The Corona pandemic had a strong impact on children’s and young people’s everyday lives, their opportunities for social participation and their mental and physical health. Many young people currently feel that their needs and perspectives are ignored and overlooked by political leaders and by society as a whole. Simultaneously, there is a great need for young people to catch up in many different areas of life – for example, in the fields of physical activity, culture and health.
The German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS) is responsible for the programme “Child and Youth Participation in the Future Programme” – which, in turn, is part of the nationwide “Future Programme for Physical Activity, Culture and Health” of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). The youth participation programme offers funding to children and young people from three to 26 years of age, and supports them directly and indirectly (via public/private organisations and municipalities) developing and implementing participation projects in the thematic fields of “physical activity, culture and health”.
On behalf of the DKJS, the nexus Institute will qualitatively evaluate a selection of the funded projects. This evaluation is part of the overall evaluation of the “Child and Youth Participation” programme.
The nexus Institute will use activating participation and a range of qualitative methods to evaluate a sample of 12 to 18 funded projects. Children, adolescents and young adults of all ages will be represented in this group – as well as (project) leaders, volunteers and other people involved in the project implementation. Different methods (including creative workshops, focus groups, interviews, and participatory observations) will be used to conduct the evaluation of each project in an age-appropriate manner.
Nexus aims to involve the participating children and young people in the evaluation process and assessment of its results as much as possible. Parallel to the evaluation, the young people will therefore be able to participate in a competition of ideas. The participants who win the competition will be invited to a workshop in Berlin: here, the recommendations for action derived from the evaluation will be reflected upon and validated with the young people themselves.
Duration: 04/2023 – 12/2023
Client: Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung GmbH (DKJS)
Team: Tzvetina Arsova-Netzelmann (Project Manager), Dr. Katja Aue, Dr. Barbara Wagner, Amy Winkler
Image: das-zukunftspaket.de