Our partner is New Image Youth Center (NIYC) in the Parramore community. This is part of the PAF 7325 Program Evaluation course-based service-learning projects led by Dr. Su-I Hou and doctoral students in public affairs (PAF-PhD) program at the College of Community Innovation and Education. This project started in Fall 2019 to develop a sound yet feasible program evaluation proposal in collaboration with community partners as the project final product. The project aimed to assess the impact of a holistic after-school program among youths. In particular, this project focused on the health and wellness pillar of the program.
Due to the very positive partnership and relationship built, as well as strong desires to continue with implementing the evaluation plan and developing an evaluation report, Dr. Hou led the student group and continued the project collaboration as part of her PAF 7868 Mixed Methods Research (MMR) course service-learning projects in Spring 2020. A convergent MMR study was conducted with preliminary data showing high positive youth development quantitative scores, as well as positive qualitative impact among youths. The project provides insight on after-school program features critical to promoting healthy development among youth in urban settings.
Principal Investigator
- Su-I Hou, Dr.P.H.
- Professor & Founding Director, School of Global Health Management and Informatics
- su-i.hou@ucf.edu