The Focus group event organized in scope of the “Youth Impact” project took place in Ružomberok, Slovakia on January 26 th , 2020. Objectives of the focus group event were the following:
1) to familiarize participants with the “Youth Impact” project, namely its objectives, schedule, and activities;
2) to collect information about needs and expectation of participants, initial assessment of their level of advancement in the area of evaluation;
3) to obtain participants declaration of engagement in the project.
Participants received a detailed presentation on “Youth Impact” project. Information on why to get involved was provided, concretely in the sense of the knowledge to be shared, networks to be accessed, tools provided, and trainings on capacity buildings offered. The project workflow was brought to the attendees‘ attention, as the project envisions to deliver and test a comprehensive package of practical tools and build a transnational network of organisations interested in impact evaluation.
Participants of the Focus group event were explained that the Youth Impact project strives to help organisations to become more sensitive to the needs of young people looking for jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities and that it is designed to support organisations to initiate a process of quality improvement, in which the impact assessment is usually the starting point.
The participants got to understand that the project offers support with the state of play assessment, development of the assessment tools, trainings of experts on impact evaluation, and networking for capacity building.
They were informed Youth Impact project is a non-profit project funded by EEA and Norway Grants and therefore the project activities are free of charge for them and also for other (potentially) interested subjects.
As next, presentation of the organisations participating in the meeting, their profile, experience, expectations and needs relating to evaluation processes took place. It was followed by a discussion evaluation, for whom is it meant and for what purposes.
Conclusions of the Report on the existing evaluation standards and practices in Slovakia were discussed with the participants in the following part of the session and as a consequence participants’ verbal declaration of engagement in the projects’ activities were discussed.
