Human Services Workforce Development Evaluation Symposium 2025

What makes this symposium special?

This symposium brings together evaluators and practitioners to share ideas, challenges, and methodologies for evaluating workforce development interventions and strategies across human services fields. For more than 20 years, the symposium (formerly known as the National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium) has cultivated a unique learning space where attendees collaborate and support each other through constructive and respectful discussions. The symposium welcomes curiosity and a wide-range of experiences to enrich the exploration of challenges, innovative approaches to address these challenges, and new ways to approach future and/or ongoing work. Because of this environment, each year participants walk away with ideas and resources relevant to their evaluation work, as well as new and deepened relationships and sense of community.

What to expect for the 2025 symposium?

The 2025 symposium, hosted by the Agile Visual Analytics Lab (AVAL) @ UCLA, will be held November 4-6 at The Shay Hotel in the heart of Culver City, Los Angeles. To ensure the symposium continues to provide its unique learning environment, space will be limited to a total of 50 registrants. Completed registrations will be honored on a first-come, first-serve basis for registrants who attest they will participate in the entirety of the symposium (i.e., all day on November 4-5 and half-day on November 6), complete the registration form online, and submit payment for their registration. The symposium has secured a room block at The Shay for your convenience at a discounted rate of $299/night+tax. Participants will be responsible for booking and paying for their hotel accommodations. You can book your hotel accommodations at the discounted rate here. Key dates for the 2025 symposium include the following:

• Registration Opens ($375): May 30, 2025
• Call for Presentations Released: June 6, 2025
• Proposal Deadline: July 28, 2025
• Proposal Notification: August 13, 2025
• Registration Closes: October 8, 2025 (4:00 PM PST)
• Deadline to book hotel accommodations: October 3, 2025(4:00 PM PST)

In the ever-changing landscape of human services, resilience is a cornerstone for sustaining a competent and committed workforce. The 2025 theme, Supporting a Resilient Workforce through Evaluation, underscores the vital role that evaluation plays in fostering resilience among human services professionals who face various challenges in their work to improve outcomes for those they serve. Assessing and addressing these challenges is a continuous process as some challenges shift and new ones emerge. Through collaborations between evaluators, practitioners, and other human services partners, efforts to assess and address these challenges can be more effective and responsive to the needs of workforces. The 2025 symposium will include intentional networking opportunities and discussions focusing on the following 3 main topic areas.

1. Evaluating Human Services Learning Programs
2. Evaluating Interventions to Promote a Competent & Committed Workforce
3. Leveraging Innovative Methodologies & Strategies

A preliminary agenda can be found (here) and will be updated as the schedule and programming are finalized.

What is the cancellation policy?

Cancellation by Symposium

If for any reason beyond the host's control, the host determines that the 2025 symosium must be cancelled, registration fees will be reimbursed.

Cancellation by Individual

To request a refund, you must contact the host at aval@luskin.ucla.edu with documentation of your reason for cancellation by October 21, 2025. All cancellation requests will be reviewed by the host, and if approved, will be processed within three weeks of the original request. No refunds will be accepted and all sales are final after October 21, 2025.

I'm interested in getting updates about the symposium. What should I do?

You can click here to subscribe to the symposium mailing list or follow the host on LinkedIn to receive updates about the symposium.