IAS Seminar: Producing Evidence That Works

IAS Guest Speakers Dr Sophia Lin and Associate Professor Sally Nathan deliver a seminar on their research, fully titled 'Producing Evidence That Works: Co‑production, Program Design, and Impact in Sport‑Based Youth Development'.

Sport-based positive youth development programs are increasingly used worldwide to support the psychosocial wellbeing, engagement, and life skills of young people experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Yet, despite their widespread adoption, significant questions remain about how such programs should be designed, how their impacts should be evaluated, and whose perspectives shape definitions of 'success'.

This seminar draws on a long‑term research partnership between academics at the University of New South Wales with Creating Chances, a large Australian social enterprise delivering sport‑based youth development programs. The seminar will bring together three complementary areas of work to explore how evidence can be generated in ways that are both methodologically rigorous and practically meaningful.

First, we reflect on the realities of evaluating large‑scale programs in real‑world settings, including the methodological tensions that arise when randomisation, individual tracking, and experimental control are not feasible. Rather than aiming for idealised study designs, we explore how evaluation can still generate credible, decision‑relevant evidence under these conditions.

Secondly, the seminar presents findings from a large evaluation examining how program design features such as duration, attendance, and sustained engagement are associated with psychosocial outcomes.

Finally, we describe a co‑production process in which practitioners and young people were actively involved in shaping what outcomes are measured and how. This work demonstrates how participatory approaches can improve the relevance, acceptability, and usability of evaluation tools, while also addressing power dynamics between researchers, organisations, and participants.

Taken together, this seminar argues for a reframing of impact in youth development research, moving beyond narrow outcome metrics toward context‑responsive approaches that support development and meaningful social change. While grounded in sport‑based youth development, the insights have relevance across education, health, and community‑based intervention research.

Arrivals from 11.45am for a 12pm start. For those joining in person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1pm.