Get the Hawaiian!
My happiest moment as an evaluator was the time I was leaving the school grounds of the Sacred Heart Primary School in Fitzroy, $50 cash in my hand, headed towards Umago to buy some pizzas (RIP Umago), with a chorus of grade six students yelling 'GET THE HAWAIIAN' from the school fence boundary as I departed on my heroic pizza journey.
I made two little videos about a program called Harmony In Strings about 8 years ago with the help of Zoe Dawkins from Storyscape. We got the kids to write their scripts, plan the scenes and what the camera shots would look like, case their actors, and shoot their film. The kids took turns doing the camera work. For me, these two videos represent a great example of what you can do in evaluation when you get young people involved, they showed me that young people have a point of view about things, and they want to share that with you, they are looking for interesting and fun ways to be able to express themselves.
You can watch the two videos here:
The videos got a mixed response. Some people loved the ways in which the videos captured the young people’s perspectives of the program, in their own voices. Some people who watched these films felt that they were not rigorous enough as a piece of evaluation. One person told me that unless I do an experimental design and statistical analysis my work would be 'low quality'…' what is to stop the kids telling you what you want to hear?' they said. (But what is to stop kids from answering a survey in a way that they think I might find pleasing? But..I'm unwittingly getting into an area of debate that is probably too complex for a post like this.) Another person told me they would not share these videos to funders as it looked like the videos were made by adults, not young people, and that we had coached them - this was a response that I found baffling and also made me a little sad because I remember on the day watching how talented and thoughtful the kids were as they were making their videos.
Work like this complements and contributes to a well-rounded evaluation. It brings heart and joy to the work of evaluation. The people involved in developing these videos have fond memories of being part of an evaluation. The videos are short but they provide depth and most importantly, and based on the perspectives of the young people - in their own words.
I can still remember the conversations I had with kids that day. I still remember watching Alan do a hilarious fake fall onto the ground during his scene-stealing turn as 'unruly student'. And I still think of them.
