BECOMING A MAN
Programme evaluation and adaptation
Youth Endowment Fund and Youth Guidance
We are evaluating the feasibility and supporting the adaptation of Becoming A Man (BAM), a two-year, group-based intervention delivered in schools with adolescent boys. Developed in Chicago and brought to London for the first time, BAM tries to improve education outcomes and reduce criminal activity by promoting positive youth development.
The need
The last few years have seen a dramatic rise in the proportion of young people both perpetrating and experiencing violent crime in the UK. The issue is particularly pressing in Lambeth, South London, which has one of the highest rates of serious youth violence in the country, as well as violence more generally.
Our response
BAM equips adolescent boys with positive assets that support them to engage less with, and be less impacted by, risks in their environment. Two randomised control trials conducted with BAM in Chicago found that the programme significantly reduced total arrests and violent-crime arrests while improving school engagement. Now, BAM has been brought to Lambeth, where it will be delivered in three schools from September 2021. Dartington is supporting the adaptation of the programme and, once delivery begins, will lead a test-and-learn process to better understand whether, how, why and with whom BAM is feasible in its new context.
BAM was developed in Chicago by Youth Guidance and will be delivered in London by the Mental Health Foundation. Both the delivery and evaluation of BAM are supported by the Youth Endowment Fund, a £200 million investment set up by the Home Office to tackle youth crime and violence through early intervention.
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