The child’s voice is often excluded in child and family service programme evaluations, with research traditionally favouring the views of parents, carers and other adults. Evaluations that do not provide adequate opportunities for children and young people (CYP) to be involved potentially risk misunderstanding wider programme impacts and minimising CYP-specific outcomes. CareSouth has piloted an evaluation utilising body-mapping to collect programme feedback from CYP to provide valuable insights into perceived outcomes in areas of social connection, cognitive skills and development of positive personal identity. This article will share insights and lessons CareSouth encountered during the evaluation, the methods used to ensure ethical evaluation and the lessons for other child and family service practitioners looking to extend meaningful consultation with CYP to ensure greater understanding of holistic programme impacts.
AitkenS.MillarS. (2002). Listening to children. Sense.
2.
AldersonP. (2000). Children as researchers: The effects of participation rights on research methodology. In ChristensenP.JamesA. (Eds.), Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices (pp. 276–290). Falmer Press/Routledge.
3.
BrittoM.SlapG.DeVellisB.HornungR.AthertonH.KnopfJ.DeFrieseG. (2007). Specialists understanding of the health care preferences of chronically ill adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40;, 334–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.10.020
4.
CarrR.Evans-LockeK.Abu-SaifH.BoucherR.DouglasK. (2018). Peer learning to employable: Learnings from an evaluation of PASS attendee and facilitator perceptions of employability at Western Sydney University. Journal of Peer Learning, 11, 41–64. https://ro.uow.edu.au/ajpl/vol11/iss1/4
5.
ChouinardJ. A. (2013). The case for participatory evaluation in an era of accountability. American Journal of Evaluation, 34(2), 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214013478142
6.
ClarkA. (2005). Ways of seeing: Using the Mosaic approach to listen to young children’s perspective. In ClarkA.KjorholtA.MossP. (Eds.), Beyond listening: Children’s perspectives on early childhood services (pp. 29–49). Policy Press. http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/17079
7.
CollingsS.WrightA. C.WrenJ. (2019, May). Using arts-based methods to hear the voices of birth mothers about experiences of contact [Conference session]. Child Aware Conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
CoyneI.HayesE.GallagherP.ReganG. (2006). Giving children a voice: Investigation of children’s experiences of participation in consultation and decision-making in Irish hospitals. Office of the Minister for Children, Government Publications Stationary. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/25352/
10.
CraigJ.BaglivioM.WolffK.PiqueroA.EppsN. (2017). Do social bonds buffer the impact of adverse childhood experiences on reoffending?Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 15(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204016630033
11.
DanbyS.FarrellA. (2005). Opening the research conversation. In FarrellA. (Ed.), Ethical research with children (pp. 49–67). Open University Press.
12.
De JagerA.TewsonA.LudlowB.BoydellK. (2016). Embodied ways of storying the self: A systematic review of body-mapping. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 17, Article 22. http://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-17.2.2526
13.
FarrellA. (2005). New possibilities for ethical research with children. In FarrellA. (Ed.), Ethical research with children (pp. 176–178). Open University Press.
14.
FettermanD.Rodríguez-CamposL.WandersmanA.O’SullivanR. (2014). Collaborative, participatory and empowerment evaluation: Building a strong conceptual foundation for stakeholder involvement approaches to evaluation (A Response to Cousins, Whitmore and Shulha, 2013). American Journal of Evaluation, 35(1), 144–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214013509875
HartasD. (2008). The right to childhoods. Continuum.
17.
HerreraC.GrossmanJ.KauhT.FeldmanA.McMakenJ.JucovyL. (2007). Making a difference in schools: The big brothers big sisters school-based mentoring impact study. Public/Private Ventures.
18.
HutchfieldJ.CorenE. (2011). The child’s voice in service evaluation: Ethical and methodological issues. Child Abuse Review, 20, 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.1142
19.
KellettM. (2010). Rethinking children and research: Attitudes in contemporary society. Continuum.
KingstonK. (2016). Development of a child evaluation framework for early childhood services using deliberative democratic evaluation and the Mosaic approach. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 16(3), 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X1601600304
LeeN. (1999). The challenge of childhood: Distributions of childhood’s ambiguity in adult institutions. Childhood, 6(4), 455–474. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568299006004005
24.
MishnaF.AntleB.RegehrC. (2004). Tapping the perspectives of children: Emerging ethical issues in qualitative research. Qualitative Social Work, 3(4), 449–468. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325004048025
OndrusekN.AbramovitchR.PencharzP.KorenG. (1998). Empirical examination of the ability of children to consent to clinical research. Journal of Medical Ethics, 24(3), 158–165. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.24.3.158
27.
PartonN.WattamC. (Eds.). (1999). Child sexual abuse: Responding to the experiences of children. Wiley.
28.
PattonM. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). SAGE.
29.
PurdueS.PetersonH.DengC. (2019). The case for greater youth participation in monitoring and evaluation in international development. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 18(4), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X18804401
30.
ReepingD.TaylorA.KnightD.EdwardsC. (2019). Mixed methods analysis strategies in program evaluation beyond ‘a little quant here, a little qual there’. Research Journal for Engineering Education, 108, 178–196. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20261
31.
RhodesJ. E. (2005). A model of youth mentoring. In DuBoisD. L.KarcherM. J. (Eds.), The Sage program on applied developmental science. Handbook of youth mentoring (pp. 30–143). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412976664.n3
32.
RhodesJ. E.SpencerR.KellerT.LiangB.NamG. (2006). A model for the influence of mentoring relationships on youth development. Journal of Community Psychology, 34(6), 691–707.
