planning and evaluating

One of the nicest things about tonight's session (as well as the great acting / improvising - nice one guys!) was how enthusiastically the young people got involved in the evaluation at the end.

It's common on youth projects for workers to meet and evaluate for quarter of an hour after each session. At the start of this project us workers felt we had not given enough time to group evaluation in the past, and we decided to commit to half an hour each week. We also decided to invite young people to take part as equal members of the team.

Tonight 5 young people and 3 workers huddled in a corner of the cold room, giving feedback on good and bad things about the session, and planning the next session. I liked the way we all talked about good and bad things and were honest with each other, as if it was just a workers' meeting. Especially I liked the way people kept taking next week's session plan from each other, adding to it and writing their names against the jobs!

What we wrote down doesn't really capture the whole discussion... esp. how much we talk about what food to get for the next session, who's going to get it and how much they should spend! Also, don't get the idea everyone is sitting around politely, there's all sorts of phones going off and random conversations / gossip - but honestly, is this any different to most staff evaluations?!

So far I think it's a good idea, explicitly involving the group in responsibility for the smooth running of the sessions. It varies, but that's cool... sometimes the whole group gets involved and other times not even all the workers can stay... tonight was a good one!

What do you think!?! Add a comment!!! You don't have to write as much as me, ha ha!