Evaluation

 In 2004, Jessica Holt was asked by Lois Saperstein, Executive Director, Center for the Arts at Rutgers, to present at a conference, Breaking Down the Walls: Reaching Youth At Risk Through the Arts Later that year, former Bauen Board member Halene Graves put Jessica in contact with UW Dean Janet Constantinidis to explore the possibility of working together to evaluate Bauen Camp programming. The result was an agreement between Bauen, the Center for the Arts and the UW Department of Psychology to develop and apply a formal evaluation process to individuals participating in the Bauen Camp National Youth Outreach Project during the summer of 2005, 2006 & 2007.
 
The findings for the 2006 Bauen Camp Evaluation Report can be found here: Evaluation Report.
The evaluation observations for the 2006 Bauen Camp Evaluation Report can be found here: Evaluation Observations.
The general evaluation project description for the 2006 Bauen Camp Evaluation Report can be found here: Final Report.

 Narina Nunez, Chair of the Department of Psychology and two UW PhD candidates, Cory Burghy and Lisa Paul, led the field research. The camp' desired outcomes, established in 2001, include:

  • Increased awareness of self and self-expression
  • Increased interpersonal and group communication skills
  • Increased ability to recognize the needs of others
  • Increased sense of community
  • Increased awareness of social and cultural challenges
  • Increased critical thinking skills
  • Increased technical skills in an art form
  • Increased leadership skills
  • Increased highly interactive imagining
  • Increased appreciation for the natural world
  • Increased awareness of attitudes toward sharing
  • Increased abiity to integrate the concept of play as a way to discover the world.

In addition to outcomes particular to Bauen, this list also represents some of the key developmental issues for teens. These include identity, control, belonging, social/economic constraints, self-consciousness, gender roles, things/material needs, and race/ethnicity.

 Identity was selected by the evaluators as a measurable element because it supports the ability of young people to be resilient, a key ingredient in positive youth development. Four elements were selected for the evaluation: (1) increased self-esteem; (2) changes in locus of control; (3) increased self-efficacy; and (4) increased belief that our world/society is changeable.

 Preliminary results of our 2005 Evaluation Project show that youth who participated in the Bauen Camp programs during the summer of 2005 had statistically significant increases in self-esteem and in self-efficacy between the pre- and post-test, across all three camps. When males and females are viewed separately we found significant increase in self-esteem significant to males. And, when we divided the data up based on ethnicity, we found differential increase in self-esteem and self-efficacy among Caucasian and African-American campers such that Caucasian campers showed increased in self-esteem and African Americans showed increase in self-efficacy.

 The pre- and post-questionairres were given to 54 campers registered at three different sessions. 2005 campers will receive a 6 month follow-up questionairre in February, and another at the end of summer. Our plan is to continue this evaluation process, following 2005, 2006 and 2007 campers during their summer sessions, and with follow-up questionnaires for a period of ten years. An evaluation project to follow Bauen Campers 2000-2004 is in process.