Four BAMSA Youth Advisory Groups have been established to support the “Bridge, Youth and Mindsport Education” research project

This summer, BAMSA established a collaborative partnership with four advisory groups to support the work on the “Bridge, Youth and Mindsport Education” research project.
Over the course of the summer, multiple advisory and steering groups were formed to co-produce, frame, and support BAMSA’s youth bridge research, and the first meetings of the BAMSA Youth Advisory Groups were held. The formation of the advisory and steering groups marks an important milestone in the development of the research project that comes shortly after its official launch and precedes the commencement of the research fieldwork.
In total, three advisory groups and one steering group were formed in consultation with the bridge community:

– Advisory Group for Scotland
– Advisory Group for England
– Advisory Group for Norway
– International Steering Group

The membership of the advisory and steering groups comprises bridge and youth inclusion experts, bridge teachers, young bridge players, and members of bridge unions and organisations who are passionate about generating evidence of the benefits of youth bridge, increasing youth participation in bridge, and seeing bridge thrive as a mindsport.
The arrangements for the membership’s input into the research project are mutually agreed as follows:

• Members have a key role in shaping the four-year “Bridge, Youth and Mindsport Education” project (also sometimes referred to as ‘Bridging Schools’ for short), in particular, to ensure its research impact and practical relevance.
• They are invited to provide input into all aspects of the project and its outreach efforts, including the fieldwork sites, the research participants, and the questions asked in the interviews.
• The approach to conducting the meetings is participatory, and the format of the meetings is decided by the members of each group. The agenda for the meetings and the focus of the discussion is also co-produced, and centres around themes relating to research, practice, and policy.

The agenda for the first meetings of the BAMSA Youth Advisory Groups focussed on four key questions:

– Overall vision for the project- Expectations for collaborating together
– Research objectives and interview questions
– Preferred research outputs

The members of each group shared their thoughts and ideas on these key themes, and converged on points of agreement. For example, Scotland’s vision is to see more children playing bridge, England’s vision is to energise the bridge community and bring bridge to a new generation, Norway’s vision is to show that bridge is good for children, and US similarly envisions that schools should be supported to recognise the benefits of bridge and to become more invested in bridge teaching. BAMSA Youth’s mission is clear: whilst the bridge community already knows the benefits of bridge for all, more needs to be done to communicate these benefits more widely.

Click the links below to see the full summary of the meeting minutes from the four advisory meetings:
Powerpoint Slides
PDF of Slides