The purpose of this paper is to chronicle the efforts of Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC), an outdoor experiential education service program, to establish itself as an evidence based program, highlight the constraints encountered around accomplishing this, and then suggest some alternative routes to those currently available. RMYC is typical of many service programs: serving fewer than 350 participants annually, managing budgets with very limited resources allocated to evaluation, and supporting dedicated staff who wear multiple hats but whose evaluation expertise is limited. Over the past 30 years, programs and their funders have progressively realized the value of using evidenced based programs. Ostensibly many evidence based certification programs portray themselves as available to all types of programs but are in fact strongly predisposed toward programs that serve large numbers of participants with substantial funds available for evaluation. This paper uses RMYCs progressive evaluation efforts to highlight this and suggest alternatives to current practice. Since 1999, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps has worked with youth ages 14-18 and young adults (18-25) to promote positive youth assets that engage the strength and potential of youth and young adults to make a difference in themselves and their community through meaningful service opportunities, educational experiences, and group recreational activities. Participants in the youth programs live, camp (24/7), and work together in crews of 8-10 members for two or four weeks and perform meaningful conservation and service projects for public benefit 6-8 hours per day, five days per week. Evenings and weekends are spent doing daily living chores, participating in the RMYC-developed AHA-EOSL Education Curriculum, enjoying outdoor recreation, and enhancing life skills development. The residential nature provides a deep, immersive, and experiential absorption of life skills that promote a healthy transition into adulthood. All members ages 14 or older are paid, and those 17 or older may receive AmeriCorps education awards. Below are described the five phases of evaluating this program over the last 25 years.