NYFS Staff And Supporters Thrilled By Peer Mentoring Results

By John Voket

A group of Newtown High School rising sophomores, some who expressed concerns about not wanting to go to school at all, are now some of the most enthusiastic supporters of a peer mentoring program administered by Newtown Youth & Family Services.

The local agency is touting the results of this grant-supported initiative as significant, and program administrators, the agency’s executive, and its chairman are all hoping this fall’s offering will attract unprecedented participation.

The program was overseen this past school year by Jeff Tolson, a NHS guidance counselor and coach, and Amanda Walsh, the NYFS interim grant coordinator, and a volunteer with the Newtown Prevention Council.

The major accomplishments of the peer mentoring program, according to NYFS Executive Director Beth Agen include:

*An 11.1 percent increase in the number of students reporting they “often” or “almost always” try their best in school

*A 20 percent increase in the number of participants reporting that “yes,” they want to do well in school.

*A 20 percent increase in the number of youth reporting that they found it easy to make friends with students in other grades

* A 5.3 percent increase among students reporting that they feel they make friends easily

Ms Walsh told The Bee this week that the mission of the peer mentoring program was to increase school attachment, to increase youth self-esteem, and to support resiliency skills.

“Peer mentoring met three times a week during the last period of the day,” she said. “Freshmen who were identified by school administration, teaching staff, and even their peers as individuals who may benefit from positive peer associations were matched with junior mentors.”

The three groups, one each day, were determined by free periods in the students’ class schedules. During each half-hour meeting, the student participants and their mentors would look back on the activity they engaged in together the week before.

“In addition to this meeting, the freshmen spent another hour or more together during the week participating in various activities that started as simple phone or computer conversations,” she said.

But as the program progressed, Ms Walsh and Mr Tolson started seeing participants stepping out of their comfort zones, becoming creative about their activities.

“One pair spent an afternoon visiting an elderly set of grandparents, while another pair made CDs of their favorite songs for each other,” she said.

Suggested activities were offered to the mentor pairs as stops on a treasure map. Each time a pair fulfilled a stop on the map, they received an “X marks the spot” stamp on their map, plus raffle tickets for various prizes.

The administrators saw the bonds between the student teams forged deeper as the program progressed.

“By the end, the students were helping each other study for tests, spending days with each other’s families, attending each other’s games or track meets, and generally becoming close friends,” Ms Walsh said.

Throughout the program participants were eligible for prizes — movie tickets, gift cards, free coffee, etc — based on raffle tickets earned through pair activities. And a $250 cash prize was offered at the end of the school year.

“When the winning junior was chosen at the last meeting, her freshman partner immediately reached over and hugged her,” Ms Walsh recalled. “Some pairs had made plans to split the prize money, while others had plans to use part of the prize money for a special outing together.”

Lasting Friendships

The best outcome for the administrators was seeing some of the students forming lasting friendships.

“A few of them offered to come back next year and offer support and advice to the new members of the program,” Ms Walsh said. “The program succeeded in getting the students to feel more connected to their school and their community as some of them signed up for our yoga program, Independent Living Day, or joined a sports team or other club at school.”

As a facilitator, Ms Walsh said she had the opportunity to see how great an impact such a simple program could have on students.

“It was particularly rewarding to watch two painfully shy freshmen girls open up and become more confident,” she said. “And I had the chance to feel like a mentor myself when a few of the girls stayed after one day to ask me what they could do in high school that would help prepare them for college. In that moment, I felt my purpose in this agency. The success of this program fed me just as much as it fed the students.”

Mr Tolson said, as a guidance counselor, he sees the program as a unique way to highlight students seeking college placement.

“This is a great thing for mentors and mentees,” he said. “It can provide subject matter for a wonderful college essay, and it’s an opportunity to build a foundation that could lead to a lifelong commitment to mentoring.”

Mr Tolson said he would not be surprised to see students transition from this program into volunteering for organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He also touted the wildfire effect it was having among students just hearing about the peer mentoring initiative.

“I just see it as getting stronger,” he said. “The program is virtually recruiting on its own after a number of the kids who were in it started talking to other students about getting involved.”

Christopher Gardner, chairman of the NYFS board, hailed the program’s results, restating his commitment to taxpayers and residents about using agency services, to maximize every dollar of funding to improve program results. He also credited Ms Agen for recognizing a program like peer mentoring that could maximize volunteer capacity while minimizing the draw on staff resources.

“This is just another example of the strong leadership we are seeing from Beth and her staff. They see the big picture — who we are serving and how many we can serve,” Mr Gardner said. “And without expanding our staff, we have recruited individuals through the peer mentoring program who help us serve even more people.”

The NYFS chairman said programs like peer mentoring prove the agency has the ability to expand services and providing more benefits to the community at large without coming forward asking for more money to reach that goal.

According to Ms Agen, the program also served as a new way to model outcomes. She said in July 2007 NYFS decided to use the Search Institute’s “40 Developmental Assets” model to measure program success.

“Developmental assets are concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people,” Ms Agen explained. “Each NYFS program plan contains one to five developmental assets against which the success of the program will be measured.”

She said NYFS staff selected bonding to school since the young person cares about her or his school, and interpersonal competence, because the young person holds empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills as the measures of success for the peer mentoring program model.

“The student survey results show that by these measures the program was extremely successful,” Ms Agen said. “So our hope is to carry this model to new program implementation.”