Program evaluation plan for the AmeriCorps 4-H Outreach Program

Abstract

Access to before and after school educational programming has been shown to increase academic achievement and decrease behavioral issues for youth in kindergarten through 12th grade. In Iowa, low-income, and rural students have limited access to these educational programs and opportunities. Even if there are agencies in place to provide this programming, staff capacity tends to be insufficient. The Iowa AmeriCorps 4-H program employs national service members across the state to provide positive youth development activities to youth who attend before and after school programs. Members serve in host organizations, like extension districts, county conservation programs, and local nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this creative component was to establish an evaluation plan for the AmeriCorps 4-H program, based upon performance measures established by federal legislation which outlines AmeriCorps programming requirements, including budgetary oversight and evaluation protocols. To receive competitive or federal funding, an evaluation must be implemented every three years to satisfy federal evaluation requirements as described by the AmeriCorps Notice of Funding Opportunity. The evaluation plan was designed to (a) measure program outcomes and impacts related to the development of social-emotional skills in youth who have participated in a minimum of six hours of AmeriCorps 4-H programming; (b) local programmatic outcomes and outputs and (c) stories and satisfaction levels submitted by AmeriCorps 4-H members. At the time of submission of the creative component, the instruments had not been field-tested.