Evaluation Phase I: Grantee Assessment – Understanding Readiness Prior to data collection, Imoyase conducted site visits or virtual meetings with all 49 organizations to better understand grantee readiness to participate in evaluation activities. These preliminary conversations, and the quality review processes that followed, illuminated several challenges that were previously unknown to the R2R team based solely on an initial review of grantee applications. • Site visits to the organizations revealed that nearly all grantees needed evaluation support to meet their internal evaluation needs and to respond to the requirements of the R2R cross-site evaluation. • Because of existing capacity issues, many grantees found reporting and outcome evaluation activity requirements onerous even though they reported seeing the value in collecting data. • Once data collection launched, some organizations were not able to report on important characteristics (e.g., LGBTQ+, justice-involved, foster care status, etc.) of their participants because as a general routine, they do not systematically collect this information as part of their participant database. As a result, there were more missing data points than expected. •A s reporting continued, grantees faced challenges in understanding the various components of the cross-site evaluation, how the data can help individual organizations. For some grantees, evaluation that is rooted in culturally relevant themes and positive youth development is counter to their basic reporting experiences and they need more time to understand its value. Within this context, the evaluators needed to tailor cross-site activities based on individual grantees’ capacity so that no groups would be left out.
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Ready to Rise Annual Report - 2020
