Project summary
This research based design experiment is trialling new and innovative ways of working with those at risk of offending within an area of Blackburn with Darwen focusing on:
- intensive family support, provided by NCH, the children's charity. The idea is to offer families who are in contact with public services the opportunity to set up a family group conference. This is a new way of working between vulnerable families and services, which puts families more in control and able to have more choice about what help they receive and how.
- enhanced universal youth provision through leisure activities
- engagement with young people through a Youth Bank. A Youth Bank involves a panel of young people deciding on how and what small grants to offer to other young people in the neighbourhood. The small grants would fund young people to do activities that they choose and apply for.
IPEG are working on this project together with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, and the Blackburn with Darwen Partnership. We are evaluating interventions and accelerate the learning process by altering the interventions in light of research findings. The project will run for two years between 2006-2008. We are tracking those involved in the interventions, alongside comparison groups. The research is collecting a mix of quantitative and qualitative data.
Our work in Blackburn is a design experiment. IPEG is keen to try out new experimental methods of doing research in relation to public policy problems. This way of doing research is not commonly used in social research. They can produce more robust results than other methods, and can help develop more effective interventions and policies to tackle social and public problems. There is more information about our work on experimental research designs here.
IPEG is also doing other research about youth engagement through our Young Movers evaluation.
Project investigators
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This project will report in autumn 2007.