How Youth Surveys Guide Collective Community Investment and Planning: Benefits of Using Youth Data
Guiding Collective Change Action Guides » How Youth Surveys Guide Collective Community Investment and Planning: Benefits of Using Youth Data
What Works: Youth Surveys
Since 2012, communities using the Evidence2Success® framework have collected youth survey data in local public schools as part of a community- and systems-driven effort to improve youth and family well-being. The team from the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State has evaluated this process all along the way, from the early survey planning stages through data collection and use by leaders and communities.
Based on that data and the experiences of those implementing the survey, we share the following:
- key benefits experienced by communities using the framework, including its feasibility and usefulness, growth community-wide in using data to make decisions, and cross-sector collaboration;
- candid lessons learned about how others can approach similar work in their own community; and
- a challenge to think about integrating this work system-wide.
For a lot of folks who use the Youth Experience Survey, it’s a way to guide investment to what the community really needs, not what people think they need.
– A leader based in a community organization
Get Started with Your Community
To learn how your community might benefit from using a youth survey, download the publication How Youth Surveys Guide Collective Community Investment and Planning: Benefits of Youth Data.
Pay attention to what benefits emerged for the six Evidence2Success communities who used youth surveys in their communities. Then, think about your community and the youth and families who live there.
As you read, ask yourself:
- How is my community currently gathering feedback from the young people who live here about how they are doing?
- Are we able to answer questions of well-being about local youth, such as: What worries the youth in my community? How confident are they in their ability to learn in school? Are they supported by family and friends? Do the youth in this community feel safe?
- On what basis does my community prioritize its public investments in youth and family well-being?
- Who in my community is working together to make decisions about the well-being of youth and families? And, who is missing from the discussion?
The action guide’s section “Insider’s View: Getting the Youth Survey to Work in Your Community” will help you navigate these questions and more.
This is the first of five action guides based on core components of the Evidence2Success framework that has been implemented in the communities of Providence, Rhode Island; Selma City, Alabama; Kearns, Utah; Mobile, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and, Miami, Florida.
The survey provides the evidence needed to prioritize what factors and substances we will address… Having data directly from youth is vital in being able to select programs that meet their needs.
– A coordinator from a local public system
