Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 1

Critical Article Review: Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang

prevention programs

Nethusan Rajagunathas

Child and Youth Care, George Brown College

CYCS 3020: Community Based Practices

Cristine Yhap

October 24, 2021

Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 2

Introduction

In Joshua Brisson, Igor Pekelny, and Micheal Ungar’s Methodological strategies for

evaluating youth gang prevention programs, the article reviews the challenges and lessons

learned from three Canadian gang prevention programs that are federally funded. The aim of

this paper is to provide the evaluators with a better understanding of what they can expect,

challenges that can occur, and the lessons that can be identified, in a condition that causes

significant problems which are inevitable for the evaluator. The purpose of this article is to

make the youth gang prevention programs better by coming up with strategies and solutions

in order to benefit them. The strengths of this article include how it was well organized and

how it was formatted properly, so that it can be easy to understand, whereas the weaknesses

of this article include how some of the information was insufficient and how it could have

had more examples and tables. Seeing that, the article has more positive outcomes, as

opposed to being negative.

Article Review

In this article, the three gang prevention programs; Youth advocate program, Souls

strong, and CeaseFire are provided with different ways on how to improve the evaluations of

youth gang prevention programs and the community-based interventions for the prevention of

youth violence, as they struggle with different challenges including quasi-experimental

designs, model fidelity adherence, program documentation, client recruitment and retention,

and data collection. The intention and focus of this paper are to provide detailed information

on what can be expected and the lessons that came from the challenges they faced. The article

begins by introducing each gang prevention program, by providing background information

on who they are, why they were formed, their purpose, how they developed, and their target.

All three programs were a four-year pilot project that was funded by Public Safety Canada.

The Youth advocate program (YAP) specifically targeted 9-14 year old males and females,
Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 3

who were at risk of participating in gang activities or anti-social and illegal attitudes. Yap

was created due to the increasing number of youth that were affiliated with gang-involved

individuals and youth who were directly involved in criminal activities, which placed them at

a higher risk of joining a gang. Souls strong targeted 15-20 year-old males, who were at risk

of being involved or already involved in criminal and gang-related activity. Souls strong was

formed as a result of the rate of youth unemployment, crime, engagement in gang related

activities, and gun violence being higher than average. CeaseFire targeted males and females

of ages 16-24, who were previously charged with criminal offenses, incarceration, and

participated in gun violence, gang-related, and drug activities. CeaseFire was a response to

the rise of gun violence (shootings, homicides, and attempted homicides), as public concern

and police intelligence increased.

Student’s Critique

The article addresses how the evaluators are reviewing the challenges of the youth

gang prevention programs and how they are looking for a way to make it better. It is evident

that this is no simple issue, as there are many difficulties that they faced, during the

prevention of violence and gang-related activities. After reading this article, it is clear that

compared to regular program evaluation, it is completely different as opposed to gang and

violence prevention programs, as they are more extreme and severe, with many more

challenges that are associated. The article was well organized and the information was highly

detailed, as it shows how the strategies for evaluating the youth gang prevention programs

were effective. The authors begin the abstract by going straight to the point, as it was easy to

understand and showed what the article would review. They provide the readers with

background information on the three youth gang prevention programs, their challenges, and

the lessons that they learned. The article then concludes with their goal and what the focus of

the article is and how the evaluators can apply the lessons learned from the challenges.
Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 4

Although the article had many lessons that were learned from all of the challenges,

the authors acknowledged how some of the lessons and “aspect of program implementation is

easier said than done.” (Brisson, 2019). Even though they learned their lessons in hopes to

improve the way that they evaluate the programs, they were definitely aware that some of the

challenges could not be solved easily and they may have more difficulties along the way. In

the article, it writes about the solutions for each challenge, but sometimes, some of their

solutions may not always work out or go the way that they planned. There were lots of

challenges that they faced as they evaluated the gang violence prevention programs and most

of the challenges were due to the fact that they rushed into gathering information when the

three programs just started up, as they did not have enough members which gave them

insufficient data to collect. For example, in the article, it writes about how during the

evaluations, they noticed that they should not hire paraprofessionals, as they did not do a very

good job with documenting and being thorough. Along with that, there were many problems

due to the paraprofessionals that they hired because they did not produce proper

documentation, which affected the evaluators severely, as they were not able to process the

audit program and assess fidelity.

Some of the challenges they faced seemed self-explanatory as to why it did not work

out and could have definitely been prevented from happening. I feel that it was not a very

good decision to recruit participants when the project first started up, as it affected the

evaluations during the start-up of the project and the results were inaccurate. In order for the

evaluators to get accurate results, the program must be well established, as it was too early for

them to get any results. This could have easily been avoided if they planned it out better and

thought more carefully about what the outcome would be. When it comes to hiring

professionals that have to handle members who are involved in gang-related activities and

violence, a lot of staff training would be much needed and mandatory, and they would also be
Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 5

required to be open for long hours each day, but they would be paid less for their time. “Our

experience showed that $25 gift cards were not enticing enough for many program

participants” (Brisson, 2019), this clearly shows how some of the program participants may

potentially be involved in illegal drug trade, causing a $25 gift card to mean nothing to them,

as it was practically modest compensation in their perspectives. This is especially because it

was in the form of a gift card, rather than being in cash, which I believe would not bring

interest to them or persuade them to participate either. “Youth are at higher risk of joining a

gang if they engage in delinquent behaviors, are aggressive or violent, experience multiple

caretaker transitions, have many problems at school, associate with other gang-involved

youth, or live in communities where they feel unsafe and where many youth are in trouble”

