Public Allies: Everyone Leads External Evaluation Report

Public Allies (PA) is an organization that aims to change the face and the practice of leadership in communities across the United States. It currently serves 23 communities and in each, it implements its ten-month AmeriCorps apprenticeship program as a strategy toward sustainable community-level results. Allies build their leadership through a model which combines classroom learning, application through service delivery, reflection and community building.

Study Goals:

The goal of the evaluation is to provide evidence of the program’s impact at the partner organization and individual Ally level. The evaluation will also examine the PA leadership program for program improvements.

Research Questions:

The research questions were categorized by types of program participants and were related to both impact and process measures. Some of these questions included:

• Partner Organizations (POs):

1. What changes are evident in POs’ technical capacity at the end of the program and one year after participating in the program?
2. What are the types of projects chosen for organizations and their Allies that hold the most promise for sustainability?

• Current Ally Apprentices:

1. What impact does serving as a PA have on current program participants' education and career intentions and choices?
2. What impact does serving as a PA have on current program participants’ self- confidence and 21st Century skills?

• Alumni Apprentices:

1. Is there a change in Alumni’s self-confidence and 21st Century skills one year after the program?
2. What impact does serving as a PA have on Alumni’s civic engagement, and education and career intentions and choices one year after program completion?

• Public Allies Site Directors:

1. What are the perceptions of PA Site Directors on quality of placements that affect Allies’ outcome achievement? (process)

Findings:

The evaluation’s major findings were also categorized by types of program participants. The evaluation found the following:

• Partner Organizations:
  • Overall, the evaluation found that Allies were most successful in activity areas. Its success was related to helping POs expand their reach by creating new programs, building upon existing programs or reaching out and engaging with the communities served by the POs.
• Current Ally Apprentices:
  • For all current Allies, the reported results indicate statistically significant growth for all short-term 21st Century skill outcomes.
  • The results indicate that the impact of the PA program on the 21st century skills outcome indicators does not differ between connected and disconnected Allies.
  • PA program participation increases interest in higher education for both connected and disconnected Allies.
• PA Alumni:
  • PA has no differential impacts on PA Alumni that were degreed and non-economically disadvantaged in comparison to those that were not degreed or considered economically disadvantaged at the time of participation on the short-term and intermediate 21st century skill outcomes.
  • The outcomes of the PA Alumni result in statistically significant growth for collaboration, controversy with civility, resilience, transformational leadership, self- confidence, and civic engagement.
  • When examining PA Alumni career situations’ post-participation, a larger proportion of connected Allies experience an increase in wages at their current employment, while a larger proportion of disconnected Allies are employed within non-profit organizations versus other public entities

For more information, download the full report.