title: Putting program evaluation into practice: enhancing the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun program.
abstract: In recent years there has been a call for increased community physical activity and sport programs for female youth that are deliberately structured to foster positive developmental outcomes. In addition, researchers have recognized the need to empirically evaluate such programs to ensure that youth are provided with optimal opportunities to thrive. This study represents a utilization-focused evaluation of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, a female-only physical activity-based life skills community program. A utilization-focused evaluation is particularly important when the evaluation is to help stakeholders utilize the findings in practice. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to gain an understanding of the ongoing successes and challenges after year two of program implementation and (b) to examine how the adaptations made based on feedback from the first year evaluation were perceived as impacting the program. From interviews with youth participants and program leaders, three main themes with eight sub-themes emerged. The main themes were: (a) applying lessons learned can make a significant difference, (b) continually implementing successful strategies, and (c) ongoing challenges. Overall, this evaluation represents an important step in understanding how to improve program delivery to better meet the needs of the participants in community-based programming.
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Rm 4o6B, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5. Electronic address: cbean@uottawa.ca.
authors.forename: Corliss N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Bean
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Rm 4o6B, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Kelsey
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kendellen
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Rm 4o6B, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Halsall
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Rm 4o6B, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Forneris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D013177:Sports; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Community programing; Evaluation; Female youth; Physical activity; Qualitative