Use of research for transforming youth agencies

Current philosophy and practice urge, even require for funding, that programs be empirically based and grounded in empirically proven emerging, promising, or best practices. In most of the human services, including youth programs, services, and practices, this requirement is a goal as well as an ideal. Empirical research and evaluation can be used in many ways. This article describes how it can be used for problem construction, a sociopolitical process that intentionally transforms data into "problems," the latter to mobilize and respond to the conditions documented in and by the data. This is the research strategy used primarily in an effort to transform a community youth service agency.