Boston Youth Arts Evaluation Project

The Boston Youth Arts Evaluation Project (BYAEP) Framework responds to the need for an evaluation model that considers the combination of education, youth development and social services outcomes and that does justice to the beauty, complexity and holistic nature of such integrated work. The BYAEP model has the potential to provide useful comparisons of program evaluations between organizations and across disciplines. It is a result of a three-year program supported by five Boston youth arts organizations: Hyde Square Task Force, Medicine Wheel Productions, Raw Art Works, The Theater Offensive and ZUMIX.   After conducting national research of relevant evaluation tools, philosophies, and frameworks, BYAEP first hosted public stakeholder forums and encouraged participating collaborators to create their own logic models to contribute to the framework design process. Using this feedback, BYAEP designed an evaluation language and methodology that evaluated short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes according to this theory of change:  “If youth participate in high-quality arts programs, then they will develop specific skills and competencies (I Create, I Am, We Connect), which lead to a set of intermediate outcomes (able to engage and be productive, to navigate, and to make connections with others), which in turn lead to a set of long-term outcomes (resiliency, self-efficacy and personal fulfillment, and community engagement), that together constitute life successes.”   The findings of these initial evaluation efforts are posted on the BYAEP website in order for other organizations to use the BYAEP model for their own evaluations.