Somebody to Lean On: Somebody to Lean On: A Preliminary Evaluation of A Preliminary Evaluation of

The Peer Project - Youth Assisting Youth’s The Peer Project - Youth Assisting Youth’s

Peer Mentoring ProgramPeer Mentoring Program

Sally Spencer, Chief Executive Officer, Sally Spencer, Chief Executive Officer, The Peer Project - YAYThe Peer Project - YAY

Toronto, Ontario, CanadaToronto, Ontario, Canada

Introduction• The Peer Project | YAY – a non-profit organization that provides a youth peer mentoring service to improve the life prospects of at- risk children

• Peer Mentoring – a twofold conceptualization: risk and resiliency within a prevention framework

• Post test methodological design evaluation to explore if the program fosters resiliency in youth

PurposeThe purpose of this project was threefold:Explore YAY’s ability to foster resiliency in youth

Determine mentees' degrees of resiliency

Create a knowledge base of preliminary results to inform the future development of the program

The Peer Project | YAY• Has served more than 30,000 young people since 1976• Currently services approximately 1500 children and youth per

month• Matches youth volunteers, ages 16 to 29, with at-risk children, ages

6 to 15, experiencing a variety of mental health related issues• Every referred youth has been clinically diagnosed as suffering

from at least 1 mental health related issues • Referrals - through child welfare agencies, schools, settlement

services• Home Assessments- completed by staff Social Workers for every

Mentee and Mentor in the program• Mentors are recruited from high schools, colleges, universities and

the workplace

Mandatory Mentor Orientation and Training Sessions

The Match• Matches (Mentor & Mentee) are based on common interests,

identified special needs, gender and geographical location

• The duration of the mentoring relationship is a minimum of one year. However, many matches go well beyond this specified time frame

• Participants spend an average of 3 hours per week together in a variety of shared interest activities

• Social Workers, Parent Support Workers and Volunteer Support Workers provide ongoing support and supervision throughout the duration of the relationship

• Most risk reduction programs focused on the development of effective coping strategies for youth (Osgood, Johnston, O’Malley, & Bachman, 1988)

• New research proposed the inclusion of protective factors alongside the risk reducing preventative interventions (Pollard, Hawkins, & Arthur, 1999)

• Resiliency enhancing programs: protective factors counterbalance risk factors and create emotionally resilient children (Alperstein & Raman, 2003)

Peer Mentoring within a Resiliency Framework

The Resiliency FrameworkIt focuses on the individual’s ability to:

• Successfully navigate through significant threats (Hall, Vine & Gardner, 2010)

• Develop the necessary skills to overcome diversity (Goldstein & Brooks, 2005) via a combination of external (family, peer, school, community) and internal strengths (personality characteristics, empowerment, self-control)

• Mobilize protective resources to counterbalance risks (Rew & Horner, 2003) and deal with stress effectively (Alperstein & Raman, 2003)

The Resiliency Framework

An ecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and comprehensive approach to risk (Alperstein & Raman, 2003)

It posits that multi-layered interactions exist between the individual and its surrounding environment, comprised of risk factors but also of shielding factors (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005) enhancing one's healthy development (Henley, 2010) and individual well being (Resiliency Initiatives, 2012; Steinebach & Steinebach, 2009; Saewyc, Skay, & Pettingell, 2006)

Youth with high resiliency factors are:

• Less likely to be involved in risk taking activities such a substance use and school misbehaviour (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczack, & Hawkins, 2004)

• More likely to develop interpersonal skills, self control, problem solving and cognitive competencies (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczack, & Hawkins, 2004)

• More likely to engage in constructive behaviours (Resiliency Initiatives, 2012)

The Resiliency Framework

Resiliency Based Paradigms • Seek to identify protective, nurturing factors in the lives of those

who otherwise would be expected to be at risk for a variety of adverse outcomes (Coie, Watt, West, Hawkins, Asarnow, Markman, Ramey, Shure & Long, 1993)

• Promote emotional well being (Alperstein & Raman, 2003) as a key component to mental health promotion for youth (Wyn, Cahill, Holdsworth, Rowling & Carson, 2000)

• Have been adopted as viable evaluation models for understanding the major components contributing to the resiliency development and well-being of children and youth in our communities (Donnon & Hammond, 2007)

Methodology

Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of:

Front line service providers

Program participants

Experts within the Youth Development Field

Experts within the Mentoring field

The RAC guided the project’s development and reviewed its Internal Ethics Protocol

Methodology

Evaluation Questions: Process and Outcome

• The Process Evaluation questions aimed to shed light on the mentoring relationship

• The Outcome Evaluation questions explored youth resiliency profiles as they particularly relate to their behavioural and social functioning

