Dr. Cormac Forkan

Cormac is the Programme Coordinator of the BA in Youth and Family Studies (GY120), a three-year degree offered by NUI Galway in conjunction with St. Angela’s College, Sligo. As well as lecturing on this programme, he also provides inputs to the MA in Community Development, the MA in Family Support and to the Structured Ph.D. Programme at the School of Political Science and Sociology.

He has been a staff member of the Child and Family Research Centre since 2005. His primary research interests are in the areas of youth work and adolescent development, social support and evidence-based practice for community-based youth and family interventions. To further these interests, Cormac has led a number of evaluations of community based interventions for families and young people (e.g. Springboard Family Support Project in Sligo, Educational Action Research Project, Athlone). He has also led research commissioned by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on Youth Cafés in Ireland.

Prior to joining NUI Galway, Cormac lectured in the Waterford Institute of Technology on the Applied Social Studies Course (Social Care). He started his professional career as a Youth Worker for Foróige, the National Youth Development Organisation.

Ph.D. awarded, 2nd Jul 2010

Thesis title: Building Evidence on How to Support Adolescents through a Comparative Tracking of their Perceived Social Support Outcomes.

Selected Publications

Forkan, C., Canavan, J., Dolan, P., Bradley, C., Brady, B., Carty, C., Coen, L., Devaney, C., Kearns, N., Kenny, A., Merriman, B. and O’Regan, C. (2010) Youth Cafés in Ireland: A Best Practice Guide, Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Dublin: The Stationary Office.

Forkan, C., Canavan, J., Devaney, C. and Dolan, P. (2010) Youth Café Toolkit. How to Set-up and Run a Youth Café in Ireland, Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Dublin: The Stationary Office.

Forkan, C., O'Regan, C. and O'Sullivan, P. (2009) An Evaluation of the Educational Action Research (EAR) Project, Athlone, Athlone Community Taskforce (ACT) in association with Child and Family Research Centre.

Forkan, C. (2008) Building the Perceived Social Support of Adolescents via the Classroom in Irish Learning Support Association (LEARN), Vol. 30, pp. 35-45.

Forkan, C. (2006) Traveller Children and Education: Progress and Problems in Youth Studies Ireland, Vol. 1, No.1. pp. 77-92.

Selected Conferences

Forkan, C. (2010) Building Evidence on how to Support Adolescent Development through Longitudinal Social Support Monitoring, presented at the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA), Vilnius, 12th-15th May 2010.

Forkan, C. (2009) Tracking Social Support Outcomes as a Means of Generating Evidence-Based Practice in Youth and Family Support Work, presented at the ISSP Conference, NUI Galway, 1st-2nd December 2009.