Positive youth development in community sport: A program evaluation using the RE-AIM framework

Abstract

T The need for developmentally appropriate youth sport programs has instigated evidence-informed research interventions, yet intersectoral exchanges with pre-existing community-based sport programs remain rare. As such, this study involved a collaborative evaluation of a community sport program designed for underserved youth using the RE-AIM framework (Glasglow et al., 1999). Data were available to evaluate the programs reach and maintenance; however, the adoption and implementation dimensions required further evidence-informed tools for reliable evaluation. Similarly, whereas the organization deemed their effectiveness to be a critical component of the program, an inadequate amount of data was available to enable its measurement. We provide recommendations for establishing partnerships between researchers and pre-existing youth sport programs and discuss the implications of developing a user-friendly and evidence-informed evaluation toolkit.

Keywords

• community-based program, community partnership, non-profit sport, positive youth development