Les Clés pour l'adolescence, un programme de promotion de la ...

Interpersonal relations
Lion’s Quest [Skills for Adolescence]. also helped the students to handle stress better in terms of how
they treat others and manage interpersonal relationships. The teacher noted an increase in respect and
responsibility among the young participants.
During the interviews, the students recalled having discussed stress management, frustration and team
work while the program was being conducted. One stated: “It taught me a lot about how to deal with
life right now and in the future and stuff like how to deal with stress and how to deal with going out and
asking a business to sponsor you or whatever.” (Student 13) Yet another related: “Some things did
help, like relationships with parents, it definitely helped, actually (…) I think it was mostly social
relationships, building friendships and communities that are strong and no more conflicts.” (Student 14)
One activity that was particularly significant and motivational involved the preparation of an apple crisp
dessert, which, in the view of one student, showed the importance of teamwork: “We made apple pie
[crisp]. So we were all in a group and we helped each other, one person would be like flour and one
person would be oatmeal [...] and we worked together as a team (...), it was just fun to be working all
together.” (Student 9) These young people gave the impression they truly enjoyed many aspects of
this activity in that each one of them had a role to play in the group. In working together, they were
seeking to achieve the same goal, realizing the role of others. Not only was team spirit created, the
participants were afforded the opportunity to establish new ties with peers with whom they had
previously spent little time. One of them raised the following point: “it gave us the chance to like, kinda
meet new people and like to get along with people ” (Student 11)
Other students learned to express themselves better and to share their feelings. It can be seen how
important it is to them that a situation be conducive to their opening up: “I guess I just realized that it’s
like better than to like keep your feelings all shoved up inside, you know. ’Cause that’s not good, it’s not
healthy and so I don’t know I just started telling my friends everything and if I’m upset or angry with
them, then I’ll tell them why. Is that something you would have learned in the program? Yeah.”
(Student 11) In some cases, Skills for Adolescence appeared to have encouraged the teens to find
support within their peers social group when facing difficult situations, whereas in others the emphasis
had been placed more on the development of individual strategies.
Accepting responsibility
The teacher stated he had observed certain students making responsible decisions, an example being
one youth who made an effort to behave better towards substitute teachers. Once again, he referred
to the importance of community spirit among students and how one behaves as a member of such a
community. He framed the behaviour of the students in terms of that of ordinary citizens and asked
them if the way they acted would be acceptable away from the school grounds. This appeared to have
a positive effect in that it gave the students a more open outlook, this type of thinking going in the
sense of Lion’s Quest. “If you went into someone’s store the way you’re talking in class right now, how
do you think you’d be received and he said, ‘Well they might think I’m being rude’ and I said, ‘Yeah and
they might get the wrong impression’ and so we’re able to refer back to that. But again, I would say it
sort of became a seamless part of the program where it wasn’t just ‘Take out your books, we’re gonna
do page 26’ It’s about honesty so then there’s these questions. (Teacher)