Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program: a descriptive case study of implementation in Alberta, Canada

• Published in: Rural and Remote Health
• Main Authors: Sabrina Lopresti, Noreen Willows, Kate Storey, Tara-Leigh McHugh, IYMP National Team
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: James Cook University 2020
• Subjects: Canada; First Nations; health promotion; healthy eating; implementation; Indigenous; Special situations and conditions; RC952-1245; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH5919; https://doaj.org/article/5a7d9bd86c8e49908ea532a47351ca7b

Introduction: Children spend a significant amount of their day at school, so school-based health promotion interventions are one strategy for improving health and wellness for Indigenous children globally. The Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP) is one such intervention in Canada. IYMP's core components include physical activities/games, healthy snacks, relationship-building activities and traditional Indigenous teachings. The theoretical framework guiding IYMP is based on the pedagogical teachings (Circle of Courage and Four R's) of two Indigenous scholars (Brokenleg and Kirkness). Between 2012 and 2018, IYMP was rippled (IYMP team's preferred term for 'scaled up') to 13 Indigenous school communities across Canada. Schools are encouraged to tailor the program to suit their unique contexts. There is little information about the scalability of school health programs developed for Indigenous children. The purpose of the present research was to describe the implementation of IYMP during its first year of rippling to two rural First Nation community schools in the province of Alberta. Methods: This descriptive case study described the first year of implementation (January to June 2017) of IYMP as an after-school healthy living program in two rural First Nation community schools. IYMP was led by a young adult health leader (education assistant) and youth mentors (grades 6-12) from each community. Program implementation was documented using program logs and observational field notes of program sessions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze log data. Results: In total, 33 children, 2 young adult health leaders, 19 high school youth mentors and 6 junior high school mentors from both First Nation schools participated in IYMP. On average, there were 11.7 children (median=11, range=6-24) per program session, typically 3 males and 7 females. Weekly sessions had a mean duration of 87 minutes (median=90, range=75-110). Foods most often offered to children were whole, unprocessed foods such as fruits and ...