What do young people think about what we do | Practical tools and tips

The responses you receive from young people about the experience they have of your provision should form part of your continuous improvement cycle. If some or all are not feeling and experiencing what you intended, you will need to review the design of your provision or service. Even if most of them are, you may still reveal opportunities to refine how you do what you do.

Starting point

Start here if you are a youth practitioner new to evaluation and quality improvement design​:

17 questions to gather feedback from young people about your programme

If you're looking for some ideas on what types of questions to ask young people in order to gain valuable feedback about your practice, this list (developed by the Learning Partner consortium of the Youth Investment Fund) is a good place to start. 

Access the list

The Listening Fund Feedback Questions​

If you want feedback on how well you have listened to young people, this report and ‘listening questions’ (p.51) from the Listening Fund will be invaluable guides. ​

Read the report

Youth-Led Research as Equity​

This short abstract by Emily Ozer (2010) summarises the importance of youth-led research in creating equity for young people, and enabling young people to create an equitable world. ​

This approach involves young people designing and undertaking their own research projects. A useful web guide and introductory film are available from Berkeley University.

Read the abstract

Advanced

Resources to build on your experience of evaluation frameworks and continuous quality improvement:

Youth Participatory Action Research

This approach involves young people designing and undertaking their own research projects. A useful web guide and introductory film are available from Berkeley University.

Access the guide

Involving Youth in Research

If you want an in-depth exploration of the involvement of young people in research, this PDF guide by Annika Ollner (2010) has 100 pages of tips, methods, and perspectives.

Access the guide

A Young Person’s Advisory Group​

If you are interested in having young people advise you, as adults, about your evaluation plans, you might want to set up a YPAG. This eYPAG network website has a comprehensive toolkit to guide you through the process successfully.

Access the toolkit

Resources for Youth Participatory Evaluation

If the involvement of young people in your evaluation activities is of interest, Act for Youth offers a range of eight toolkits on this website.

Access the site

Youth Participatory Research Resources

If you want to know even more, this guide by Stuart (2021) lists 53 different guides and toolkits to support youth participatory action research.

Access the report

The Social Publishing Foundation Knowledge Base

The Social Publishing Foundation specialise in supporting young people and youth practitioners to publish their work through a peer support process. Their knowledge base has a specialist area for young people’s research - this would be a great place for the young people you work with to share their learning.

Access the Knowledge Base
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Case study

A large organisation realised its ‘youth voice’ group had become tokenistic with the group tackling relatively surface issues such as decoration in the centre. Instead, they trained young people in youth participatory action research (YPAR). The young people selected their own organisational improvement questions, approached the projects through action research, and co-produced actions with their leaders. Their first YPAR project led to the organisation developing a mental health strategy across all its activities to address the unmet needs that surfaced through the young people’s research.