Sally Spencer, Chief Executive Officer, The Peer Project - YAY Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1. Somebody to Lean On: A Preliminary Evaluation of The Peer Project - Youth Assisting Youth’s Peer Mentoring Program Sally Spencer, Chief Executive Officer, The Peer Project - YAY Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2. 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 – atwofold conceptualization: risk and resiliency within a prevention framework Post test methodological design evaluation to explore if the programfosters resiliency in youth

3. The 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 Purpose

4. 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 The Peer Project | YAY

5. Workshops include: • Strength-Based Mentoring • Child Abuse Awareness • Cultural Diversity • Child Engagement & Management Skills • Bullying • Effective Communication • Other topics include: Roles & Responsibilities; Expectations; Cross-Cultural Communication. Mandatory Mentor Orientation and Training Sessions

6. 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 The Match

7. Peer Mentoring within a Resiliency Framework 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)

8. It 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

9. 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) The Resiliency Framework

10. The Resiliency Framework 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)

11. 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) Resiliency Based Paradigms

12. 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

13. 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 Methodology

14. 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 Methodology

15. 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 The C/YR:ADS tool

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

17. Mentees' Aggregated Resiliency Scores Participation in the YAY’s Peer Mentoring programwas 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

18. 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’ External Developmental Strengths

20. 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’ Internal Developmental Strengths

22. Moral directedness (81%) • Social connectedness (80%) • Agency and responsibility (78%) • Managing ambiguity (77%) • Strength based aptitude (65%) • Emotional competence (63%) Mentees’ Core Competencies

24. Similar profiles have been reported by the mentors • High scores among internal and external strengths and core competencies were indicative of ThePeer Project as facilitating the development of resiliency characteristics among mentors Mentors’ Profiles

25. 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

26. 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 The Mentoring Relationship

28. Indicative 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 findingbooks together" Mentees’ Comments

29. 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" Mentors’ Comments

30. 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

31. 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 culturalsensitivity and empowerment, as well as the external component of community cohesiveness Conclusions

32. 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 Limitations

33. THANK YOU