Quality Efforts Successful for Teen Program
David Waldman, Director of Teen and Outreach Programming for the Arthur M. Glick Jewish Community Center (JCC), reflects on their involvement in the YPQI/A process. “Since 2004, we have been looking for a way to measure the quality of teen programming at the JCC Indianapolis. We have always looked at enrollment and financial results of programming as a way of gauging success. We knew there had to be a better way.
“MCCOY came to us and asked us to be a lead agency for the YPQA program they were bringing to Indianapolis. The High School and Outreach Director and the Director of Education and Enrichment jumped at the opportunity to become certified internal and external assessors and to apply the YPQA tool to the JCC High School Program.”
The JCC used the YPQA/I system to learn how to conduct program quality assessments, look critically at their existing High School Program using the YPQA tool, identify the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and develop and apply an improvement plan to strengthen the weaknesses identified by the YPQA. After the application of the improvement plan, they will reassess the program quality.
In addition to now having certified Youth Program Quality Assessors on staff, the JCC says that the YPQA/I provided many benefits including:
- The unique opportunity to look at the program quality of the High School Program
- The ability to share results with potential donors emphasizing the quality of the High School Program
- Increased focus to ensure that the High School program provides a safe and supportive environment, interaction between youth and peers and between adults and youth, and engagement opportunities that allow youth to lead and impact their own programming.
“It was an important decision for the JCC Indianapolis to participate in the YPQA project,” concludes David. ShareThis
YPQA Process Renders Unexpected Impact
“Our experience with YPQA has been an invaluable one,” says Nicolette Jones, Youth Services Manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc. “We were excited to finally have a tool that could validly measure the quality of the services we provide to youth. The data gathering and self evaluation process guided us in stepping outside of daily operations in order to closely observe services and relationships. It helped open our eyes to not only the things that needed improvement, but also to the things that were working really well.”
Goodwill staff benefited as well, continued Nicolette, “staff further understand their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to delivering quality service. They have been able to assess themselves and make personal goals related to YPQA.” When three staff members took advantage of the additional training to become external assessors, the benefits were greater than anticipated. “This has allowed us to see what goes on at other programs, network and collaborate. Indiana really has great youth serving organizations and youth workers. If we had not become external assessors, I am quite sure that we would not have visited some of these organizations – ever.”
The YPQA process has allowed everyone on staff to get involved in the development of an improvement plan to enhance Goodwill’s services “It started with direct staff and had input from executive staff. Many times, plans are developed either top down or without the support of executive staff,” said Nicolette. “Our improvement plan is going to help us excel in the areas of youth engagement and interaction, while keeping with the organizations mission. By this time next year, we expect that the majority of our participants will want to spend the majority of their day here, not just in GED or job training, but also in other activities that allow the youth and staff to interact on a level that is more interpersonal.
“MCCOY has been very supportive in this whole process. They are accessible and available to answer questions and provide assistance. We are grateful to MCCOY for having the foresight to bring the YPQA tool to central Indiana as a means to measure quality in youth programming.”
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