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

life experiences. “when you’re talking to the student, you can refer back to the program and so a lot of
times a kid will have a blow up and you’ll say ‘What’s going on?’ and they’ll say ‘Well, I’m having
problems at home and I’m really feeling stressed’ and then you can go back and it’s almost a re-teaching
so Lion’s Quest [Skills for Adolescence] sort of provides you that anchor where you can go ‘Remember in
that workshop we talked about these things. Have you tried some of those strategies?’ I find that with
the at-risk kids you’ll need that one-on-one, but at least you can refer back and the nice thing about the
skills program is that you’re teaching everyone so it’s not like you’re gonna single out one student and
say, ‘Well do you wanna go and talk to the child youth worker’ and they get called out and they work on
some of these things. (Teacher)
Constraints
Some of the students did not appreciate the relevance of some workshop activities, for example “I
guess, it was a little bit weird. We were all sitting in circle and he was like ‘Close your eyes and imagine
a colour.’ And it was like... O.K.” (Student 7) and “There was one class where we made apple crisp. I
didn’t really get that. I didn’t really get the point of that but most of the classes, like the one class that
we did where we practicse our letter that we were going to give to the businesses that we went around
to.” (Student 13) In addition, a student feels the scope of the program is limited in that it consists
mostly of activities: “Some that have to do with stress, and so many different ways of helping people
without making yourself; giving yourself any problems while doing it. And that was one of the main
things I took from it ’cause it was the one thing that influenced me the most. The rest was pretty much
just activities to do.” (Student 16)
A large number of the students revealed that they had vague memories of Skills for Adolescence.
Although most could recall some activities, they had difficulty discussing at length the values and skills
that developed therefrom. It should be noted, however, that the student interviews took place one year
after the program had been implemented and that they still remembered some activities, workshops
and aspects, which were part of the goals.
From the parents’ perspective, they would not go so far as to say the program was groundbreaking. All
the same, they believed the program presented certain benefits to their children, and that it would pay
off in the long term. “I think it can do nothing but help to educate them, I mean to keep things from
them doesn’t help them so I think the more they know, the more prepared they’ll be.” (Parent 12)
Conclusion
This document follows a global report on Skills for Adolescence and presents the results of a study that
took place in the RPS community. Specifically, it discusses the results of interviews conducted with a
member of the Rockland Public School teaching staff, nine students and four of their parents.
The results highlights that the most important benefits of the Skills for Adolescence program for the RPS
community concern the management of emotions, confidence and self-esteem, making decisions and
personal relations, accepting responsibility, self-expression, health and well-being as well as risk taking.
In addition, this study respondents have addressed strengths of the program, specifically, the
vocabulary it provides students to discuss important issues in their life and the relevance of the skills,
which become an anchor and tool in everyday hurdles. The participants also shared some constraints of
implementation of the program, particularly in relation to the relevance of some activities for a few