Evaluation
One of the hallmarks of youngballymun is rigorous and revealing ongoing evaluation in order to benchmark results against the hoped-for outcomes from the initiative as a whole.
Evaluation will help to uncover what works, why it works, what’s falling short and why it is falling short – in order to ensure the highest quality service delivery, to share that learning further afield and to inform national policy. The evaluation will be a multi-level qualitative and quantitative process to ascertain outcomes from the work and identify the features of the youngballymun methodology that contributed to those outcomes. Rigorous evaluation allows youngballymun to report with authority to the local community in Ballymun, to funders and to national policy and resource decision-makers. It is hoped that lessons from Ballymun will be useful to other communities on the island of Ireland. youngballymun will creatively and actively promote the learning from the evaluation and create opportunities to share new insights and new information as the process evolves.
The evaluation is overseen by an Expert Advisory Committee (EAC)
Expert Advisory Committee
The EAC is chaired by John Dunne, Chair of the Board of youngballymun and its members are drawn from a pool of international expertise in research and evaluation in service provision to children and young people. The international
expert members of the youngballymun EAC are Mark Dynarski (Mathematica, US), Marjorie Smith (Thomas Coram Research Institute, University of London, UK) and Eilis Hennessey (School of Psychology, UCD, ROI).
The youngballymun staff members are Ann Stellenberg and Eleanor Mc Clorey. The EAC provides independent advice, valued support and critical oversight to an integrated and dynamic evaluation process.
The Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and The Atlantic Philanthropies are in attendance at EAC meetings - Elizabeth Canavan and Albert O' Donoghue from the OMCYA and Gail Birkbeck, Jane Forman and Tom Costello from the AP.
The Children's Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin and the Child and Family Research Centre, NUI Galway are working with youngballymun to develop an evaluation plan for the strategy. This work will be complete in August 2008. The team developing this plan comprise the following individuals - Michelle Share, Liz Kearns, Sheila Green, John Canavan, Pat Dolan and Akke Vellinga.
This work will be completed in November 2008.
