Practical Planning and Evaluation

This section focuses on the practicalities of planning for young people's participation within your service.

Doing the Groundwork (pdf) is a guide to help you to lay strong foundations for your practical planning with young people. It includes information on:

  • Strategic ownership and business planning
  • Establishing outcomes and an evaluation strategy
  • Auditing staff and creating a staff development programme
  • Partnership opportunities

You can use the Project Planning Template (Word) to help you develop your South West Participate focus activity with young people.

See the Critical Success Factors checklist (pdf) which describes the key elements that we have found from experience are needed to get your participation work with young people and partners on track and keep it going.

Use the Evaluate, Review, Advocate (pdf) guide to help you to think through key issues in planning and getting the most out of your evaluation and to think about advocacy messages to young people, staff, partners and other stakeholders.

To help you with your evaluation strategy we have developed a comprehensive Evaluation Handbook (pdf) which includes:

  • the characteristics of good evaluation
  • qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods
  • how to measure the outcomes for your service and for young people (including those who are socially excluded)
  • practical, fun and creative tools to measure outcomes for young people.

Use the Staff Skills Questionnaire (Word) to audit staff skills and confidence in working with young people at the beginning and again at the end of your Participate work.

For good practice in evaluating your youth involvement work we recommend the National Youth Agency's What's Changed tool.

Share your experiences of youth involvement at the Participate forum

These online resources are taken from The Reading Agency's new Participate programme. You are welcome to share resources with library colleagues in, but not beyond, the South West.