Why measure outcomes? Knowing in concrete terms whether Youth Services and its clients are meeting their goals is important because:
- As an agency we want to continuously improve the quality of our services.
- Youth Services has information about the effectiveness of the services we provide. Youth Services can monitor and adjust to improve outcomes.
- Youth Services can evaluate and recommend changes as needed.
Youth Services has the evidence necessary to:
- Develop standards of practice based on what standards actually get better results for clients.
- Develop suggested tools and databases for services
- Participate in policy discussions and debates with evidence about the costs and benefits of services
To measure outcomes in Youth Services we:
- Agree on the specific outcomes to be achieved.
- Develop valid and reliable measurement tools for these outcomes.
- Use the tools to measure change in clients over time (including collecting and analyzing the data).
- Show a cause and effect connection between the service provision and the outcomes.