This report presents findings of the evaluation of the professional development certificate Advancing Equity, Building Youth Capacity, developed by the Transformative Community Education Network (TCEN) for frontline youth workers and direct services workers in the Toronto youth sector. The certificate was developed in collaboration with the York Centre for Education and Community at York University.

This report describes the findings of an exploratory evaluation that was conducted between 2013 and 2015 to understand the outcomes of the certificate. To understand if and how the certificate increased the competence of participants in working with youth, a mixed methods approach that included both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. It was chosen as the most suitable approach to understand the outcomes of the certificate and identify areas that TCEN can improve on.

TCEN’s mission is to prepare youth workers to be transformative agents of change through education, networking, support, and service coordination. Their vision is to be a driving force in strengthening youth service delivery to advance equity and excellence for positive youth development.