The impact and scalability of the YEIP GLM-based policy measure will be assessed through a semi-experimental methodology that will seek to identify and evaluate the causality link between our measure and the change it aims to make for young people at risk of radicalisation and marginalisation.
Following a thorough literature review (WP1) and the collection of stakeholders’ views through youth-led research (WP2), we will construct the tools that will implement our policy measure (i.e. the YEIP Prevent model/ intervention and a toolkit). These tools will be used to capacity build professionals working in our selected environments. Subsequently, field trials (WP3) will be conducted in the eight participating countries. These will pilot and evaluate the tools implementing our policy measure and be observed through a mixture of qualitative methodologies. Impact measurement will be achieved through a before-after comparison. To triangulate the findings, a pan-European quantitative survey will be carried out (WP4). The research design and approach will be youth-led, following the principles of participatory, youth-led action research.
Our methodology draws from the field of participatory action research, which is experimental research that focuses on the effects of the researcher’s direct actions of practice within a participatory community with the goal of improving the performance quality of the community or an area of concern (Dick 2002). Within this realm, youth-led research is identified. Admittedly, the extant literature on youth-led research is scant and thus the risks considerable (Gavrielides, 2014; Gough, 2006). However, IARS has been a pioneer in this area having introduced some of the first youth led fieldwork in Europe and tested them for policy reform (see Youth in Action). Professor Gavrielides, IARS Director and YEIP’s PM, is the Editor of the only peer review journal that is exclusively dedicated to youth-led research (youthvoicejournal.com ).
In a paper published in this Journal, a young researcher, Cass, describes the underlying principles of youth-led research and policy as “(1) addressing power imbalances; (2) valuing lived experiences; (3) respecting choice in participation; and (4) empowerment”. The youth-led approach dictates that young people must be left to instigate potential solutions to a problem, one that they have indeed identified themselves, and take responsibility for developing and implementing a solution. Consequently, the youth-led method repositions young people as important stakeholders who can make unique decisions which impact on the quality of their lives, rather than simply accepting the position as passive subjects whose lives are guided by decisions made by adult ‘others’.
To this end, we will take the following steps when conducting youth-led research for YEIP:
• Step 1: Relinquish power and “remove hats”
• Step 2: Reach out widely and recruit diverse groups in partnership with others
• Step 3: Empower through ad hoc and tailored accredited training that is flexible and adjustable to young people’s needs as these are defined by their diverse lives
• Step 4: Facilitate discussions on current topics that need change
• Step 5: Coordinate their action research and support to write evidence based solutions through peer reviewed processes
• Step 6: Support the evaluation, monitoring, project management and control of all previous steps through youth-led tools and a standing Youth Advisory Board
• Step 7: Reward and accredit.
A combination of qualitative and quantitate research tools will be used. Qualitative research can “persuade through rich depiction and strategic comparison across cases, overcoming the abstraction inherent in quantitative studies” (Miles and Huberman 1994). The gaps inherent in qualitative research will be covered through the triangulation of our findings via the online quantitative survey.
The scientific work of YEIP comprises of five different building blocks that are represented via different WPs:
First building block (WP1): It aims to “build the foundations” by analysing the current state of the art. To this end, existing knowledge in the 8 selected case study countries will be assessed both in terms of policy, research and practice. A comparative analysis between the case studies and a cross European review will also be conducted alongside a stakeholder mapping. Following this, our experimentation protocol will be finalised.
Second building block (WP2): This will have two aims. First, to test the underlying hypothesis of the GLM-based YEIP policy measure. Second, to construct the tools that will implement YEIP’s policy measure (i.e. the YEIP PREVENT model/ intervention and toolkit). Both goals will be achieved by carrying out youth-led primary research in four environments: schools, universities, Youth Offending Institutions and online.
Third building block (WP3): This will have two aims. First, to test the YEIP GLM-based policy intervention by conducting field trials following capacity building of professionals using the tools constructed under building blocks 1 and 2. They will be conducted in the 8 country case studies withing the four selected environments. Second, to identify and evaluate a causality link between YEIP’s policy measure and tools, and the change that has occurred in our target groups within selected environments. The findings will determine the logic behind the change (counterfactual analysis). A quasi-experimental method will be used by relying on assumptions that will help us justify the claim that the comparison group is similar to the treatment group. To this end, we will carry out before-after comparisons using the same population which undertook the YEIP intervention within a 6-month period.
Fourth Building block (WP4): This will aim to triangulate our findings through a quantitative methodology that will counteract the weaknesses found in qualitative methods. Two online surveys will be designed and disseminated across Europe throughout the lifetime of WP2 and 3.
