Bernadine Brady

Meeting the Challenge of Doing an RCT Evaluation of Youth Mentoring in Ireland: A Journey in Mixed Methods

The youth mentoring program Big Brothers Big Sisters is one of the first social interventions involving youth in Ireland to be evaluated using a randomized controlled trial methodology. This article sets out the design process undertaken, describing how the research team came to adopt a concurrent embedded mixed methods design as a means of balancing ethical, feasibility, and scientific issues associated with the randomized controlled trial method, establishing an epistemological position and integrating data from various methods and multiple sources.

Understanding youth civic engagement: debates, discourses and lessons from practice

While civic engagement provides a rich rationale for intervention, the array of discourses urging a focus on youth engagement or action means that the concept can be confusing, cluttered, and lacking consistent operationalization. From the perspective of policy-makers and program managers, it can be challenging to disentangle the competing messages and assumptions about young people that underpin the rhetoric in relation to youth engagement. Using a wide range of international research, the purpose of this paper is to provide clarity regarding the key multiple concepts and issues pertinent to the concept of youth civic engagement. In particular, the paper answers the following questions: what are the definitions, typologies, and discourses in which the concept of youth civic engagement operates, and what are the putative beneficial outcomes of youth engagement identified? We also discuss some of the broader considerations on the positioning of young people in society, which impact the trajectory of civic engagement efforts. As a means for reflecting on their own practices, programs, and approaches, our intent is to provide those involved in both the application and research of youth engagement with a more coherent roadmap of the diversity residing in this field.

Youth Mentoring as a Tool for Community and Civic Engagement: Reflections on Findings of an Irish Research Study

Youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) are traditionally considered to be a vehicle for youth development rather than community development. In fact, the notion that the one-to-one engagement that characterizes the mentoring process acting as a form of community development appears somewhat counterintuitive. However, the authors use evidence from research among adult mentors with an Irish Big Brothers Big Sisters Program to argue that such programs are a valuable resource in terms of both community and youth development. Firstly, by encouraging awareness and empathy with young people and their families, such programs are extending the range and possibilities for civic engagement. Secondly, there is a demand among mentors for horizontal support and for the creation of a community of mentors. Support for such initiatives by program staff could help to overcome criticisms of formal mentoring programs for their individualized nature and go some way toward the creation of “mentor rich communities.” Such actions could help to complement the bridging social capital aspect of mentoring with the creation of bonding social capital among pro-social and civic-minded adults. Finally, it is argued that youth mentoring programs would benefit from the introduction of community development principles. For example, use of locally participatory structures could help to develop programs, make them responsive to the needs of youth, and act as a support for the recruitment of volunteers.

What added value does peer support bring? Insights from principals and teachers on the utility and challenges of a school-based mentoring programme

Over the past decade, there has been greater attention placed on the potential value of peer support models, particularly in school contexts. This paper uses the case study of an Irish school-based peer mentoring programme to identify the added value that peer led models of social support for children and young people offer in a school setting. The Irish national youth organisation, Foróige, runs the Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring programme in over 60 Irish secondary schools, with the aim of improving young people’s transition to secondary school. Qualitative research was undertaken with 36 principals and teachers in secondary schools operating the programme. Five specific ways in which the peer mentoring model adds value to existing support in schools are identified and discussed, while challenges associated with the model are also highlighted.

From Tea and Sympathy to Optimal Matching of Need: Developing a Shared Vision for a Community-based Family Support Service

There is consensus within child welfare services that the provision of timely and effective support to families in the community is of critical importance in terms of protecting children. “Family support” is a term used to refer to a broad range of activities aimed at supporting the functioning of families. It is generally accepted that such service provision should be attractive and accessible to families and delivered in partnership with them, yet very often services are designed without the input of families and are guided by a professional view of what families need. This article outlines the findings of research undertaken to inform the development of a new family support service in an Irish town, which sought the opinions of both potential service users and service providers about what a family support service should offer. It focuses particularly on disparities of opinion between service providers and potential service users in terms of how families should access family support services, areas of perceived need for support, and around desirable attributes of the family support worker. The process used to reconcile divergent views is outlined, as is the impact of the findings on the family support practice in question. The research involved a structured survey of potential service users and service providers and a facilitated session to agree a shared vision for the service. The purpose of the article is to describe and critically analyse a process for agreeing a shared vision of family support between families and professionals.

