February 21, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Youth Participatory Evaluation: Strategies for Engaging Young People
by Kim Sabo Flores
Young people can gain leadership and teamwork skills, build relationships with adults, and learn about politics and civic responsibility by working on projects in which they evaluate “the programs, organizations, agencies, and systems that have been designated to serve them,” writes Kim Sabo Flores, a nonprofit and foundation consultant.
Such evaluations engage young people in improving youth-development and other programs by involving them in collecting data, developing measurements of how the program is performing, interviewing participants, and offering suggestions about what works and what doesn’t.
The author provides a guide to starting such a project, discussing in 12 chapters the theories behind the approach and the practical details of working with young people day to day.
Ms. Flores suggests that young people assume the roles of team manager, interviewer, data-entry expert, survey developer, and others. Such activities will help the young team members develop empathy, communication skills, and confidence, the author says.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103; (800) 956-7739; fax (317) 572-4002; http://www.josseybass.com; 181 pages; $45; ISBN 978-0-7879-8392-5.
