Evaluation of the Youth Justice Initiative

1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the Evaluation

This report presents the results of the evaluation of the Youth Justice Initiative (YJI). The evaluation was conducted in accordance with the Treasury Board’s Policy on Results (2016), which requires departments to measure and evaluate performance and use the resulting information to improve programs, policies and service delivery. The evaluation was undertaken by the Department of Justice Canada’s Evaluation Branch between January and November 2020, as per the 2019-2020 Departmental Evaluation Plan.

1.2 Evaluation Scope

The scope of the evaluation was determined based on a review of available information, as well as consultations with stakeholders regarding issues and questions of interest. It also takes into consideration the two previous evaluations of the YJI that were conducted in 2010 and 2016.

The evaluation covers YJI activities over the last five years (FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20). The evaluation examines the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the Initiative. Given the focus of previous evaluations and the maturity of the Initiative, the 2020 YJI evaluation focused on assessing the relevance and responsiveness of the Initiative to the current youth justice landscapeFootnote 5 and the effectiveness and efficiency of the Youth Justice Services Funding Program (YJSFP) and the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) Program components.Footnote 6 In addition, the assessment of effectiveness considered the extent to which the program design and delivery incorporates gender-based analysis (GBA)+ and the extent to which FPT collaboration has improved during the study period.

An Evaluation Working Group, composed of Justice Canada representatives from the Policy Implementation Directorate, Youth and Indigenous Justice Division and selected provincial/territorial representatives, provided advice during the design and implementation of the evaluation. The Evaluation Working Group coordinated access to data and provided feedback on evaluation products (i.e., the evaluation questions and indicators, preliminary findings and the draft evaluation report).

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