Measurement Development and Testing

Overview  

We know it’s important to understand exactly what diverse youth and families/caregivers need, to design services around those needs, and to measure the response to our services to ensure the services meet those needs. The science of developing, testing and/or adapting measures means we can measure service experiences and outcomes that matter to youth, their families/caregivers and services providers and see changes over time. This will help our services be accountable to youth, and support service providers and youth in their care journeys. This process looks like:    

• Talking with youth and families/caregivers throughout British Columbia, and Canada, and asking what they need. This may include advisory panels, focus groups, town halls and other forms of dialogue and convening. These can be in person or virtual, so everyone in British Columbia can be involved! 

• Working with youth and families/caregivers in British Columbia to design measurement tools for those needs. 

• Testing the measurement tools with youth, families/caregivers and service providers as part of the services experience, gathering feedback and updating the tools based on the feedback.

Importance

Foundry’s mission is to support youth to live a good life through our vision of transforming access to services for young people ages 12-24 in British Columbia. Measurement development and testing are key to making sure we are fulfilling this mission and vision. Our research team examines this process to understand and share best practices for continuous improvement.

Key Questions

• What outcomes matter to youth when it comes to their health and wellness? How can we measure those outcomes?  

• What does a good service experience look and feel like for youth? How can we measure that?  

• What does “good health” look and feel like for youth?   

• How do we measure the effectiveness of our services?  

• How do we improve our services?