Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation

Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation
Mentors are like a big brother and they look forward to them coming and doing
the big brother thing. They had a very good relationship the boys. (Family
member)
He looks forward to when [the mentor ] comes. He has got something to do, play
games, can be with someone older that he tends to look up to….It was like a big
brother who is involved in his life and will pick him up and help him, like a normal
big brother does, take him to appointments, study, anything. He really fully
trusts [the mentor] no matter what the situation. (Family member)
Program collaborators also identified that the connection between young people and
their mentors is usually strong, for example:
[One young person] was presenting…a whole range of [difficult] issues. His Mum
was saying one day that [the mentor] came around to see him, but [the young
person] was a transient and not at home, but she was home and [the mentor] had
a bit of a yarn with her….When [the young person] came home he was so
disappointed that he had mi ssed [his mentor] . His face lights up when he sees
[his mentor] arriving. (Program collaborator)
An unexpected change of mentor when the mentoring relationship has been good does
create the risk of going backwards or repeating traumatic and damaging experiences
where young people feel rejected and lose a sense of positivity and hope. “ I t is critical
that if somebody says that they will do something for our young people that they do it.
Some of our kids are let down everywhere so if we let them down in this where we are
supposed to be helping them then there is nothing left” (Program collaborator). If that
does not occur, then the word “mentor” gets a bad reputation among the young people
and they will reject offers to have a mentor.
Unexpected change occurred on a few occasions during Panyappi’s life, either due to
overall disruption in the service with changes of staff (as described earlier), or when a
mentor left abruptly and had not prepared the young person for this change. Although
risk management plans are now in place to deal with this, understandably this draws
criticism from young people, families and program collaborators, which may dissuade
them from being involved in Panyappi.
One family member described the disruption when her young person was offered a
service in the early stages of Panyappi. They initially met with a mentor but services
were not consistently delivered and after a short time the mentor left. Many months
later, after the young person was involved in further offending behaviour and another
recommendation for referral to mentoring was made, the young person was completely
opposed to it. With the encouragement of a FAYS worker and this family member, the
young person gave it one last try, making it quite clear to the mentor that if
commitments were not kept, it was over! This mentor was able to keep commitments,
providing an alternative to previous experiences, and win this young person’s trust and
respect.
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