Although feedback from both Mentors and Mentees was

elicited, within the context of this report, Mentees' opinions are the ones primarily accounted for

MethodologyMethodology• Participants were asked to complete the Child/Youth Resiliency:

Assessing Developmental Strengths (C/YR: ADS) tool at post test, after they have been involved in the program for 1 year

• Recruitment: a convenience sample limited to youth, ages 6 to 15, participating in YAY’s Peer Mentoring program

• Informal focus group discussions were conducted with both, mentees and mentors, following the administration of the tool

• Questionnaires were carried out between June and August 2012

TheThe C/YR:ADS C/YR:ADS tooltool Previously tested for reliability and validity (Donnon & Hammond, 2007)

Questionnaire items:• External Developmental Strengths (family supports, peer

relationships, commitment to learning, school culture, community cohesiveness)

• Internal Developmental Strengths (cultural sensitivity, self-control, empowerment, self-concept, social sensitivity)

• Personal Core Character Competencies (strengths based aptitude, emotional competence, social connectedness, moral directness, adaptability, managing ambiguity, agency and responsibility)

• Demographic Information (age and sex) • Progress Questions - to assess the overall mentoring relationship

Summary of Participants

The majority of Mentees were young males, with an average age of 13 years, ranging between 10 to 16 years old

Mentees' Aggregated Resiliency Scores

Participation in the YAY’s Peer Mentoring program was beneficial for youth:

• 73% of Mentees developed resilient profiles: over a half of participants (53%) reported a very resilient profile and a further 20% reported a somewhat resilient profile

• Roughly ¼ of participants fit within a vulnerable profile (26.7%)

• No mentees fell into the Very vulnerable category

Mentees’ External Developmental Strengths• Family support (79%): caring, communicative family; parents

as role models, actively involved in school matters and having high academic expectations of their children

• Peer relationships (78%)

• Commitment to learning (70%): school engagement and academic achievements

• Positive school culture (68%): strong bond with a caring school climate and high academic expectations

• Community cohesiveness (58%): community values, adult relationships within the community, neighbourhood boundaries and the overall characteristic of a caring neighbourhood

Mentees’ Internal Developmental Strengths

• Self control (85%): youth restraint & resistance skills

• Self concept (80%): self efficacy, self-esteem, planning and decisions making capacity

• Social sensitivity (79%): empathy, caring, equality and social justice

• Cultural sensitivity (68%): cultural awareness, spirituality and acceptance

• Empowerment (65%)

Mentees’ Core Competencies

• Moral directedness (81%)

• Social connectedness (80%)

• Agency and responsibility (78%)

• Managing ambiguity (77%)

• Strength based aptitude (65%)

• Emotional competence (63%)

Mentors’ Profiles

Similar profiles have been reported by the mentors

High scores among internal and external strengths and core competencies were indicative of The Peer Project as facilitating the development of resiliency characteristics among mentors

The Mentoring Relationship

All mentees perceived their mentors as being fully involved, considerate, and felt they were well matched with their mentors

93% of participants stated they would like to continue their relationship with their mentors in the future

The Mentoring Relationship

Benefits of the mentoring relationship included:

Feeling heard and respected

Getting along with their mentors

Talking about relevant concerns

Having the mentors take interest in their issues

Focusing on strengths rather than challenges

Being a positive influence in their life and helping them

achieve successful goals

Mentees’ CommentsIndicative of their positive mentoring

relationship:

• "Like having a brother I never had“

• "Now I know what it means to have a

positive influence"

• "He helps me get thorough the tough

things"

• " I liked going to the library and getting

my own library card and then finding

books together"

Mentors’ Comments

Mentors positively commented about their overall mentoring experience:

" Developing this interesting relationship, you become a brother and sister"

"It's a good experience. Helps a lot to be sensitive, choose your words, learn how to make someone else happy...it's a gratifying feeling"

Conclusions• The Peer Project |YAY facilitates the development of resiliency

in youth

• 73% of mentees have developed resilient profiles

• Family support was the external development strength that contributed the most to mentees' resiliency

• Community cohesiveness was the least reported external strength for all mentees. YAY intends to introduce new ways of building community cohesiveness, perhaps by developing and engaging youth in many more community and neighbourhood based activities and events

• Lower scores were reported on the cultural sensitivity and empowerment internal strengths, areas in which YAY plans to improve upon

Conclusions

Although no Mentees fell into the very vulnerable category, more work is indeed needed to fully cater and adapt the program to fit the needs of all participants, in particular to assist youth in strengthening the internal components of cultural sensitivity and empowerment, as well as the external component of community cohesiveness

Limitations

Although reflective of positive trends, these results can only be validated with a pre-test/ post-test comparative evaluation.

The number of participants was fairly low, making it difficult to generalize on the experiences of only 15 participants

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