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The Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP) is an after-school healthy living program delivered by Indigenous high school students to elementary school children, with the support of a Young Adult Health Leader (YAHL) chosen by the community. IYMP typically runs once per week for 90 minutes, delivering healthy snacks and physical activity for at least 20 weeks throughout the school year. Co-developed with Indigenous youth, educators, and researchers, IYMP promotes well-being, resiliency, and overall positive mental health, including Mino-Bimaadiziwin/Mino-Pimâtisiwin (“living in a good way”). It is grounded theoretically in teachings of Indigenous scholars Drs. Brokenleg (Circle of Courage) and Kirkness (The Four R’s). The core components of IYMP are: (1) healthy eating, (2) physical activity, and (3) relationship building and mentorship.
High school mentors meet weekly to plan each session. Mentors are responsible for running equitable vigorous physical activities, preparing and serving the healthy snack, cleaning up, and planning future sessions. A key role for mentors is interacting with elementary school children. At the end of each session, high school mentors and the YAHL review the day’s events.
Within IYMP the older students are trained to design and implement a weekly program: preparing and serving a healthy snack, planning and leading physically active games, and facilitating teaching circles. Sometimes the older students themselves share teachings, and other times they invite local Elders, teachers, and / or parents / guardians to share knowledge.
Why IYMP?
Youth require a sense of belonging, mastery, independence and generosity to thrive. (Brendtro, Brokenleg, Van Bockern, 2005) There is strong evidence that through involvement in mentorship activities, positive social and health outcomes, high school completion rates, community involvement and pro-social behaviours increase, particularly for rural Indigenous youth. (Carmichael, 2008)
IYMP drives positive health outcomes, resilience, and a strong sense of belonging through a relationship-based peer mentoring approach, guided by a focus on resiliency. By nurturing the health and leadership capacity within local communities, Indigenous children and youth build the skills, knowledge, and networks to make positive choices, increase their daily physical activity, and improve their quality of life. A growing body of evidence, including almost 10 years of research from Manitoba, demonstrates the success of IYMP in building youth resiliency and self esteem, enhancing protective factors against negative behaviours, improving health outcomes and school community engagement.
Funding support for IYMP allows us to deliver programming in more communities in the far-reaches of Alberta, including sending staff to deliver in-person mentorship training sessions with high school youth, and putting dollars towards transportation and food to reduce barriers to access. Our goal of $20,000 will support IYMP expansion into 4 new Alberta communities in 2022/2023.
When you donate to this program, you'll receive regular updates from Ever Active Schools on the success of our programming and insights into our annual work. You'll also be recognized as a supporter in our annual magazine, sent out to every school in Alberta as well as a variety of stakeholders (including you!)
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