Since 1876, The Boys’ Club of NewYork (BCNY) has supported boys and young men through diverse programs that foster growth and development. BCNY’s well-equipped clubhouses and wilderness camp offer members full access to a range of facilities (such as gyms, pools, recreation rooms, media, art, and photography studios) and over 40 diverse programs to choose from, all free of charge. This blog post highlights BCNY’s innovative Journey Framework—a holistic approach to youth development—and how tools like Dedoose are helping the organization assess impact, engage members, and build research capacity among staff.  

The Journey is BCNY’s theory of change that describes the pathways and milestones that members go through as they mature from Explorers (ages 7-9) to Juniors (ages 10-12) to Teens (ages13-18) and eventually join BCNY’s Alumni community. The Journey Framework—developed collaboratively with teens, alumni, and staff—maps developmental milestones and outcomes across age groups. It serves as a blueprint for growth, emphasizing self-direction, interpersonal skills, and community engagement.

At the heart of The Journey Framework is the set of outcomes to which BCNY contributes at each age group level, through our combined offerings of a wide variety of scaffolded activities, culminating milestone events such as out- of-state trips, recitals, and sports competitions, supportive services, and a positive environment in which members can grow and flourish.

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While some outcomes may be linked to how much a member participates, each member’s journey is unique and their own. Members engage with BCNY in different ways, and their experiences and outcomes vary depending on their individual paths. The Journey is designed to reflect both the differences in these pathways and the common outcomes shared across them. The outcomes fall into three key areas of youth development:

•       The member as an individual: the member’s interests, skills, knowledge, identity, values, and choices;

•       The member’s interpersonal relationships: with peers and adults, across different spaces (e.g., school, home, neighborhood, BCNY); and

•       The member’s engagement with the larger world: a sense of responsibility to communities beyond themselves, their friends, and their loved ones.

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Key Outcomes and Research Questions  

The BCNY Theory of Change summarizes the expected outcomes, along with a rough estimate of their timing according to members’ length of participation. The estimate is rough because we expect individual differences; the outcomes are not meant to be assessed among members who attend very infrequently.

BCNY’s research efforts are guided by questions that explore the real-world impact of our programs. For example, one member shared, 'Trying culinary at BCNY helped me see the world differently and gave me confidence to express myself.' BCNY’s research also focuses on how programs contribute to members’ development and adapt to their needs. Research questions include:  

•       To what extent does BCNY spark members' curiosity to try new activities?  

•       How does BCNY support members’ personal growth and resilience?  

•       In what ways does BCNY help members maintain or excel in academic and vocational preparation?  

•       Does BCNY create a safe and inclusive environment where members feel comfortable?  

•       How does BCNY support members in building strong, lasting relationships?  

•       To what extent does BCNY foster critical consciousness, appreciation of diversity, and positive contributions to society?  

•       What policy and strategic changes occur within BCNY because of The Journey Framework?

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BCNY collects annual data through surveys and interviews to evaluate member experiences and outcomes. Surveys help assess key indicators such as safety, belonging, cultural appreciation, and alumni connection.Journey interviews, on the other hand, offer a deeper, more personal look into each member’s experience. Staff are trained to conduct these interviews in away that ensures members feel comfortable and able to express themselves openly.  

At BCNY, we believe in learning through dialogue. Interviews are designed to foster meaningful conversations between staff and members, often revealing insights that surveys alone cannot capture. We also integrate data collection into regular programming, aligning study activities with those already familiar to members across BCNY departments. This approach helps ensure that members don’t feel singled out or disrupted by the process.  

To analyze the volume of data collected, interview transcripts are coded using Dedoose, allowing us to identify themes such a spersonal values, independence, resilience, and social responsibility. Its intuitive interface and tagging features enable us to track patterns—like a sense of belonging—across clubhouses and age groups. These insights directly inform program design and improvement. Without Dedoose, this level of analysis would require significantly more time and resources which can now go directly to programs and members. By streamlining the process, we’re able to maintain both depth and efficiency in understanding the members’ journeys.

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Journey Evolution

While the Journey helps inform BCNY’s assessment of its overall impact, programmatically, it also serves as a guide for new staff orientation and ongoing staff training to ensure quality activities. In addition, it is also intended to be used to inform new program development and existing program alignment as well as to guide partnerships with complementary organizations.  

Perhaps most importantly, the staff who contributed to theJourney’s creation urged that BCNY continuously revisit the Framework so that it informs ongoing program implementation. After a year into the Journey, BCNY has successfully launched a series of pilot initiatives to empower members, direct service staff, and alumni to critically engage with and help evolve the Journey on an ongoing basis: Focus Group Socials and Research-Practice.

Focus Group Socials  

The Journey Focus Group Socials aim to gather qualitative feedback on the clarity, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the Journey evaluation process and understanding. Participants include members from diverse backgrounds, and staff from various roles and backgrounds ensuring are presentative sample.  

The focus groups, lasting between 50 to 75 minutes, are organized separately for members and staff to review and discuss each survey and interview question. The main discussion points focus on the following questions:  

•       Are the questions easy to understand?  

•       Do the questions address important aspects of the members' experience and their journeys?  

•       Are there any important areas that are not covered by the questions?    

•       Are staff well-equipped to administer the member survey and interview?

Feedback is collected and recorded throughout the sessions. After the focus groups, the feedback is compiled and analyzed to identify common themes and actionable insights. A comprehensive report summarizing the findings and recommendations is prepared and shared with key stakeholders at BCNY for review and approval. As a direct result of the focus groups, we were able to identify opportunities to improve the Journey survey and interview materials and process which were implemented in the following evaluation cycle.  

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Research-Practice  

BCNY has also launched a research-practice initiative to increase research capacity among staff. We are also exploring if this initiative is driving changes in policies and strategies throughout all departments, clubhouses, and expansion programs at BCNY. The selected staff participants—recent BCNY alumni— were coached in various interview techniques and the Journey’s evaluation framework to analyze member interviews collected during the study. This initiative not only builds staff capacity but also fosters a culture of inquiry.  

By empowering the cohort as community researchers and intellectuals, while reflecting on personal journeys through BCNY, and now as alumni and staff, they are helping to sharpen the Journey Framework on experiences that better reflect their own twists and turns in life while at BCNY.  

During a two-day workshop, the cohort was split into two teams by their clubhouses, Abbe and Gerry. The Abbe team was asked to read and analyze transcripts from members' interviews at the Gerry Clubhouse, and the Gerry team did the same for Abbe’s transcripts. Dedoose played a key role in our workflow. Its data sets tab allowed for easy segmentation of transcripts uploaded from member interviews by age group and clubhouse. Dedoose also helped make sharing and analysis of the transcripts a seamless process. For new users of Dedoose, we recommend taking time to explore its data organization and analysis features early on—they can save a lot of time and make collaborative analysis much smoother.  

This research-practice opportunity and workshop helped staff build valuable interview and research skills. Their feedback also helped validate and enrich our thematic findings. While time constraints limited deeper group interpretation, the cohort shared their insights during BCNY’s annual Journey Data Sense making Meetings with colleagues and leadership.  

Looking ahead, we envision a future where members and staff actively co-create the Journey, continuously shaping it to meet evolving needs. By embedding research into everyday practice, BCNY is cultivating a sustainable model for youth and staff empowerment. Engaging members and staff as both storytellers and researchers not only strengthens the clubhouse’s overall functioning but also supports their growth as transformative individuals who foster an empowering and inclusive environment.