NYCC Journey to
meaningful metrics:

How do we translate personal growth and career awakening into measurable outcomes?
The Opportunity

New York City Center is a landmark cultural institution located in the heart of Manhattan. Since it opened in 1943, it has become one of the best places to see performing arts, known for putting on a wide diversity of shows in dance, theater, and music. These initiatives aim to open doors for New York City youth, inviting them into a world where a career in the arts isn't just a dream, but a tangible possibility.

Our challenge
When NYCC approached us, they were facing a familiar challenge. How could they truly measure the impact of these programs? It wasn't just about counting participants or tracking job placements. They needed to capture something more elusive - the spark in a young person's eyes when they first realize the stage could be their future.

How successful are these programs in opening young minds to the possibilities of a career in the arts? And how are they impacting the lives and aspirations of those involved?

We knew that to do this right- we didn't want to just create another evaluation framework; we wanted to craft a living, breathing system that could grow and evolve alongside the programs and their participants.

Our
approach

In collaboration with the NYCC team, we invited past students, youth, and past program partners into a protected space of workshopping and discussion as part of our survey development team . Preliminary sessions informed the evaluation framework we developed for NYCC. We identified three key elements:

Holistic Assessment: The framework captures both tangible skills and intangible personal growth.

Community-Driven Approach: Inclusion of diverse stakeholder voices ensures authenticity and relevance.

Adaptability: The framework allows for the emergence of new themes and insights over time.

Ways of Working
Making Room for Emerging Themes

The Role of Belonging in Arts

The first sprint of the evaluation process was to employ OPENHOUSE’s framework to transform a Pathway of Change that goes beyond traditional progress tracking and transforms a PoC into a tool that captures tangible and intangible metrics of impact.

We are able to do that by transforming each level of a pathway of change into an outcomes map.We created an interconnected outcomes map that broke outcomes into a framework of Behavior, Skills & Mindsets.

Heading

As we cocreated, unexpected themes began to emerge. "Belonging" rose to the surface again and again - a powerful undercurrent in the artistic journey that we hadn't anticipated. We grappled with the concept of "empowerment," realizing its complexity deserved more than a simple checkbox on a survey.Recognizing that some of the most profound impacts might not fit neatly into predefined categories, we built in flexibility. We introduced evergreen diary studies, creating space for new insights to emerge with each cohort of participants.

Outcome

Our evaluation framework now captures the full spectrum of participant experiences, from tangible skill acquisition to profound mindset shifts. Key innovations include:

  • A dynamic Pathway of Change that visualizes artistic and personal growth over time.
  • Surveys that measure both concrete skills and intangible outcomes like sense of belonging and empowerment.
  • A community-driven approach to evaluation that ensures authenticity and relevance.
  • An interconnected outcomes map structured around Skills, Mindset, and Behavior

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