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Knowledge
CHANGING TO A STRENGTH-BASED PHILOSOPHY MEANS STRENGTH-BASED PROGRAMS AND POLICY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT=COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ELEMENTS OF YOUTH ENGAGEMENT PROVIDE ROAD MAP FOR WORKING WITH YOUTH HOW DO YOUTH BENEFIT FROM BEING INVOLVED IN AN ASSET-BUILDING ORGANIZATION?
Evaluation Tracks
Growth of Asset Movement in Colorado and Impact of the Statewide Initiative The culmination of a two-year evaluation by OMNI Institute, Creating Social Change: The Growth of a Statewide Movement details outcomes and processes used in measuring the spread of assets in Colorado. Released by The Colorado Trust, the initiative's funder, the study explores four main areas:
The evaluation findings will help youth development researchers and practitioners better understand the asset-building process, its transformational power for organizational change and measures of success. Youth Development
Professionals Respond to Evaluation Results Evaluation Tools Asset Integration in organizations can be described as an upward moving spiral upon which groups move from pre-engagement to full engagement in incorporating a strength-based approach to working with youth.
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ELEMENTS OF YOUTH
ENGAGEMENT PROVIDE ROAD MAP FOR WORKING WITH YOUTH Among the eight grantees
studied by the OMNI Institute in their evaluation of the asset movement
in Colorado, they found evidence of these nine elements present in organizations
that were effectively engaging youth. Nine Elements of
Youth Engagement OMNI observed that
although the number and specific elements present varied by site, two
of the nine elements characterized asset building across each of the sampled
grantee organizations: While these two elements were constant across sites, the presence of other elements varied. OMNI concluded that, as different elements more strongly characterized some asset-building efforts than others, different combinations of the nine elements might help account for the various forms of youth involvement observed at sites. Further, OMNI observed that the presence or absence of elements might provide a way to account for varying levels or intensities of youth engagement. If the number of elements was associated with a different degree of youth engagement, the nine elements could be used to help rank-order youth engagement observed at grantee sites. OMNI's next step in this analysis was to test whether these elements or indicators of youth engagement, in fact, could be used to differentiate between different levels or intensities of youth engagement. OMNI's assessment of the presence or absence of the nine elements was used to locate grantees on The Spiral of Youth Engagement . Simply using a count of the number of elements present at the site, OMNI rank-ordered grantees on a diagram of a spiral. OMNI then assessed the validity of this placement based on information available about innovation that had occurred at the site in creating new mechanisms for youth involvement and what youth and grantees expressed about the enduring nature of youth involvement in the grantee organization and the surrounding community. There was a high level of agreement between placement on the spiral and OMNI's independent assessment of these sites. OMNI proposes that this spiral of youth engagement presents a useful way to conceptualize youth engagement. The conceptualization of youth engagement as a spiral incorporates the idea that as youth are engaged, youth themselves become resources that promote deeper and stronger patterns of youth engagement in the organization. The spiral of youth engagement visually captures this process as dynamic and continual. Further, the spiral encourages practitioners to chart organizational progress in terms of youth engagement. The engagement of youth was already identified as a facilitator of the asset integration-transformation process and organizational effectiveness. The concept of a youth engagement spiral links integration of the nine elements not only to the transformation of organizations but also to the strengthening of youth. Movement up the spiral of youth engagement, through the integration of the nine elements, promises deeper and more positive impacts on youth. As a final step in the analysis, OMNI examined the broader dimensions underlying and shaping youth engagement in the context of the asset framework. To do this, OMNI identified core, unifying themes around which the nine elements could be clustered. The evaluation team identified three dimensions that could be used to frame the defining elements of youth engagement: youth empowerment, relationship building and the presence of an asset champion. The table below reflects the clustering of the nine elements by each of the identified dimensions. These dimensions provide another way of conceptualizing youth engagement within the context of the assets. To the extent that they can be generalized, these dimensions represent facets of youth engagement that may be more easily communicated than a list of elements. Moreover, these dimensions help organize and explain how different elements translate into positive outcomes for youth. For example, "youth have significant levels of responsibility" is an element of youth engagement that empowers youth to strengthen their skills and assets. Similarly, "adults and youth work side by side" creates opportunities for skill and asset development in the context of new and strengthened relationships between youth and adults. Dimensions of Youth
Engagement Relationship Building Presence of Asset
Champions Grantees mapped on this spiral were selected because there was adequate data available about youth engagement at these sites and there was evidence of significant youth engagement, as indicated by two criteria: youth continued to return to the grantee organization long after formal involvement had concluded and youth sustained a commitment to asset building into adulthood. These grantees were not necessarily case study sites. OMNI's analysis of the nine elements of youth engagement that cut across these groups provides a way of thinking about how youth engagement can be intensified to increase youth engagement and positive outcomes for youth. Below, OMNI placed grantees on the spiral based on the number of elements consistently present at the organization during the data collection period. Additional data (e.g., collective data gathered from all the different methods) about innovation and the enduring nature of youth involvement in these organizations were used to distinguish between grantees that shared the same number of elements. |
Copyright 2005 Assets for Colorado Youth
