Community Science helped create an evaluation practice for Groundwork USA’s Green Team program. The Green Team model includes 1) youth empowerment and environmental stewardship and 2) efforts to connect residents to their communities. They aim to create a future generation of environmentalists and leaders, representative of United States demographics and who expose issues particular to people of color. Local Green Team communities engage high-schoolers in this youth development program and seek to reclaim and revive environmentally contaminated areas.
Our deliverables included a work plan, theory of change, logic model, evaluation practices and data collection, guidebook, and pilot training. The team’s deep engagement in a collaborative learning process (creating buy-in on the importance of evaluation to each Green Team, listening to nuanced perspectives, understanding the program’s complexity) helped design an evaluation that fits a small organization and measures well. We trained leaders to roll out the evaluation in a pilot involving five Green Team trusts. During the pilot, we provided technical assistance and helped refine the tools thereby building Green Team’s capacity for evaluation, measuring impact, and relaying the impact of its programs. 00534