Peer Leadership

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Peer Leadership

• Recognizing and supporting the inherent strengths
  of a community

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Safe Partythe beginning

• Originally adult planned and adult led
• Its a Sobering Thought giving up control
• The good
• The not so good
• The lesson learned
• They spoke, we listened!

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Safe Party- becomes youth led

• Youth determined topics
• Youth determined agendas
• Youth represent themselves in the media
• Youth vetted and selected speakers

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Safe Party Icebergs

• Details were the enemy
• Solution adults did the boring stuff
• Youth volunteered to support the adults
• Structure and scheduling were all important

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Successes to Celebrate

• Topic diversity
• Approaches always unique
• leadership, group facilitation, presentation
  skills
• new ways and new audiences i.e. Parent Forum,
  diversity training
• Youth speakers celebrated

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Natural Helpers Peer Mentor Project

• A peer mentoring program that is based on the
  premise that within every school, an informal
  helping network exists
• identifies this informal network and provides
  training to student and adult natural helpers.

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Goals of Program

• To teach Natural Helpers
• effective ways to help their friends
• positive ways of taking good care of themselves
• ways to contribute to a safe and supportive
  school environment

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NH-Training

• 3 day Retreat Training program
• attend sessions on various topics such as
• Labeling
• Trust and teamwork
• Recognizing when people need help
• Limits and strategies for providing assistance
• Stressed that Natural Helpers are not
  professionally trained therapists or counselors

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The Retreat

• Over the course of the weekend, students and
  teachers worked together to form friendships and
  a support network

TEAM WORK
TRUST
FRIENDSHIP
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After the Retreat

• Weekly meetings
• Ongoing training sessions
• Youth determined and led activities appropriate
  for each school community

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Ongoing Sessions

• Throughout the school year Natural Helpers
  attended workshops discussing a variety of topics
  including
• Conflict resolution
• Stress
• How to resolve conflict with parents
• Eating disorders
• The dangers of oxycontin

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In School

• Natural Helpers school initiatives
• Distribution of friendship candy canes at
  Christmas
• Partnered with at risk grade 9 students for
  support and friendship
• bring a friend meetings

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In the community

• Involvement in various community activities
• Bridge the Gap
• Youth Week Activities
• Kids Help Phone fundraising walk
• Focus Testing of promotional materials for city
  wide Drug Driving and Opiate Use campaigns

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In the works this year

• Breakfast Program
• Drinking and Driving Awareness Week
• Sober Suds Car Wash
• Body Image Project
• Natural Helpers City-Wide Conference

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Does it work? Evaluation process

• qualitative and quantitative
• Helper logs
• Parents, teachers, helpers surveyed
• Year Two survey data on number of times students
  use Natural Helpers

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Next on the horizon

• Sustainability
• Dennis Franklin Cromarty
• Manitouwadge High School

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PhotovoiceYouth Alcohol

• record and reflect their community's strengths
  and problems in the context of alcohol use.
• promote dialogue about alcohol through group
  discussion.
• new insight and perspective about the issue of
  alcohol use and youth.

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Not a new concept

• Wang, et al.
• FOCUS, Regent Park
• Hamilton Project

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Partners involved

• Drug Awareness Committee
• FOCUS NorWest
• Thunder Bay Foundation
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit
• Hillcrest High School
• Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School

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Curriculum Development

• Guided discovery method
• Ethics and Guidelines
• No embarrassing poses or blackmail
• Stay out of harms way.
• Ask and Explain.
• Group Editing and Discussions
• Collaborative Planning

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Dennis Franklin Cromartry
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Hillcrest
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What will it look like?

• Collaborative showing with social drama component
• Youth want to reach other youth
• ?

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Questions?