Beyond Measure? The State of Evaluation and Action in Ontario’s Youth Sector.

Program evaluation has the potential to inform and improve youth work practice, as well as help youth sector organizations and initiatives to better understand the impact of their work. This report presents findings from the first province-wide study of the Ontario youth sector’s experiences conducting evaluations of their programs and services. This multi-focal study, led by Ontario’s Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange (YouthREX), used a Community Dialogue Approach. Grounded in an extensive literature review and drawing on survey and interview data, the report puts forward ten key recommendations for three youth sector stakeholder groups: funders, evaluation capacity builders, and youth sector organizations. The study’s contextualized examination of the youth sector’s evaluation strengths, informs YouthREX’s service delivery strategy, and contributes to critical conversations around evaluation related challenges and opportunities in the youth sector context. To learn more and access additional resources from the report, check out the YouthREX website

Community Policing-A Shared Responsibility: A Voice-Centered Relational Method Analysis of a Police/Youth-of-Color Dialogue

Racial discrimination in policing and its effect on police/minority youth relations were explored in a federally funded Canadian race relations initiative, using semistructured dialogue and voice-centered relational data analysis. Participants were frontline police officers and male youth of color. For enhancing communication between the groups, findings emphasized ongoing, face-to-face interaction. Substantial related concerns were the need for trust, respect, self-preservation, information sharing, and improved police/minority youth relations. These were understood and highlighted as embedded within a system of ruling relations in the participants' sociocultural context. Implications of these issues for police relations with racialized youth and their communities are discussed