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Youth Engagement Strategies – Key Informant Interviews

ASPE Generic Information Collection Request

OMB No. 0990-0421

Supporting Statement – Section A

Submitted: February 2017

Contracting Officer Representative

Sarah Oberlander

Social Science Analyst
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20201

202-690-6808

Sarah.Oberlander@hhs.gov

Section A – Justification

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

Background

The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) is a collaboration of 19 federal departments and agencies that work together to support youth and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24. The IWGYP was created as the result of Executive Order 13459 in 2008, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was listed as the Chair. The Secretary designated that role to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and ASPE has served in the Chair role since 2008. In 2009, Congress directed the IWGYP to develop an overarching strategic plan. This plan, Pathways for Youth: Strategic Plan for Federal Collaboration, has since been developed as the result of an extensive public input and interagency clearance process (see the plan here: http://youth.gov/sites/default/files/IWGYP-Pathways_for_Youth.pdf).

The importance of continued and improved youth engagement was one of the major themes that arose from the input gathered toward the development of Pathways for Youth. Stakeholders, including youth-serving organizations, young people themselves, and federal staff, believed that meaningful, authentic youth engagement was important to optimal outcomes for youth, adults, and the programs in which they participate. However, our knowledge about what makes a successful youth-adult partnership, and what data suggest the benefits are, is still developing. Our ability to measure the quality and extent of youth engagement in various program settings is limited. Understanding the different types of youth engagement strategies, and determining which strategies are successful for specific youth in specific contexts, is still a work in progress. Data on the array of innovative and best practice youth engagement strategies do not exist, and the proposed data collection would fill that need, providing our federal partners with that information.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (HHS/ASPE) has worked with several Youth Engagement Consultants, who are serving as interns through the Virtual Student Foreign Service. The consultants have spent the last several months reviewing publically available information to identify a range of federal, state, local, and tribal youth-serving organizations that engage and partner with youth in a meaningful, authentic way. The consultants plan to conduct key informant interviews with staff from the relevant youth-serving organizations to identify information about that organization’s approaches to youth engagement, perceptions of the possible impact of youth engagement, and lessons learned (see attached key informant interview guide).

The results from these key informant interviews will be summarized and analyzed by ASPE staff trained in qualitative data analysis. The results will not be used to inform policy decisions. We will use the results to identify the range of innovative and potentially successful youth engagement and youth-adult partnership activities used by the organizations to share with our federal partners. If future work allows for a convening on this topic, results from the interviews may be used to identify organizations to invite to such a meeting.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

Data will be collected via telephone interviews. We will use computers to take notes and manually extract information and themes across interviews.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

To our knowledge, there is no information that has been or is currently being collected similar to the proposed key informant interviews. This is an exploratory study to answer questions that we currently do not have the data to answer.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

No small businesses will be involved in this data collection.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

This request is for a one time data collection.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

There are no special circumstances with this information collection package. This request fully complies with the regulation 5 CFR 1320.5 and will be voluntary.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency

This data collection is being conducted using the Generic Information Collection mechanism through ASPE – OMB No. 0990-0421.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

We will not provide incentives for this study.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

We are not asking any personally identifiable information of respondents, but rather only about their experience in their professional capacity. We are asking them to provide information about the youth engagement strategies used by their organizations.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

We will not be asking any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

The key informant interviews will take approximately one forty five minutes to complete.

Table A-12: Estimated Annualized Burden Hours and Costs to Respondents

Type of Respondent	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total Respondent Costs
Youth-serving organization staff	50	1	45/60	37.5	$21.331	$800
TOTALS	50	50		37.5		$800

13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There will be no direct costs to the respondents other than their time to participate in the data collection.

14. Annualized Cost to the Government

Table A-14: Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

Staff	Average Hours per Collection	Average Hourly Rate	Average Cost
Youth Engagement Consultants	75	--	--
Social Science Analyst, GS 13	10	$45	$450
Social Science Analyst, GS 14	10	$54	$540
Social Science Analyst, GS 15	20	$63	$1260
Estimated Total Cost of Information Collection			$2250

15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

This is a new data collection.

16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

The qualitative information shared by key informants will be collected via typed notes. After each interview is complete, the consultants will review the written notes within 24 hours. Federal staff will analyze the data qualitatively by reviewing the notes and pulling out the main themes from each set of discussion. Given the small number of interviews, manual coding and analysis may be more efficient than a qualitative data analysis software package. Themes will be summarized. No names or other personal information will be reported in the summaries.

Timeline:

Completion Date	Major Tasks/Milestones
January 2017	Consult with Youth Engagement Consultants Develop key informant interview guide Plan for recruitment of key informants
February 2017	Submit request for OMB approval under existing generic PRA clearance Receive OMB approval under existing generic PRA clearance Begin recruiting participants and scheduling interviews Conduct interviews
March 2017-May 2018	Conduct interviews Finalize notes from interviews
May 2017-May 2018	Summarize themes from interviews Produce draft report Revise and finalize report

17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

There are no exceptions to the certification. These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS – Section A

Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.

1. Draft key informant interview guide

1 Hourly wage rate calculated from Community and Social Service Specialist DOL/BLS wage estimate: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes211099.htm