The Club believes strongly in evaluation and measurement and has developed an organizational score card to effectively measure and report progress and impact. See the Report to Stakeholders.
An integral part of the Club's evaluation strategy is an annual survey of members. This survey was developed in partnership with Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD) and Stanford University.
The survey asks about five supports and opportunities that young people need to experience in a youth development program in order to move towards positive long-term outcomes. Program effectiveness can then be measured by participants' experience of these five factors. The five supports and opportunities are:
- Safety : Students need to feel both physically and emotionally safe to maximize their development
- Relationship building : Students need to establish healthy and positive relationships both within their peer group as well as with adults
- Skill building : Students not only need to develop skills, but they also need to understand they are improving their skill sets
- Community involvement : Students need to have both a knowledge of their community as well as seeing themselves as important social actors within this context
- Youth participation : Students need to feel like they have a voice in determining the programming in which they participate
The survey also asks members about the following targeted attitudes and life skills:
- Social connectedness
- Optimism
- Self efficacy
- Academic efficacy
- Educational expecations
- Teacher relationships
- Understanding of the importance of school
- Academic behaviors
- Healthy lifestyles
The Club also evaluates impact based quantitative and qualitative objectives which are set annually. Progress is reviewed regularly by the Club's management and Board of Directors through sub-committees.
In addition, the Club engages students from the School of Education at Stanford University to evaluate strategic issues. The student's, who work in teams or 2-5, work with Club staff, youth, Board members and external partners to complete studies and share their findings with the Board of Directors, staff and other stakeholders. The following are studies which have been competed recently.
Fall 2008
Fall 2007
