YHSC Assessment YE 6-30-08

YHSC Participant Assessments
655 students from 11 states participated in the YHSC program during the year ended June 30, 2008. YHSC students completed 8,000 hours of volunteer service/service learning projects at our partner volunteer sites. All participants were asked to complete a pre and post assessment of the YHSC program. The participant assessments are administered electronically through our YHSC website in October 2007 and May 2008. Ninety-Five (95) participants completed post assessments (14.5%).

Post assessment survey responses revealed:

 76% of students reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that as a result of participation in the YHSC they are doing better in school. 24% “disagreed.”
 94% of students reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” they know what skills are needed for their careers. 6% “disagreed.”
 99% of students reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” they can make a difference in their community by getting involved. 1% “disagreed”
 76% of students reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that within the past month (April 2008) they increased their time reading and/or watching news stories about health/safety issues in their community. 24% “disagreed.”
 94% of students reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” the YHSC made them feel more confident about themselves. 6% “disagreed.”

YHSC Partners
219 community organizations partnered with the YHSC serving as volunteer sites. Students completed volunteer service and service learning projects at the partner sites. In May 2008 partners who completed a preassessment (63) were asked to complete a post assessment of the YHSC program to assess their experience as an YHSC volunteer and/or Service Learning site. Twenty (20) post assessments were returned to Northwestern Connecticut AHEC in June 2008, a 31% response rate.

Based on post assessment survey responses, we conclude that the project met the performance measure: 80% of engaged community partners feel their participation in the YHSC provided them with valuable services. Specifically:

 85% of partners reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” the target population benefited from YHSC student activities. 15% reported they “did not know.”
 40% of partners reported they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” the target population produced economic benefits for their organization. 40% reported they “did not know” and 20% “disagreed”.
 80% of partners reported their participation in the YHSC program had valuable social benefits for their organization. 5% stated they “did not know” and 15% “disagreed.”
 80% of partners reported working with YHSC students outweighed any burdens it may have added to their workload. 5% reported they “did not know” and 15% “disagreed”.

Partners ranked the impact the following statements (in order of importance with 1 being most important and 7 being least important) had on their agency. Results concluded the most important impact was that YHSC students brought new energy to the agency.

Rank as Impact to my Agency Statement about Youth Health Service Corps Involvement
2.8 The students brought new energy to the agency
3.3 Increased our awareness of organizational operations
3.5 Improved services for clients
4.1 Raised our public profile because of AHEC involvement
4.2 Facilitated networking with other community agencies
4.4 Increased our access to AHEC/community resources
5.4 Saved us money because of the additional help

Only 63 out of the 219 volunteer sites were surveyed this year which is low. This was a result of the pre/post test design that was used. In the future the survey design will include all volunteer sites being asked to complete a survey at the end of the program year between May 15th and June 30th. Adminstering a presurvey proved very cumbersome and unnecessary to gauge the impact of YHSC on our partner agencies. As a result of this change, we hope to get a much higher response rate in 2009.

Participant Tracking
The YHSC Helix database has the ability to track student information including college, major of study and employment through the “Alumni” function. YHSC coordinators will begin using the “Alumni” functions of the database in the 2008-2009program year. AHECs have historically had difficulty tracking students once they leave high school to pursue higher education and/or employment. The difficulty tracking students tends to increase as socioeconomic levels decrease. To improve the quality and quantity of tracking data the YHSC program buildings an on-line communication pattern with members while they participate in the program and will continue to use on-line communication to track students as the leave high school and cease their direct participation in YHSC.