Culturally appropriate mentoring for young Horn of Africans in Australia

1
Culturally appropriate mentoring for young Horn
of Africans in Australia

• Pooja Sawrikar, Megan Griffiths and Kristy Muir
• Social Policy Research Centre,
• University of New South Wales,
• Sydney, Australia
• Prepared for
• Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies (ACWA)
  Conference
• Sydney, 18-20 August 2008
• The authors acknowledge the National Youth
  Affairs Research Scheme (NYARS) for funding to
  complete this research.
• This paper expresses the views of the authors
  only and not NYARS.

2
Overview of presentation

• Background
• Aim
• Method
• Results
• Conclusion

3
Background demographics

• Recent increase in the number of young people
  from the Horn of Africa in Australia
• Horn of Africa Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
  Kenya, Somalia and Sudan
• Most people from Horn of Africa enter under
  Special Humanitarian Program (SHP)
• 97 of entrants from Sudan (N 29 282 between
  2000-2005) under SHP
• Between 1996-2006, 65 who entered under SHP were
  lt 30 years old

4
Background challenges

• As a newly arrived migrant group, service
  providers know little about their needs and how
  best to address them
• Also, the needs of Horn of African families are
  different from the needs of the young person in
  that family
• Challenges
• As a young person
• e.g. pursuing educational and employment
  opportunities
• As an ethnic minority in Australia
• e.g. racism or acculturation, and
• As a Horn of African
• e.g. PTSD or loss of country

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Background mentoring

• State governments (especially Victoria) are
  relying on mentoring as a possible source of
  support for young Horn of Africans
• Mentoring is
• the formation of a helping relationship between a
  younger person (the mentee) and an unrelated,
  relatively older, more experienced person (the
  mentor) who can increase the capacity of the
  young person to connect with positive social and
  economic networks to improve their life chances
  (Department for Victorian Communities, 2005)

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Background benefits of mentoring for young people

• Possible short term benefits
• Address challenges related to
• age,
• ethnicity, and
• direct or indirect trauma from the Horn of Africa
  
• Possible longer term benefits
• Increase sense of empowerment for navigating the
  socio-cultural and institutional systems in
  Australia, and
• increase or promote sense of inclusion in
  Australia

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Background benefits are conditional on...

• The extent to which mentoring effectively
  achieves these possible benefits cannot be
  determined until mentoring programs are
  established and evaluated.
• However, it is still important for mentoring
  organisations to be aware of how best to tailor
  their service delivery to ensure it is culturally
  appropriate.
• This was the aim of this study
• conducted by the SPRC, and
• commissioned by NYARS

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Aims

• Main aim of this study
• to identify how best to tailor current mentoring
  programs, policies, and procedures to make it
  culturally appropriate for young Horn of African
  mentees.

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Method

• Three methodological stages
• Stage 1 National and international literature
  review
• mentoring models and service provision for
  culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)
  groups, in particular Horn of Africans
• Stage 2 Semi-structured telephone interviews
  with key stakeholders (N 13)
• involved in mentoring, designing, implementing
  and/or funding mentoring programs, or
• providing community services specifically for
  Horn of Africans
• Stage 3 Focus groups with young Horn of African
  people and mentees
• 2 focus groups per state NSW, Vic, and SA
• N 33 (19 males 11 mentees 16-25 years old)

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Results areas of focus for culturally
appropriate services

• Three areas that need to be targeted to promote
  culturally appropriate service delivery
• organisational policies and practices,
• supporting the mentor with a Horn of African
  mentee, and
• supporting the young Horn of African mentee.

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Results organisational

• Organisational policies and practices
• Recruiting Horn of African or Arabic speaking
  staff
• Providing cultural awareness training to staff
• Developing partnerships with Horn of African
  community organisations and the local Horn of
  African community, and
• Including Horn of African young people in the
  planning and design of mentoring programs

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Results mentor

• Supporting the mentor with a Horn of African
  mentee
• Screening mentors
• Recruiting volunteers
• Cultural awareness training
• List of relevant organisations and services
• Relationship building exercises and activities,
  and
• Monitoring and supervision

13
Results mentee

• Supporting the young Horn of African mentee
• Mentoring is most appropriate after immediate
  settlement needs have been met
• Consider mentoring model
• Consider length of contract, frequency of
  contact, and type of activities
• Consider matching mentor and mentee
• based on race, gender, and age
• Engaging their family, and
• Assuring mentees of confidentiality, especially
  from their parents

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Discussion

• These results provide clearly stated and
  practical ways for mentoring organisations to
  adapt their current models of service delivery to
  ensure that it is culturally appropriate for
  their young Horn of African mentees
• The results may be used by
• mentors
• mentoring program managers
• mentoring policy makers
• Horn of Africans community organisations
• other service providers aiming to help facilitate
  their settlement in Australia, and
• young Horn of African mentees and people

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Conclusion

• Mentoring may be a useful tool for young Horn of
  Africans in Australia
• Mentoring may be able to
• provide holistic support for their emotional,
  socio-cultural and/or resource-related settlement
  issues and needs,
• equip young Horn of Africans with the know-how
  and confidence to fully participate in an
  Australian way of life,
• facilitate the on-going process of acculturation,
  and
• increase young peoples sense of social inclusion
  in Australia.

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Further Information

• We would like to thank our advisor Dr Elizabeth
  Cassity (University of Sydney) NYARS the
  stakeholders interviewed and young Horn of
  African people who participated in the focus
  groups
• For further information contact
• Pooja Sawrikar
• p.sawrikar_at_unsw.edu.au
• Please email megangriffiths_at_unsw.edu.au if you
  would like to go on the list to receive a PDF
  copy of the report once it becomes available