Our Evidence and Evaluation Manager, Vera Stiefler Johnson, and our Senior Grants Officer, Andy Richardson, work closely with our grantees to deliver a wide range of evaluation projects. Below, they explore how building capacity for evaluation amongst delivery organisations in the youth employment sector is good for organisations, and good for young people.
Since launching our What Works Programme in 2020, Youth Futures Foundation has funded 25 organisations across England. We have invested in approaches that show promise in supporting young people to access good jobs, and are committed to creating robust evidence of “what works” through high-quality evaluations.
Through our work with delivery organisations, however, we have found that many do not have the necessary resources and infrastructure to conduct high-quality evaluations of their programmes. We support organisations to build their capacity to do so. To us, capacity-building generally simply refers to the development and strengthening of the skills, instincts, processes, and resources needed to improve performance. Organisations are building their capacity all the time for a wide range of purposes, such as delivering a better programme or reaching new people.
Capacity-building for evaluation includes activities that support the delivery of high-quality evaluations—and it can take many forms. It may involve ensuring that project teams have the appropriate personnel, such as data or impact officers, or that the necessary data collection and processing protocols have been developed and tested. It can even involve providing the right tech for teams to do their work more efficiently. For example, Cumbria Youth Alliance upgraded their management information system and recruited and trained a young person to maintain it.
