Engaging Youth in Community Change: Outcomes and Lessons Learned from Sierra Health Foundation's REACH Youth Program. Final Evaluation Report

N

36

Adolescent Development; Child Development; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; Change Strategies; Community Change; Youth Programs; Grants; Adults; Interviews; Observation; Profiles; Health Promotion; Health Education

From 2006 to 2010, Sierra Health Foundation's REACH program committed $8 million to support the healthy development of youth in the Greater Sacramento, California, region. As a centerpiece of the larger grantmaking strategy, seven grantees in the region were selected to create community coalitions that involved both youth and adults in their planning processes and community change strategies. The socially and economically diverse group of communities included El Dorado Hills, Galt, Meadowview, Rancho Cordova, South Sacramento, West Sacramento and Woodland. Across the seven communities, several hundred youth and adults participated in sustained ways during the three-year period of the research from May 2007 to April 2010. This final REACH evaluation report--based on 346 interviews (87 with youth participants) and more than 320 observations of REACH meetings and events, as well as a review of key REACH documents and relevant literature--documents REACH outcomes and draws on an analysis of REACH evidence to articulate lessons for the field of community youth development. Appended are: (1) Coalition Profiles; (2) REACH Issue Briefs; (3) REACH External Evaluation Activities; and (4) REACH Data Sources and Methods. (Contains 3 tables and 22 footnotes.)

ERIC

9

2013

ED537766