Youth Impact Explained: Part 4

This article is the final part of my four part series titled Youth Impact Explained and builds on the concepts explained in “Youth Impact Explained: Part 3”. In this article I will explain how those who have not yet began to operate youth programs, services, or events, can best position their efforts to truly provide measurable impact.

New Efforts

Step 1 – Identify a broad target group to be impacted:

To begin the analysis you will need to decide whether you want to impact male and/or female targets. In addition, you will need to determine what age group (0-25) the target group will be and what location you would like to impact (a congregation, a community, a city, state, etc.)

The target group is solely dependent on the your initial intentions and should reflect a group you have the direct power to impact. The deliverable for this step is to develop a target group statement that identifies an estimate target group of individuals.

Example 1: Org defines it’s target group as, “ Male youth, between the ages of 5-14 that live within neighborhood X.”;

Example 2: Org defines its target group as, “Males and females between the ages of 18-25 and attend X university”

Please note: The target group may narrow or widen throughout the process, as the analysis may reveal issues that affect a larger or smaller group of individuals within your target group.

Step 2 – Identify the overarching issue affecting the target group:

In this context, “overarching issue” is defined as a broad problem that is affecting the substantial amount of members of the targeted group.

To identify a new overarching issue, you will need to gather and analyze data from the target group to spot broad negative trends that are occurring. Examples of this data are: Statistics, reports, surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, symposiums, articles; etc.

During the analysis, you may spot more than one overarching issue. Should this occur, proceed through the process with each overarching issue individually. The deliverable for this step is a overarching issue statement.

Example 1: Org defines it’s overarching issue as “ We are working to address the rapid growth in street related violence within our target group of boys ages 5-17 in X area”;

Example 2: Org defines its overarching issue as “ We are working to address the rising rape and abuse rates within our target group of girls ages 20-25 in X area”.

Step 3 - Determine your broad end result:

In this context, “broad end result” is defined as the final point of measurement a program will work to accomplish.

The deliverable for this step is a statement that is clear, specific, measurable, and controllable.

• Clear (The statement must be written with such clarity that a reasonable person could easily understand what is to be accomplished. )
• Specific (The statement must reference the overarching issue statement, must define exactly what it plans to accomplish, must define exactly what date the end result will be met)
• Measurable (The statement must include a measuring percentage or number. Raise by X% by X Date, Lower by X% by X Date, Add X by X Date, Reduce X by X Date, Etc.)
• Controllable (The statement must infer that the end result will be accomplished by performing your efforts with little influence of uncontrollable forces. )

Example 1: Org defines it’s broad end result as “ Based on the fact that within our target group, boys ages 5-17 are experiencing a rapid growth in street related violence and the current % is X%, this program will reduce the street related violence by X% no later than X Date;

Example 2: Org defines it’s broad end result as “Based on the fact that within our target group girls ages 20-25 rape and abuse rates are steadily increasing and currently at X %, this program will reduce the amount of rape and abuse victims in our targeted group by X% no later than X Date.”

Step 4 - Analyze your underlying issues: 

This step is final step of the process and is designed to help identify underlying issues that your efforts will work to solve.

In this context, an “underlying issue” is defined as the narrow problems that are derived from the overarching issue and work against the fulfillment of the broad end-result.

The objective of this step is to spot as many underlying problems within your target group and rank them based on which has the highest potential of interfering with you broad end result. Its recommended that you gather as much data possible around your issues as possible. This data could include: Community reports, police reports, statistics, studies, etc.

The deliverable for this step is a list of underlying issues that are clear and specific.

Example 1:

1.    No safe alternative during high crime hours

2.    Gangs contribute to 95% of the violence

Example 2:

1.    No sexual education courses

2.    75% of rape cases come from women walk home between 9 pm and 11 pm.

Summary

To truly provide impact, you must know what you are working to accomplish and have a solid plan on how to get there. This analysis is just the beginning of providing impact, but should help you build the best solution you can for the youth.