Phase 5: Reflect, Evaluate, and Celebrate

Take time to look back on the health promotion action project, reflect on what has been learned and changed, and celebrate the young people’s accomplishments.

This phase includes three activities that contribute to the sustainability and ongoing success of youth-driven health promotion action:

Reflection: With youth engagement comes many opportunities for growth and learning for both youth and adults, such as learning about one’s self, how to work in groups, the central issue(s), personal and social change, and youth-adult relationships. Reflection provides a tool for learning from and making meaning of one’s experience and using this knowledge to inform future action (Ash & Clayton, 2004).
Evaluation: Evaluation supports ongoing learning and program improvement. It is an integral step in the youth engagement process, as well as in program management.
Celebration: Cultivate cooperation, ownership, and commitment among the youth by taking time to recognize and celebrate their achievements. This includes everyday achievements like reaching a milestone in the project planning as well as larger achievements like completing a video project or meeting with the mayor.

These three activities work best when woven throughout the youth engagement process.

Refer to the OPHA Youth Engagement Toolkit for more on Phase 5:

Purpose of this phase
How to engage youth in reflection
How to engage youth in evaluation
How to engage youth in celebration
Questions to consider
Activities to support this phase
Additional reading and resources