The Module “Evaluation in youth work” is slowly going to the end. A huge work has already been done. We already talked a lot about concept of evaluation, its aims and objectives, evaluation models, actors, types and timing of evaluation, planning and preparing for evaluation, learned different evaluation methods and focused on importance of reflection and feedback, explored self-assessment.

Now we are continuing with exploring finishing and reporting processes in the youth work and non-formal education projects.

Often organizers are more focused on the activities, on the process, on the evaluation itself but not on the finishing and reporting. That’s why there is a saying “Projects progress quickly until they become 90% complete and then they remain 90% complete forever.” You could hardly say about effectiveness of such projects.

To make your projects 100% complete, you as a youth workers should never forget about the stage of finishing and reporting.

Finishing and reporting the outcomes of the evaluation is very important. It is a tool for sharing information, findings and conclusions with the different actors and the first step to involving them in the follow-up and future projects.

Reporting the outcomes does not only consist of summarising the findings and putting them in a report for the funding authorities. Reporting requires a certain amount of planning, structure, focus and adaptation according to the target groups that we want to reach.

Good use of the outcomes of our evaluation can be useful at a very practical level. For example, we can decide on the basis of our evaluation to continue to work with the same youth hostel for the next youth exchange we organize. The same is true for the educational level. For example, our evaluation could lead us to conclude that we should use a certain methodology again but the next time it should be adapted in this or that way. Therefore, it is essential to give the same amount of attention to the processing and reporting of the outcomes, so that they can be well used by us and others in the future, as we put into the evaluation process itself. This last stage of the evaluation process can be one of the precious points of your project.

With the help of the chapter “Finishing and reporting” you will find out about the processes of finishing and reporting and will get the information needed to complete your project with enthusiasm and effectiveness.