Hi! My name is Maria Montenegro and I am the Chair of EvalYouth North America as well as the AEA representative to EvalYouth. Two years ago, I had the idea of establishing an EvalYouth regional chapter in North America to raise awareness of global evaluation initiatives in Canada and the United States.
Fast forward to April 2023, our chapter was part of Youth in Evaluation Week where we celebrated important advancements towards meaningful inclusion of youth in evaluation in North America and the rest of the world. A few highlights of our participation include:
- Our free Career Development Training for Young and Emerging Evaluators (YEEs) that took place in April 23rd
- Our blog post celebrating the American Evaluation Association’s efforts to advance meaningful inclusion of youth including but not limited to:
- Supporting EvalYouth North America to offer a Career Development Training at AEA2022, the first ever free pre-conference workshop!
- Establishing an AEA- SenÉval partnershipthrough which they developed and delivered a webinar and workshop on youth-focused evaluation
- Collaboration with the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) fellows to develop a critical desk review that informed decision-making and planning
- Our blog post celebrating the Canadian Evaluation Association’s efforts to advance meaningful inclusion of youth including but not limited to:
- Reinvigorating the role of EvalYouth-CES representative in 2022
- Dedicated YEE focused initiatives including the CES mentorship platform, case competition, SEE (Student and Emerging Evaluator) newsletter, and SEE virtual meet-ups
- Modification of SEEK Awards to include non-student YEEs to lower barriers for new evaluators to participate in the Canadian evaluation community
The week-long event had a vibrant participation from North America evaluation actors including:
- Bradlie Nabours sharing experiences of EvalYouth North America in the Twitter Space “EvalYouth experiences”
- Shelby Corley sharing about EvalAcademy’s learning opportunities in the Twitter Space “Learning and job opportunities in evaluation”
- Blue Marble Evaluation’s panel on discussing Blue Marble Perspectives on intergenerational Evaluation for Transformation
- Youth Excel Consortium’s session on Youth-led implementation research for youth-led learning
And we joined the Eval4Action advocacy campaign and EvalYouth Global to continue advancing the meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation by:
- Promoting the Youth in Evaluation Manifesto among individuals, organizations, governments, and VOPEs
- Celebrating the launch of the Standards for enhancing meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation to provide practical guidance and pathways for organizations of all types to initiate and advance the meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation
Get Involved!
We are proud to see the support and efforts we have received from North America evaluation players. We invite you to join our efforts by signing the manifesto, adopting the standards, and joining future Eval4Action events!
The American Evaluation Association is hosting International and Cross-Cultural (ICCE) TIG Week with our colleagues in the International and Cross-Cultural Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our ICCE TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.