In order to work with quality development, to see and understand how different ways to carry out youth work leads to different outcomes, it is necessary to have a system for documentation and follow up specifically designed for youth work. This because documentation and follow up, if being efficient, need to be clearly linked to and focused on central indicators and aims (I.e. young people’s active participation, influence and learning.). Only this way can youth workers get substantial and structured input for reflection and analysis, avoiding speculations and basing their decisions on facts.
Follow up of qualitative outcomes should focus on gathering information from young people; Who they are (to secure that no groups are excluded) and how different groups perceive the youth work they have been taking part in (e.g. have they been taking part in creation, planning, etc. and have they learned, etc.) I.e. is youth work meeting the core principles. This could, in a second step, be completed with, for example, different forms of structured peer review.
There might of course also be other (positive or negative) unexpected outcomes of youth work than those that are made visible through the follow up of indicators. These outcomes must of course also be included in the overall, contextualised, analysis and taken into account when plans are made for the future.
To what degree does our local youth work meet this bullet point?
Are there sides/aspects of it that are not reached?
Are there differences related to different activities?
Are there differences related to different groups of young people?
Are there differences related to different youth work providers?
Are there other differences? Related to what?
What different steps do we need to take in order to meet this bullet point?
Do we miss any knowledge that we need?
Do we need to take contact with stakeholders not present in our discussions?
Do we need to develop new competences, methods, work processes or organisational structures?
Can we find good practices or tools that might help us to improve this?
Do we have positive experiences from other areas of youth work that we can use also in this case?
Are there other organisations that we can contact and learn from regarding this?
Do we need to take other measures?
Do we have to revise our perspectives and/or priorities regarding youth work?
