Hello. I have reviewed the existing evaluation results about the costs of youth afterschool programs and found that most cost data underestimated full program costs and excluded key cost elements. To calculate the costs of such a program accurately, do you have any suggestions for me?

Pleasure!

Thanks a lot!

To fully capture the costs of operating a youth program, a variety of cost elements should be considered. Program costs are composed of start-up costs necessary to plan and prepare the program for operation, operating costs associated with running the program, capital costs related to building and improving facilities, and infrastructure or capacity building costs used for planning, evaluation, training, transportation, etc. For example, it is suggested that the lowest cost programs are basic before and after school programs which range from $1.17 to $2.57 per hour per child. But keep in mind, those pieces of evidence all come from Western contexts, and through our local program evaluation, we could add more empirical evidence to the Hong Kong study!