Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation

Panyappi Indigenous Youth Mentoring Program Evaluation
I think with Panyappi once they get him to this stage of the help, there should
be a second stage of help for them when they leave. Help them to survive, keep
on track with those kids so that they don’t get lost. It needs to go on. ( Family
63
member)
Young people and families were not alone in their opinions on this. Program collaborators
were concerned for the future of the program and the young people if the program was
not available. They commented that the concept was excellent, but needed to be funded
appropriately and over a sufficient length of time to allow the program to become
established, offer job security to avoid losing staff, maintain continuity of support to
young people, and for the mentoring role to be appropriately understood by program
collaborators so there are reasonable expectations. They were confident that under
these conditions ongoing evaluation of Panyappi would demonstrate outcomes with enough
young people to substantiate those outcomes that had already been achieved.
Program management themes
Similarly to the young people and family themes, there is mutual influence between the
themes named here. They reflect issues that typify the establishment and management
of program initiatives that have uncertain futures beyond their initial funding grant.
Establishing a new program
It was apparent from talking with program collaborators, program funders and advisory
group members that they appreciated the effort needed to establish a new program
such as Panyappi. Many acknowledged that the program had a difficult start with three
Coordinators to date and the second one leaving very suddenly. This had a negative
impact on staff, resulting in them also leaving, and caused breaks in program continuity
and mentor recruitment. Four months into the program the first Coordinator and MAYT
management, who had a shared understanding of the program focus, were informed by
program funders that they must maintain clearer distinctions between their client
groups, with Panyappi having a strictly inner city focus on young people who may or may
not be FAYS clients. This created problems in redefining auspicing arrangements (see
below) and slowed the establishment process.
Program funding was also not entirely secure, with a $90K shortfall that was not
directly provided by FAYS as initially promised. FAYS decided to recover this through
establishing most mentor positions as traineeships, reducing mentor numbers to 6 and
removing car access. This was not a straightforward process and slowed program
progress. It meant recruiting people with little or no experience in the workplace or in
human services, resulting in the first Coordinator spending considerable time supporting
and mentoring staff who did not always make good decisions in how to mentor young
people or manage their time. The Coordinator often directly mentored young people to
maintain support for them when mentors were inconsistent or tried to “save” the young
63 This comment refers to the idea of providing support “beyond the trouble zone” as noted on
page 18 in the “How Panyappi works” section.
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