Defining Program Outcomes and Identifying Best Practices in Youth Development

Girls Quest is a nonprofit organization in New York City that works with girls from low income families, offering programs that are designed to build academic and social competence. The organization works to achieve its mission by offering outdoor experiential education, mentoring, and leadership development programs. To better evaluate the impact of its mentoring program, Girls Quest requested a Capstone team to research ways to define their program outcomes and identify best practices in youth development. The Capstone team researched national best practices in mentoring and youth development, and the data gathered was used to design a comprehensive report that will provide Girls Quest with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their mentoring program, offer recommendations to bridge programmatic gaps, and develop an evaluation tool to aid in the successful measurement of their mentoring program.