Space, Voice, Audience and Influence: The Lundy Model of Participation (2007) in Child Welfare Practice

According to Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and young people have a legal right to have their views heard and acted upon as appropriate. The Lundy model of participation (2007) was developed to aid practitioners to meaningfully and effectively implement a child’s right to participate by focusing attention on the distinct but interrelated elements of Article 12. While Lundy’s conceptualisation has been widely welcomed in research, policy and practice, there is a dearth of examples in the literature regarding how the concepts of space, voice, audience and influence can be operationalised. The purpose of this article is to share examples of how practitioners working in Ireland’s child protection and welfare services implement these concepts in practice. Drawing on practitioners’ personal testimonies and a selection of reports published by Ireland’s social care inspectorate, it sets out illustrative examples of approaches taken by professionals when seeking to create a safe and inclusive space for children and young people to express a view, approaches to supporting them to express that view and to ensuring it is listened to and acted upon as appropriate.

‘Individual and connected’: an exploration of young people’s discourses about youth cafes in Ireland

ABSTRACT Since 2000, youth cafes are accorded prominence in Irish youth policies and research. Youth cafes are drug and alcohol free recreational spaces and research shows that they impact positively on young people. Youth cafes are broadly similar to youth clubs, but they are less structured and are primarily youth-led spaces. This paper draws on qualitative materials from a national study of youth cafes in Ireland, arguing that young people’s perceptions of youth cafes are linked to individuality and connectedness. In this paper, we explore these discourses surrounding individuality and connection in detail and argue that youth work in the twenty-first century must simultaneously appeal to young people’s need for space to ‘be’ and to find themselves and provide a structure within which they can relate to others and wider society.

Spaces of connection and belonging: Young people's perspectives on the role of youth cafes in their lives

ABSTRACT A youth café is a relaxed, drug-free and alcohol-free meeting space for young people. The youth café model has become a prominent form of policy provision for young people in Ireland over the past decade, with in excess of 160 youth cafés now in operation. While the youth café model is not unique to Ireland, there has been little published research internationally on the perspectives of young people regarding the role of youth cafés in their lives. Drawing on qualitative research with 102 young people from 10 youth cafés in Ireland, this article presents findings in relation to six thematic areas: feeling supported; belonging and connection; personal and identity development; safety; alcohol and drugs; and education. The findings indicate that the attraction of the model for young people is that it respects their individualised preferences for engagement whilst providing them with a sense of ownership and connection. It is argued that the values and principles underpinning the model are instrumental in creating “care-full” spaces that enhance the well-being of children and young people.

Connecting research and practice: Perspectives on the role of manualised programmes in youth work

ABSTRACT While there is a strong movement in favor of the use of manual-based programs in the arena of social care, there is a view that such programs are not applicable in the more fluid setting of youth work, which operates informally, using dynamic and organic methods. A critical pedagogical approach to youth work engages young people by encouraging them to become inquisitive, to question why things are the way they are and to pose problems through which they can learn. For some, manualized or evidence-based programs are not seen as having a role in such contexts. However, to date, the international debate in relation to this issue has been limited by an absence of published studies focusing specifically on strategies to implement evidence-informed practice in youth work contexts. This article aims to address this gap in the literature. The Irish national youth organization Foróige, which works with more than 56,000 young people in Ireland on an annual basis, has developed a range of manualized evidence-informed resources to support its youth work over recent years. Drawing on research findings from a range of studies conducted with youth workers focusing on implementation of these resources, the article explores the benefits and tensions associated with the use of program manuals in a youth work context. The findings suggest that such resources have a valuable role to play in youth work if designed in collaboration with youth workers, showing respect for core youth work values and allowing for flexibility and adaptability in implementation.

‘He told me to calm down and all that’: a qualitative study of forms of social support in youth mentoring relationships: Social support in youth mentoring relationships

ABSTRACT The worldwide growth in formal youth mentoring programmes over the past two decades is partly a response to the perception that young people facing adversity do not have access to supportive relationships with adults and positive role models in their communities to the degree they once had. Formal mentoring programmes facilitate the development of a friendship or ‘match’ between an older volunteer and a young person, with the objective of supporting the young persons’ personal and social development. Drawing on 66 semi‐structured interviews with young people, parents, mentors and caseworkers associated with nine youth mentoring matches in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Programme in Ireland, this paper analyses the forms of social support evident in the mentor–mentee relationships and highlights how the mentoring relationship was perceived to have impacted on the well‐being of the young people participating. The findings reflect the consensus in the mentoring literature that close, well‐established mentoring relationships have the potential to bring about meaningful change in the lives of young people.