New evaluation tool measures key youth development outcomes of nature-based programs

Something magical happens when a diverse group of young people go into beautiful, remote places in nature together. Courage, confidence and community awareness grow—and wonderment is as common as rain. I have seen over and over again how the Boys and Girls Outdoor Leadership Development (BOLD & GOLD) program fosters a sense of awe, agency and connectedness between youth participants—and with the natural world.

And yet despite what I know to be the value of YMCA BOLD & GOLD and other programs with similar aims, I often find myself at a loss to provide “hard data” on the important youth development outcomes these programs provide. Even more, it’s difficult to “prove” why nature is such a crucial ingredient in reaching our youth development goals. 

Our evaluations have focused on things we can count—hours, attendance, activities—without knowing if or how those factors help young people thrive. In order for nature-based programs to receive the recognition and funding they deserve, it’s imperative that we fill the “data gap” on the impact of these programs.

Over the past year, we partnered with the Children & Nature Network and Hello Insight, a national leader in youth program evaluation, to develop a new evaluation tool that measures youth development and social-emotional learning in nature-based programs. Our hope is that this work will provide more effective, benchmarked evaluation options and build a data set that can help the broader field show the impact of nature-based youth programs to funders, policymakers and other decision makers.

In developing the tool, co-founder and Hello Insight COO Sally Munemitsu said, “For too long, youth-serving organizations have been impeded by the limitations of the traditional definition of evaluation. We believe there is a better way and we know we are not alone in wanting actionable insights that drive change and smarter decision making.”

Last summer, with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, nine YMCA BOLD & GOLD sites around the U.S. implemented the Hello Insight evaluation tool. While the outdoor module is still in the pilot phase, we were able to leverage Hello Insight’s real-time data collection and reporting to understand our social emotional learning (SEL) outcomes. We also received youth feedback on program quality—again in real-time—allowing us to make adjustments during the program. 

The data confirmed what we always felt—that our outdoor youth leadership programs have a big impact on participants. We saw that 96% of youth had success in at least one SEL capacity such as positive identity, self-management and social skills (learn more about how Hello Insight defines these terms). More than three-quarters (76%) had success in 3 or more SEL capacities, demonstrating the depth of their growth. 

We also measured the quality of our program, benchmarked against what research shows is best practice. 90% of young people felt safe and supported by our staff and 82% of youth were encouraged to take a risk and try something new, even when it was difficult. 

My colleague, national BOLD & GOLD program manager Michael Davis, sums it up this way:

 “The survey and the results it gave were more than we ever could have imagined. Having metrics that other programs and partners understand has allowed us to translate the wonderful experience of expedition programming and easily integrate it into grant applications, job descriptions and benchmarks for our programs to grow. While it took a bit to learn how to best use the information, now we have a process that captures the magic of the on-trail happenings. It is a new integral part of our work.”

We now invite you to join the pilot cohort of organizations who are testing this new measurement tool and helping to grow the data set for all. Hello Insight is offering 25% off a one-year subscription (starting at $1,000), which includes:

• One-on-one consultation to maximize your Hello Insight learning experience
• Evaluation results on outcomes such as connections to nature, environmental well-being, equitable engagement and group reflection 
• Real-time social-emotional learning reports, pre and post program
• Data-driven positive youth development (PYD) recommendations and resources
• Cohort webinars with other peers joining the pilot 
• Report on nature-based measurement areas at pilot-end

You can learn more at a free webinar on Friday, November 5 from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm CST or by scheduling a Hello Insight demo.

I strongly believe that being immersed in the outdoors is a key component of the positive impact we measured and I am excited that we will soon have the data to prove it.

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