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Opportunity Youth Program Evaluation Paper

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Funding is one of the most fundamental aspects with regards to providing social services in any setting. Children’s Arts & Science Workshops, Inc. (CASW) is a non-profit organization that runs programming both on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the Soundview area in the Bronx. As a result of my field placement with Ittleson Center pending, I will be evaluating CASW. The program specifically, I will explore in this paper is Opportunity Youth Program (OYP) this is a Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) initiative Pilot Program that is entering in its third year in NYC. CASW as an agency lacks one specific measurement tool with regards to evaluating effectiveness of all of their programs. However, both DYCD auditors and CASW OYP staff assess the level of participant success using a combination of Standardized Self-Report Scales and Pre and Post Test Evaluation. Though, I comprehend the purpose of evaluating a program for the sake of funding, I also consider evaluation of services/programs to be useful to provide comparative data on program performances and to provide higher quality service for the participants/communities it services. The OYP is specifically …show more content…

Another concern that I have is that the language of the measurement tools are written in English and this makes the assumption that all participants can read/write proficiently in English. In their book, Evaluating practice: Guidelines for the Accountable Professional (2009), Martin Bloom, Joel Fischer and John Orme state, “The client may simply not want to provide information or unwittingly provide inaccurate information. Clients might tell you what they think you want to hear” (Bloom, Fischer, Orme, 2009, p.198). In essence, the authors make the point that there are limitations with self-report scales such as but not limited to the ones mentioned

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