(Gang Prevention). Since the youth would rather sell drugs than get a $25 gift card, it proves

the point of how they let their delinquent behaviours choose their life, as they feel as though

selling illegal drugs will get them more money and not realize or see the risks of doing what

they are participating in. The article also provides a table; Response rates/Sampling, but I feel

that it does not include all information, as it has a note underneath writing “total sample only.

Program staff did not record rate of participants who declined service.” (Brisson, 2019).

Providing a table was definitely a good concept, but it should have had more detail for better

results, as the table should provide all information regarding the topic. Seeing that, even

though the article was very informative, there were still some details that were missing that

would have been necessary in making the youth prevention programs better.

Throughout the article, the authors wrote about how the evaluators were able to

thoroughly analyze what went wrong and what can be done to fix it. Even though there were

many challenges that came along as they were trying to evaluate the youth gang prevention

programs, they also learned a lot from it and how they can improve in the future. For

example, when they were having challenges related to controlling and comparison groups
Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 6

both randomized control trials (RCT’s) and quasi-experimental designs were not necessarily

appropriate and not feasible. As they learned that these two trials were not feasible it came to

their attention that Most Significant Change (MSC) was a better solution, as it captured the

voices of young people who were part of the programs. MSC is a powerful alternative, as it

allows young people to define themselves and how the projects have impacted them. When

young persons share their stories, it is empowering to have their voices heard. The only limit

to the MSC would be how it is time-intensive and requires lots of engagement.

While conducting the evaluations, the evaluators found unique challenges and were

able to come up with the solutions, as these solutions also helped with other interventions

with marginalized populations, which was very beneficial. During the evaluations, they

designed it in a way that the data they collect would be triangulated so that they can avoid

any biases of any of the stakeholders or data collections. The evaluations were also embraced

with evidence based practices so that they can understand which practices works and which

practices do not work. From all of the lessons that they learned from the challenges, they

realized that the evaluations should instead be a dynamic process, so that the program can be

adjusted, in order to maximize the effectiveness and utilize the evaluation better.

To make the program better, I believe that it was a good idea for them to acknowledge

all of the challenges and to make solutions, in hope for a better success rate in the future. In

the conclusion, the authors write how the “program implementation and evaluation should be

a dynamic process where tools, program activities, and program experiences can be adjusted

to maximize program effectiveness and evaluation utilization.” With this in mind, this is

essential in order to create learnings that can be applied to contextualize imported models to

environments and surroundings that are beyond the area of origin. “Spergel (2007: 327)

warns that, “Comprehensive, community-based projects that require institutional change are

highly vulnerable to failure. Few innovative – if even effective – programs survive, or

Methodological strategies for evaluating youth gang prevention programs 7

develop further, unless they serve and sustain important organizational and political

interests.” (Canada, 2018). As stated in this article, doing community based projects can be

difficult, so if they can be innovative they can make the program better by adjusting the

problem, when faced with challenges. “It brings together players, schools and communities to

mentor at-risk youth and keep them active and out of gangs.” (Prevention, 2021). This tells

me that if a program takes a creative and innovative approach, they can be kept away from

gangs. I believe that if this is done efficiently and effectively, I agree with the article’s

closing statement of how “new initiatives that build on previous models of practice can create

innovative approaches designed with a new context in mind.

Conclusion of Findings

In conclusion, the article was well written and it was easy to read, as it kept me

engaged and wanting to read more. The strengths of this article includes how it was well

organized and kept the reader's interest, while it’s weaknesses included lack of information in

some areas. The information it provided showed more positive outcomes, rather than being

negative, as the evaluators now have the ability to benefit the youth gang prevention

programs, and make the programs better in the future as well. This can be done by utilizing

the lessons learned, to ensure that the programs are more successful, by being more effective

and efficient. Overall, the article was definitely enticing and the three Canadian gang

prevention programs can grow from the challenges that they faced and the lessons that were

learned.
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References

Brisson, J., Pekelny, I., & Ungar, M. (2019, November 7). Methodological strategies

for evaluating youth gang prevention programs. Evaluation and Program Planning.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014971891830260X.

Canada, P. S. (2018, January 31). Addressing youth gang problems: An overview of

programs and practices. Addressing Youth Gang Problems: An Overview of

Programs and Practices. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ddrsng-

prblms/index-en.aspx.

Gang prevention: An overview of research and programs. Gang Prevention: An

Overview of Research and Programs | Youth.gov. (n.d.). https://youth.gov/feature-

article/gang-prevention-overview-research-and-programs.

Prevention, V. S. and C. (2021, March 5). Preventing youth involvement in gangs.

Province of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/crime-

prevention/community-crime-prevention/gangs.