The third, summary report from the evaluation of Foroige's Big Brothers Big Sisters programme by the Child & Family Research Centre in NUI, Galway.

Foróige is a national youth organisation and, with the Health Service Executive, identified a need for a model of one-to-one work with young people who would benefit from additional support in their personal and social development. The internationally renowned Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) youth mentoring programme was chosen to meet the identified need. The core component of the BBBS programme is a ‘match’ or friendship between an adult volunteer (the ‘mentor’) and a young person, with the pair meeting once a week for a year or more to engage in outings or activities.

The Child & Family Research Centre were commissioned by Foroige to evaluate the effectiveness of the BBBS mentoring programme in providing support for young people in Ireland. This large-scale, mixed methods study was one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken in relation to service provision for young people in Ireland. This third report from the evaluaton summarises the findings of the study and draws out their implications for policy and practice. The report is part of a larger collection of research reports from Atlantic Philanthropies’ investment into prevention and early intervention including the previous reports from this evaluation of BBBS (see below links).