It has been our absolute pleasure at TNC to work with SVP Teens, a youth-led nonprofit initiative in Waterloo Region. These young leaders create positive community level change by executing volunteer fundraisers so proceeds can be donated to other local nonprofits and charities.
We were involved with SVP Teens as an external evaluator from November 2021 – February 2022. SVP Teens began this evaluation with the goal of developing a theory of change for the program to better understand their program approach and impact. They also wanted to better understand how to serve their membership as they continue to grow.
The project was collaborative and took a youth participatory action research approach, involving several consultations with youth members and identified SVP Teens leaders. To start we delivered an introductory training to explain the purpose of evaluation. We then worked with SVP Teens members and the program manager to design evaluation tools, a comprehensive guide on survey and focus group facilitation, and an evaluation matrix to outline the connection between evaluation questions and key learning goals. To ensure we were leaving SVP Teens with the skills and confidence to implement the evaluation, we also delivered a training session on how to use the evaluation tools we developed.
Getting to work directly with the young people involved with SVP Teens was exciting, fun, and a great learning experience. SVP Teens members are passionate about improving their community, engaged in both their community and the evaluation process, and excited about the role evaluation can play in helping them ensure their initiative is impactful for the other young people taking part! Throughout the process, SVP Teens asked great questions about evaluation, many of which were new questions for our team and will be incorporated into future evaluation training sessions. Thanks SVP Teens for including us in your learning journey!
SVP Teens online – https://www.facebook.com/svpteens/ https://www.svpteens.org/
Kamaria & Laine