Youth Participation Evaluation

Ever since Inspire was founded in 1997, youth participation has been central to our work. Young people are involved at every level of Inspire – from program development and promotion, to sitting on the Board of Directors.

Inspire has just completed a comprehensive evaluation of our youth participation program, and the report is now up on our website. Two key findings of the evaluation are:

• Inspire’s youth involvement program correlates with increased levels of social connectedness and gives practical transferable skills to the young people involved.
• Youth involvement works somewhat like a magic pudding: the more staff and other stakeholders practiced youth participation, the more enthusiasm and skills they had for further involving young people.