Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation

Recommendation 2: Extension of program scope
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Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation
Sustain the program and expand the funding base so that Panyappi has the capacity
and flexibility to respond to a greater range of young people, specifically:
� in other geographical areas of high need, and
� across a wider age group, ie the 6-9 year old group.
Recommendation 3: Strengthening collaborative work
Continue to foster collaborative work with program collaborators beyond the
auspicing agency, including formal memorandums of agreement where relevant.
Develop a training strategy to inform and educate workers in FAYS and those in
other collaborating agencies (government and non-government) to ensure they
understand the:
� role of mentoring,
� responsibilities of mentors,
� contrasts with other areas of work (statutory, education, counselling, etc), and
� implications this has for effective communication and working relationships with
Panyappi.
Recommendation 4: An advisory and support function
Explore alternative advisory and support models to the standard Advisory Group, eg
regular information systems to a wider group of interested parties, buddy systems
with one or more key stakeholders, occasional workshop or forums on specific issues,
or invitations to program events or celebrations where discussion forums are built in.
Recommendation 5: Family-inclusive approaches
Maintain a family-inclusive approach in line with culturally appropriate practice.
Further explore, document and evaluate this approach to assist in understanding its
impact on program outcomes, and as a contribution to the literature on youth
mentoring programs.
Recommendation 6: Evaluation
Include a budget for evaluation in any future funding of Panyappi as it is a unique
program in Australia - there are few independently evaluated youth mentoring
programs and none have been both Indigenous run and focused apart from Panyappi.
Develop an appropriate evaluation framework that:
� tracks changes in offending behaviour by the client group over time,
� accounts for other contributing factors, and
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