12:40 - 1:10 pm EST
The Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP): a Peer-led Healthy Living Afterschool Program
Kate Storey, PhD, RD - University of Alberta - CLICK for bio
Description:
This presentation will describe the Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP). IYMP is an exemplar community-based, resilience-centred intervention that has successfully improved health and well-being outcomes of thousands of children and youth across Canada. Co-developed with Indigenous youth, educators, and researchers, IYMP is typically a 20-week, peer-led afterschool program delivered by high school mentors for their younger elementary-aged peers. IYMP promotes wellness, resilience, and overall positive mental health, including the Anishinaabe/Cree concepts of “living in a good way.” The core components of IYMP are: healthy eating, physical activity, and relationship building. While essential conditions have been established for implementing IYMP, each community tailors components of the program to meet their own unique needs, teachings, and values.
IYMP utilizes a community-based participatory research approach with a decolonizing lens, and focuses on resilience, social justice, and empowerment. IYMP is a strengths-based intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes that fosters identity and empowers youth, rather than education alone. It is grounded theoretically in the teachings of Indigenous scholars Drs. Martin Brokenleg (Circle of Courage: Belonging, Independence, Mastery, and Generosity) and Verna Kirkness (4 R’s: Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility). This presentation aims to describe the history and rippling (the team’s preferred term for scaling-up) of IYMP across Canada, and to describe how IYMP honours community-based participatory research principles and practices.
Learning Objectives:
- Provide an overview of the Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program
- Describe the history and rippling (the team’s preferred term for scaling-up) of IYMP across Canada
- Describe how IYMP honours community-based participatory research principles and practices