 2024, but not all Match Funder organisations involved were ready then. Key staff had left and arranging research opportunities had become tricky. Discussions followed about how the YEN could be accommodated with a new project timeline. After a four-month delay, YEN research got back underway.
In summer of 2024, the first round of research visits took place, with three YEN members visiting Match Funder organisations. Then, in the autumn, the third residential focused on data analysis and what future data collection might look like. One insight during that residential was that some questions that YEN are interested in answering can’t be answered with existing data. YEN proposed that researchers could collect this data in phase two of the evaluation.
Improving evaluation practice through learning
By sharing our journey and the learnings so far, we hope to enable reflection and best practice within youth voice work. We hope that the following key takeaways enable others to reflect on their own youth voice practice and put these insights into action:
Communication and transparency are key
Regular communication from staff about the project and any major changes (in our case, staff turnover and project delays) is key to planning evaluations. If this is misunderstood or not acknowledged it can lead to young people becoming disinterested in the project.Ensure youth voice can be heard in different ways
We were all very interested in communicating our ideas and we've been able to write blogs, feature on social media, and contribute to videos too. Offering young people diverse ways to share within a project enables them to feel more included, listened to, and respected.A mix of fun and work is always needed!
It's important for researchers to recognise that young researchers can experience feelings of being overcapacity and burnout and remedy this with providing fun opportunities alongside work. We have felt really supported with activities such as bowling and visiting the Barbican. This ensures that our activism is not taken for granted, and that we still get to have valuable experiences whilst doing the hard work.The power of face-to-face connections!
As we know, COVID-19 took a hit to all in-person projects and meant that the world of youth engagement largely moved online. Since the end of the pandemic, there has been a shift back to more and more in-person events, residentials, and meetings. In-person events enable rich and meaningful connections to be made and have different benefits to online engagement.Demonstrate the value of youth social action through recognition and reward
Research and evaluation work should be recognized and rewarded, regardless of the age of the researcher. Sometimes, opportunities to learn life skills and connecting to community are sufficient, but at other times, remuneration is appropriate. This supports young people and can build a sense of pride in their work.Mindset of staff impacts the mindset of young people
The enthusiasm of the staff at YMCA George Williams College has ensured that most of us stayed engaged and interested in the project over a long period of time. If you are trying to encourage more youth voice in your own work, ensure that your mindset is positive as it influences the young people in the project!