Once you have decided to use the YDSI Youth Survey, you will have access to the following training materials:

This document provides a clear and concise explanation of what the survey is, how it works, what will be expected of the staff in your agency, and how you can use the results of the survey to make your agency even better. This document is particularly useful as a tool for explaining the survey to your staff.
This worksheet helps walk you through the process of customizing the survey to fit the needs and issues relevant to your program. Each agency needs to modify questions that refer to the organization by inserting the name of their agency or how young people refer to the organization. There are also places for agencies to insert the names of specific programs offered within their agency or provide examples of activities or events within their agency. Several suggestions for how best to customize the survey are provided.
Because you will be using your survey results to help you make decisions about youth programming, it is important that the survey be administered in a standardized way. YDSI staff have developed guidelines for helping you obtain quality results. The administration plan guidelines help you to identify who you want to fill out the survey, when would be the best time to reach the most youth, how much time you need to set aside for the administration, what materials the administrators of the survey will need, and some suggestions for getting the best results from your survey.
Because the Administration Plan Worksheet asks you to provide the details of your survey administration plan, YDSI researchers have provided you with concrete examples and instructions explaining how to complete each section of the worksheet.
Using the Administration Plan Guidelines, this worksheet helps you to develop your administration plan. To assist you with this process, a sample plan is provided.
Sample agenda for a workshop that trains your staff to administer the survey properly. It includes key issues to discuss regarding both the administration objective and the administrative plan to ensure that your staff understand both why you are having your youth fill out the survey as well as the plan for making sure the survey is filled out properly with the least disruption to your agency.
These procedures are to be given to the individual(s) administering the survey to your youth. In a one-page, step-by-step summary, they explain what the administrator needs to do and say prior to, during, and after the administration of the survey.
These instructions are to be read aloud to the youth by the individual(s) administering the survey. They explain the purpose of the survey, explain confidentiality, and indicate that youth do not have to fill out items that make them uncomfortable in any way. It is important that these instructions are read to all youth who complete the survey to standardize the administration process, thus making the results more meaningful.
This information is to be provided to the individual(s) administering the survey to your program’s youth. They provide answers to questions that youth always ask about the survey. By providing the answers to commonly asked questions, we once again attempt to standardize the administration process so that everyone filling out the survey has the same experience.