The Thought Leadership Forum brought together youth sector funders, executive directors, senior policymakers, social innovators, and the Special Guest, Dr. Tania de St Croix, to explore how the youth sector could collaboratively design ways of understanding the long-term impacts of their work with young people.

Tania drew from the findings and insights of "Rethinking Impact, Evaluation and Accountability in Youth Work," a three-year qualitative study that investigated how impact measurement and accountability processes were experienced and enacted by young people and practitioners in youth work settings. This involved young people, youth workers, managers, funders, and policymakers/policy influencers.

In doing so, Tania facilitated a dialogue on the dilemmas and tensions in evaluation, as well as approaches to evaluation and accountability that were congruent with youth work practice. She emphasized how evaluation and accountability processes could be practice-informed, youth-centered, and anti-oppressive.

Tania engaged participants in a critical dialogue about evaluation and accountability, including what elements were hardest to measure, understand, and explain. The forum delved into the consequences of focusing solely on what was measurable.