What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse
What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse is a “one-stop shop” for research on the effectiveness of a wide variety of reentry programs and practices. It features programs rated by the National Institute of Justice’s CrimeSolutions.gov, a website that presents programs that have undergone rigorous evaluations and meta-analyses. CrimeSolutions.gov assesses the strength of the evidence about whether these programs achieve criminal justice, juvenile justice, or crime victim services outcomes in order to inform practitioners and policy makers about what works, what doesn’t, and what’s promising.
Effective Data Storytelling
This is an AMAZING book, well researched, easy to read, about why you should combine data and narratives, and some strategies for doing just that. WARNING: The book is written for data scientists and the author, the wonderful Brent Dykes, spends the first half of the book helping them understand why they should use data inside a story and with personal narratives - rather than just presenting a bunch of numbers! As a nonprofit leader, you might want to start at Chapter 4 (all the chapters are described in the link). I incorporate a lot of Brent's work ImpactStory™ Group Coaching.
Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple
This is a lovely book that simplifies all the academic program evaluation language so it can be readily used by nonprofits. This is a nice, easy book to read. A nice, easy primer in program evaluation, written for nonprofits. However, the book does assume that you know you need to do program evaluation - which most small- and medium-sized nonprofits do not really need to do. And, while she presents a section on reports, it's a little lean. This book is really great to read if you *want* to understand all the terms in program evaluation so you can do fancier impact measurement or talk with outside evaluators who are conducting a program evaluation with you.
What Works Clearing House
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviews the existing research on different programs, products, practices, and policies in education. A part of the Institute of Education Sciences, data collected includes literacy, early childhood, k-12, English learners, charter schools, behavior, postsecondary, children with disabilities and more. Their goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions, focusing on results from high-quality research to answer the question “What works in education?"
What Works
YouthPower is an USAID-funded activity and set of projects expanding the evidence base for what works in positive youth development and applying improved approaches across programs and sectors. YouthPower uses a positive youth development approach to implement programs within and across sectors, to engage young people, their families and communities so that youth can reach their full potential.