Programmes Evidence and Gap Map

Welcome to our Programmes Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) – the world’s largest resource mapping evidence on what works to keep children safe from involvement in violence.

If you’re a researcher, policy analyst or academic, we hope it’ll be a useful tool to help you find where evidence exists and where there are gaps.

It’s quite technical, which is why we’ve also developed the YEF Toolkit. This is an accessible, online resource for people who work with and commission services for children and young people. It’ll support you to use the evidence in your decision-making and in your work.

Launched in June 2021, the Toolkit  provides free-to-use summaries of the research we’ve found in the Evidence and Gap Map. It’s a practical, plain English tool, showing you which services or approaches are the ‘best bets’ for keeping young people safe.

Why we need a Programmes Evidence and Gap Map

To keep children safe, we need to make sure they’re getting the best possible support. Right now, this is difficult to do because we simply don’t know enough about which approaches are most effective.

The Programmes Evidence and Gap Map is one step towards changing this. By mapping the evidence and identifying where there are gaps, we’ll be able to focus research in areas that build our understanding of what works to protect children from violence. It also helps us to see where there’s lots of high quality evidence, which we’ll make easily accessible through our online Toolkit.

What the Programmes Evidence and Gap Map tells us

Our Programmes Evidence and Gap Map gives you a visual representation of the quantity and quality of evidence for different interventions. It provides an easy way to search for and find relevant studies from across the world.

While the Programme Evidence and Gap Map shows you what evidence is available for different interventions, it can’t tell you whether a specific programme has been effective in achieving its intended results. To find this out, you’ll need to read the studies themselves (or consult the Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit).

Find out more