Resources are available to support community educational programs for at-risk children, youth, and families and are based on locally identified needs, and soundly grounded in research. The resources also help local projects to integrate programming into ongoing Extension programs for children, youth, and families—ensuring that at-risk, low-income children, youth, and families continue to be part of Extension and 4-H programs and have access to resources and educational opportunities.
A webinar on navigating school-based research recruitment featuring post-pandemic insights and strategies for effective partnerships.
The following template has been designed to ease your reporting of Common Measures data.
There are two pieces in this reporting package:
A webinar outlining ways to promote and cultivate sustainability within CYFAR programming. The webinar explains CYFAR's role in sustainability, the PSAT, how grantees score, and how to use PSAT results.
The CYFAR Program Quality Instrument (PQI) is a 19-item survey measuring the essential elements of youth program quality. This document includes the survey, reliability and validity information, administration guide, scoring instructions, acknowledgements and list of publications using the PQI.
A CYFAR PDF Report which details the CYFAR Common Measures. It assesses CYFAR youth (grades 3-12) in three main domains: resilience, life skills, and program quality. The report provides the data from CYFAR Common Measures in 2022.
A CYFAR document providing a guide to assess outcomes for CYFAR funded programs. This administration guide was created to help CYFAR grantees better prepare to administer survey measures.
A CYFAR document providing a step-by-step guide to creating a program survey and viewing datasets.
A CYFAR webinar providing an overview of generational volunteering.
A CYFAR webinar providing an overview of the CYFAR Common Measures required as part of CYFAR grants. The data collected is used by USDA–NIFA as one of many tools to fight for CYFAR dollars in congress. This webinar will briefly discusses the CYFAR Common Measures, but most time will be spent on best practices for implementation.
As humans, everything we do begins with a thought, and the quality of that thought has a direct impact on the next thing we do. This presentation and discussion will introduce overarching concepts pertaining to performance psychology as applied in high stress situations. Specific self-awareness and self-regulation skills will be shared by the Penn State University Athletic Department's Performance Psychology Services Team.
A webinar presented by the Children, Youth, and Families At-Risk (CYFAR) Professional Development and Technical Assistance (PDTA) Center that provides an overview of how the CYFAR Logic Model Builder works, its components, and use in developing logic models.
A study that explores potential positive returns from the CYFAR Initiative's financial investment. Developed by the Children, Youth, and Families At-Risk (CYFAR) Professional Development and Technical Assistance (PDTA) Center on behalf of NIFA.
Learn about the core components of implementation evaluation and explore questions and designs to carry out these evaluations through case examples. Webinar presented by Dr. Tatiana Bustos.
The benefits of high-quality out-of-school-time programs are well known but ways to persuade youth to stay engaged are not. Several studies that shed light on youth engagement are discussed below.
More Time for Teens is a report issued at the midpoint of a three-year study into participation by 432 youth at 10 Boys & Girls Clubs across the country, starting when the youth are in seventh and eighth grades. It was conducted by a firm called Public/Private Ventures.
One of the goals of CYFAR grants is to be sustainable after 5-years of funding. Understanding how to cultivate relationships while building partnerships is a key part of sustainability. Relationships are also important before asking for time, space, volunteers, funding or other resources. The Fundraising Academy's Cause Selling Education will significantly increase fundraising, including gaining other resources, through the idea of building relationships first
A Pennsylvania State University article that provides the framework of including stakeholders as a part of the strategic planning process for successful technology initiatives. The article helps identify who stakeholders are and how to include opportunities for stakeholders to participate.
A brief Arizona State University blog post that provides tips and recommendations on how nonprofit programs can utilize technology to maximize their program's impact and outreach. The six tips outline factors to keep in mind when using technology to raise funding and awareness.
A training webinar video by DaSy The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data system that provides information on how to effectively use technology platforms as an advantage. Technology tips are provided on how to virtually engage stakeholders and the audience for project meetings.
Program quality is not just outcomes but also a point of service quality, or what’s happening within interactions. Components of good program quality can include youth engagement, supportive relationships, critical thinking, and physical and emotional safety. All of these components can serve as intermediate developmental outcomes.
These models are a blueprint for what you’re doing as a program in order to evaluate if a goal was achieved and why. They can include needs, outcomes, results, indicators, activities, and resources, which should be aligned with both short term and long term goals of the program. Logic models also help provide a framework for everyone involved to help focus on results and get the desired outcome.
This video explains the importance of a community or school review board in order to protect the people involved in research from harm and experimenters from any legal issues. The review board must know what kind of data will be collected, how information will remain confidential, and how consent will be obtained. Consent can be collected passively or actively and is especially important when working with children.
This video explains the advantages and disadvantages of a program using experimental design, with the ultimate advantage of knowing that the program is the only cause of the change. Experimental design can only be achieved when the program is ready and has established protocols for program delivery.
Youth should be involved throughout the entire process in a collaborative relationship with adults. They can engage by helping think of research questions, issues, focus groups, and observation. It is key to make sure youth aren’t just saying what they do and don’t like but actually making decisions. Adults can help in this process by building their youth engagement skills through exposure to youth culture.
When entering into a new setting the best way to get results is to start with respect, and engagement in the evaluation can be a good way to do this. Key people who know the community can be good people to ask who should be part of the evaluation. People that live and have a commitment to the community know the ways something can be done better than a research team, and they want to feel empowered and part of the process to develop a meaningful outcome and understand its impact.
When a program is evidence-based, it has been through an experimental design, shown to work, and evaluated at a rigorous level. A research-based program means the incorporated content of a program is supported by current research. Model programs are listed on a website called Blueprints shown with the best evidence of effectiveness, but qualifications can vary by website.