Long-Term Impact Assessment

Opening Act (OA) provides free after-school and extracurricular programs to high-need New York City public high schools without theater and arts programs. Founded in 2000, the organization strives to help students develop leadership, commitment, confidence, and community through theater. With a growing need to strengthen their programs and increase funding, the Capstone team identified and developed a measurement tool for OA to better understand the long-term impact of participation on OA alumni. The team helped OA supplement student and alumni anecdotes with tools for measuring impact, in part to become more competitive for new funding sources. Through a literature review and key stakeholder interviews, the team identified key metrics, developed a measurement tool, and created a training manual for staff members to help the growing organization demonstrate to its stakeholders how OA’s youth theater programming impacts student development.