The background for the evaluation is that the Ministry of Children and Families has tasked Bufdir with carrying out a Leisure Card pilot project i selected municipalities. The leisure card is a scheme for all children and youth aged 6 to 18, which provides semi-annual monetary support to cover participation fees in regularly organized leisure activities.
The Institute for Social Research is conducting the evaluation of the pilot in collaboration with NORCE Norwegian Research Center and NOVA, OsloMet. This project is part of the Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector.
Research questions
The evaluation deals with the implementation of the Leisure Card in twelve municipalities that participated in the pilot from 2019 to 2021. The questions examined in the evaluation are:
- What characterizes the implementation of the Leisure Card in the pilot municipalities?
- What experiences have the various user groups - municipalities, leisure organizers, parents, children and youth - had with the leisure card scheme?
- To what extent does the leisure card contribute to more children and youth being given the opportunity to participate in organized leisure activities?
- Which factors promote and inhibit successful implementation of the leisure card scheme?
- How can a national leisure card scheme be set up in a reliable and efficient way?
By answering these questions, the evaluation aims to provide knowledge about the implementation of the Leisure Card in the municipalities and its use among leisure organizers and among parents, children and youth.
Research design
The evaluation combines qualitative and quantitative methods in a research design consisting of four elements:
- A preliminary study involving interviews with project managers in the twelve municipalities about the early phase of the implementation, as well as analysis of child and youth policy in the municipalities.
- A qualitative case study of four of the municipalities, involving in-depth interviews with municipal employees, representatives of voluntary associations and parents of children and youth in the target group for the Leisure Card.
- A quantitative analysis of Youth in Norway surveys on children and youths' knowledge of and use of the Leisure Card in selected municipalities, as well as changes in their participation before and after the introduction of the Leisure Card.
- Analysis of statistics and other information about the Leisure Card and the participation of children and youth in the twelve municipalities.
The various elements form the basis for a larger analysis of the implementation of the Leisure Card in the municipalities and what inhibits and promotes children and youths' participation and use of the Leisure Card.
Extension of the evaluation
The evaluation has been extended to include twelve new municipalities that joined the pilot from the fall of 2021 until the end of the pilot in the summer of 2022. The extension first looks at what characterizes the implementation in the new municipalities and to what extent they have learned from already participating municipalities. Furthermore, it examines what experiences families have had with the use of the Leisure Card. Finally, it considers whether the Leisure Card has contributed to changes and innovation in leisure actives in the municipalities, as well as plans for the continuation of the Leisure Card.
The extension is based on the existing research design. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with the project leaders in the municipalities about the implementation of the Leisure Card and with parents of children and youth about the use of the scheme. In addition, it uses quantitative data from a survey to municipalities on children and youth participation in organized leisure and from a survey to voluntary associations on activities for children and youth.
Ethics and privacy
The evaluation follows ethical standards for social research. All participants receive information about the aims of the research and what participation entails, how we process the information that is collected, including information about storage and deletion of the data and what rights the informant has as a participant in a research project. The project has been notified to and approved by Sikt (formerly the Norwegian Center for Research Data). All data is anonymised and treated confidentially, with exception of already publicly available information about the municipalities in the experiment.
Results
The evaluation aims to provide three reports:
- A first report based on the preliminary study which deals with experiences in the municipalities with the initial phase of implementation and the challenges they face in this phase.
- A second report that builds on the main part of the evaluation, with a larger analysis of experiences in municipalities, among leisure organizers and parents of children and youth.
- Read the report «Følgeforskning og evaluering av forsøk med fritidskortordninger: Delrapport 2» (brage.unit.no)
- A final report based on the extension of the evaluation, where experiences in new and old municipalities are compared and the main findings of the evaluation are summarized.
- Read the report «Følgeforskning og evaluering av forsøk med fritidskortordninger: Sluttrapport» (brage.unit.no)
There is also an aim of publishing scientific articles based on the results from the evaluation.
