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Youth Intervention Programs vary in duration, intensity, and services offered. Therefore, a general outcome survey has been designed to measure protective factors developed as a result of the program.

These protective factors are based on Search Institute’s Developmental Assets® and are used with permission. (Copyright © 1997, 2006 Search Institute®, Minneapolis, MN, 55413. www.searchinstitute.org)

The outcome survey consists of 4 demographic questions, a checklist of 9 statements, and 1 short answer question. It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

What You Need to Know About Your YIP Survey Requirement

  • All YIP grantees are required to administer the outcome survey to youth and to collect 20 or more responses each year.
  • A program may request an exemption from the survey requirement annually if it has limited contact with youth or primarily serves youth under the age of 10. Programs that use their own survey may also request exemption if they agree to provide that survey data to YIPA for reporting purposes. Exemptions must be preapproved by YIPA. To request an exemption, email gaonu@yipa.org.
  • Youth must willingly agree to participate, with no consequences for declining. Any incentives to take the survey may not exceed a small token of thanks.
  • The survey has no unique identifiers so parental consent is not needed but we recommend informing parents or guardians that their youth will be asked to take a survey.
  • If your program is open ended the survey should be administered no later than 3 months after a youth starts your program. You may give the survey earlier based on average length of participation.
  • To protect confidentiality, programs cannot access individual survey responses by youth.
  • Responses cannot be back-dated in the SurveyMonkey app. The date of entry is counted as the completed date so be sure all responses are entered prior to the end of year reporting deadline.
  • The Minnesota Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is notified by YIPA annually regarding the number of surveys each YIP grantee collects.

How to Administer the Survey

Each program is assigned a unique program code for their participants to enter in order to complete the survey. Without this code YIPA cannot tell which programs submitted surveys, nor can your data be relayed back to your program. If you don’t know your code, email gaonu@yipa.org. Your program can choose to administer the survey in one of two ways:

Online Survey

  • On any computer with internet access, enter this SurveyMonkey link to start the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YIP_outcomes. We recommend adding this link to the “Favorites” menu on computers used by participants.
  • Youth must take the survey all the way to the end or their answers may not be saved. Do not start or stop mid-survey.
  • Any staff can test-drive the survey by going to the SurveyMonkey link. On question number 2, which asks for the program code, scroll down the list and select “Test/Train.” These responses will be excluded from reporting so results will not be skewed.

Paper Administration

  • Programs that elect to use a paper survey are responsible for having a staff person enter the paper responses into the online survey website before the reporting deadline. YIPA cannot accept or enter paper copies for you.
  • A staff who does not work with the youth should access the same SurveyMonkey link shown above and enter youths’ responses exactly as they appear on the paper copy.
  • Using paper surveys can be less reliable than online surveys. Youth may accidentally answer questions with more than one answer or cross out an answer they wish to change. This leaves staff in a position of having to interpret youth responses at the time of data entry. Generally, if a youth left any questions blank, or if the intent of any youth’s response is not clear because they marked more than one answer, the staff should select “I do not wish to answer.”
  • Once a staff has entered a youth’s paper response into the online survey site, the paper copy of the survey should be destroyed.

Survey Reports YIPA Provides

YIP Outcome Survey data provides invaluable information for grantees and YIPA to utilize in support of validating the social and economic benefits of Youth Intervention. YIPA generates three types of reports for you from the survey responses:
  1. Individual Grantee Report This report is organization-specific and is generated for organizations that have at least one survey response entered into the SurveyMonkey database.
  2. All Grantees Report This report includes responses from all organizations that have survey responses in the SurveyMonkey database.
  3. Outcome Summary Report This report summarizes the outcome data for the entire year. We email this report to all grantees after December 31 each year.

When to Expect Your Survey Reports

  • Mid-year (for January 1 to June 30 responses) During the first full week in July, we’ll email your Individual Grantee Report and the All Grantees Report to you.
  • End of year (for January 1 to December 31 responses) By January 31, we’ll email your Individual Grantee Report, the All Grantees Report, and the Outcome Summary to you.
  • At your request (impromptu) We’re happy to help you meet your minimum requirement of 20 survey responses per calendar year so anytime you want to know how many your program has collected, just email us at gaonu@yipa.org or call 651-300-1146.

Thank you for your service to our young people. We value you and the work you do. We won’t rest in our relentless advocacy on your behalf until Youth Intervention is wholeheartedly supported and fully funded.

If you have questions about the YIP Outcome Survey, please contact us at gaonu@yipa.org or 651-300-1146.

Sincerely,

Your friends at YIPA