132
enable nonprofits focused on youth training and
development to jointly create evidence- based
research. The Sundance Family Foundation had
been funding workforce development models and
strategies since 2003 including a Wunderkammer
(reverse job fair) and pathways to help youth from
training programs. Wilder Research as a part of the
Amherst Wilder Foundation has had a welldeserved local, regional, and national reputation
helping communities, government units, and nonprofits thrive by turning information into impact.
10.4 The Challenges
of Developing of Common
Instruments
The Sundance study led by Wilder Research
included nonprofits that were very different enterprises one to another—from urban agriculture, bike
shops, bakery, and consignment stores to internships and micro-grants. This spoke to the variation
of organizations working to impact the lives of
youth in their local communities. All cohort members had enterprises where youth were receiving
stipends or wages while working, and all were
employing youth living in low- income areas or in
communities of color, often in the neighborhoods
where these nonprofits are located.
Initially in 2015, each of the cohort organizations saw themselves primarily engaged in youth
development and not workforce career readiness
or training. The cultural, community, and socialemotional learning activities varied greatly from
one organization to another. Finding commonality took many meetings and several additional
months. It was also important to all cohort program staff, not only to protect the youth from too
much invasive questioning but to also measure
indicators of social-emotional development and
personal agency. How to do both at the same time
created many engaging conversations that ultimately built trust between organizations, the
foundation and the researchers. All nonprofits
were using the Youth Program Quality Assessment
Tools (YPQA) to ensure that their environments
were youth sensitive, embracing, and free from
gender and racial barriers. All nonprofits were
reporting to countless government units and providing grant evaluations to funders. Yet, these
nonprofits did not have the data captured or organized internally to assess the progress of each
student and to retain records over time. Most
nonprofits relied upon spreadsheets or reported
data to external sources.
10.5 Giving Youth
the Opportunity to Make
Changes in their World
Sparks Agency
According to Dr. Tina Kruse (2019), “Giving
youth opportunities to make change in their
immediate surroundings via social entrepreneurship—whether it’s small-scale change in a classroom procedure or a larger scale enterprise that
engages a neighborhood or beyond—results in an
experience of genuine agency.”
Through an iterative process of gathering
feedback, cohort members identified collective
and, for a few organizations, specific measures of
social-emotional development which included:
• Youth are more self-confident.
• Youth set future goals/have future aspirations/
future planning.
• Youth have increased interpersonal, teamwork, and leadership skills.
• Youth have increased sense of cultural
identity.
Indicators measuring community and social
connectedness included:
• Youth have positive relationships with caring
adults in community.
• Youth feel more connected to each other.
• Youth feel more connected to the community.
Indicators to track improved lifestyles and
healthy behaviors included:
• Youth have agency.
• Youth
have
improved
financial
self-sufficiency.
• Previous youth offenders do not reoffend; unoffenders do not start offending.*
P. Thomas et al.
enable nonprofits focused on youth training and
development to jointly create evidence- based
research. The Sundance Family Foundation had
been funding workforce development models and
strategies since 2003 including a Wunderkammer
(reverse job fair) and pathways to help youth from
training programs. Wilder Research as a part of the
Amherst Wilder Foundation has had a welldeserved local, regional, and national reputation
helping communities, government units, and nonprofits thrive by turning information into impact.
10.4 The Challenges
of Developing of Common
Instruments
The Sundance study led by Wilder Research
included nonprofits that were very different enterprises one to another—from urban agriculture, bike
shops, bakery, and consignment stores to internships and micro-grants. This spoke to the variation
of organizations working to impact the lives of
youth in their local communities. All cohort members had enterprises where youth were receiving
stipends or wages while working, and all were
employing youth living in low- income areas or in
communities of color, often in the neighborhoods
where these nonprofits are located.
Initially in 2015, each of the cohort organizations saw themselves primarily engaged in youth
development and not workforce career readiness
or training. The cultural, community, and socialemotional learning activities varied greatly from
one organization to another. Finding commonality took many meetings and several additional
months. It was also important to all cohort program staff, not only to protect the youth from too
much invasive questioning but to also measure
indicators of social-emotional development and
personal agency. How to do both at the same time
created many engaging conversations that ultimately built trust between organizations, the
foundation and the researchers. All nonprofits
were using the Youth Program Quality Assessment
Tools (YPQA) to ensure that their environments
were youth sensitive, embracing, and free from
gender and racial barriers. All nonprofits were
reporting to countless government units and providing grant evaluations to funders. Yet, these
nonprofits did not have the data captured or organized internally to assess the progress of each
student and to retain records over time. Most
nonprofits relied upon spreadsheets or reported
data to external sources.
10.5 Giving Youth
the Opportunity to Make
Changes in their World
Sparks Agency
According to Dr. Tina Kruse (2019), “Giving
youth opportunities to make change in their
immediate surroundings via social entrepreneurship—whether it’s small-scale change in a classroom procedure or a larger scale enterprise that
engages a neighborhood or beyond—results in an
experience of genuine agency.”
Through an iterative process of gathering
feedback, cohort members identified collective
and, for a few organizations, specific measures of
social-emotional development which included:
• Youth are more self-confident.
• Youth set future goals/have future aspirations/
future planning.
• Youth have increased interpersonal, teamwork, and leadership skills.
• Youth have increased sense of cultural
identity.
Indicators measuring community and social
connectedness included:
• Youth have positive relationships with caring
adults in community.
• Youth feel more connected to each other.
• Youth feel more connected to the community.
Indicators to track improved lifestyles and
healthy behaviors included:
• Youth have agency.
• Youth
have
improved
financial
self-sufficiency.
• Previous youth offenders do not reoffend; unoffenders do not start offending.*
P. Thomas et al.