Research
Research for youth and community services
Needs assessments, evaluations and evidence reviews: youth services research that answers your question and stands up to funders.
- Led by a PhD candidate in Social Science
- In the youth sector since 2002
- Ethical, collaborative research practice
What we can research for you
Every youth services research project is shaped around your question, your community and the decision you need to make.
Needs assessments
Understand your community, your clients and the gaps in what’s on offer.
Program design and evaluation
Build programs on evidence, then show whether they work.
Surveys and data analysis
Collect the right data and make sense of it.
Interviews and focus groups
Hear directly from young people, staff and stakeholders.
Literature and policy reviews
Know what the evidence says before you commit.
Youth participation research
Young people as co-researchers, not just subjects.
How we work
Scope the question
We work with you to pin down what you need to know and why.
Design the method
We choose the approach that fits your question, budget and timeline.
Collect and analyse
We gather the data ethically and make sense of it with you.
Report and translate
Clear findings and recommendations you can act on and take to funders.
Methods we use
Qualitative Quantitative Mixed methods Formative evaluation Summative evaluation Co-design Program logic Critical discourse analysis
We also turn findings into funding submissions, reports and training resources your team will actually use.
Who does the research
Your research is led by Aaron Garth. Aaron is a PhD candidate in Social Science at RMIT University and has worked in the youth sector since 2002. His Honours thesis used critical discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s theory of practice to examine the professionalisation debate in Australian youth work, and was awarded a High Distinction. For five years he coordinated the Youth Work and Youth Studies programs at Eastern College Australia, building curriculum from sector research. That work became the foundation of the UYW Capability Framework. For larger projects, Aaron brings in experienced researchers from his professional network.
Fathering and FamiliesWorkforce DevelopmentChild SafetyCurriculum DesignYouth Work Professionalisation
Need help acting on the findings? See our consultancy services.
Research behind our work
PHD · RMIT UNIVERSITY · IN PROGRESS
Fathering as a relational process
Challenges the one-directional view of fathering in child development research. It traces how relationships with children, other people and things shape who a man becomes as a father.
HONOURS · RMIT UNIVERSITY · 2018
Youth work professionalisation
A critical analysis of decades of debate about whether youth work is, or should become, a profession, read through Bourdieu’s theory of classification.
APPLIED RESEARCH · UYW
The UYW Capability Framework
Built from research during Youth Work course development at Eastern College Australia and two decades of practice. It now underpins our three training tiers and the Capability Profile.
Have a question you need answered?
Book a free 30-minute conversation about your research needs.