Supported with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Research & Evaluation Center worked with two innovative youth services agencies to improve their capacity for sound evaluation and to evaluate their effectiveness. The two agencies, Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) based in Harrisburg, PA and exalt of New York City, are dynamic providers of community-based services and supports for disconnected, at-risk, and justice-involved youth.

The Casey Foundation project was part of JohnJayREC’s initiative, Evidence Generation. Center staff worked with agencies to enhance their evidence base and to ensure that their programs adhered to reasonable standards of practice. Staff also assisted agencies with their data systems to facilitate their progress toward becoming evidence based.

The Research and Evaluation Center also administered surveys of agency reform as part of the Evidence Generation Initiative. The goal of the survey was to document routine practices, create theories of change and logic models, and explore the measures necessary to organize mission-relevant data.

Core Staff
Jeffrey A. Butts (PI), Rhoda Ramdeen

Funding
$300,000