What impact is your music project having on children and young people?
Got a brilliant music-making project on the go? Stuck for ideas on how to capture and demonstrate the impact of it? Be stuck no more with our online Evaluation Builder - tools and methods to make your evaluation as simple as 'click and print'.
I know some people find evaluation difficult, not least because most people delivering projects are not social scientists but music practitioners looking to improve young people's musical ability or communication. However, having spoken to hundreds of projects over the past few years, I know that all those involved are also clear that they are trying to change young people's lives for the better through music. To keep doing that, it's important we can all show the effects of our work in a reliable and straightforward way.
This is why Youth Music has developed a new online Evaluation Builder. All members of the Network can sign in and build their own bespoke evaluation plan from a range of questionnaires and methods that have been tried and tested by Youth Music and other organisations and researchers.
Looking to measure the outcome of 'improved musical ability for young children'?
Put the Young Musician's Development Scale in your plan.
Trying to capture changes in wellbeing over time?
Put the Wellbeing Scale in your plan.
Thinking of running a focus group to explore some key questions about what young people are getting from the project?
Try the Focus Groups guide (we even give you an example of how to write up your findings).
Want to get some stats but don't want to give out a questionnaire?
Have a look at the Creative Methods guide.
Simply look through the different scales and guides in the builder and select 'add to my plan', you'll then have a downloadable PDF with the evaluation approach you need for your project. You can then share this plan with your wider staff team and have the questionnaires, tools and techniques you need to get a reliable and robust evaluation with minimum effort (and zero cost).
The scales have been designed around the most common outcomes that funded projects are aiming to achieve, so you should find something useful for your work. If not, drop me a line and we can look at developing the resources further so that people aren't searching for days or racking their brains to find a tool or method to measure their impact. Most of this stuff is out there and people just need easy access to it. In the same way, please share your ideas and techniques for evaluation here on the Network. All the best evaluation ideas I've come accross in the past few years have come from funded projects, not psychology text books.
Enjoy building your evaluation plans and please do let me know your thoughts below...