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Halsall, 2021
Canada
| Transitional Aged Youth, Leap of Faith Together | Peer support services are integrated alongside case management, mental health, and housing support services for youth ages 14-26 Youth participants reflected the diversity of the population of downtown Toronto and included youth experience mental health and substance use issues Program objective is to build a sense of autonomy and develop life skills capacity to help achieve goals and maintain personal wellness for program users N = approximately 800 | Aim of evaluation was to examine peer support services within the Transitional Ages Youth program using realist and participatory procedures and develop revised research questions based on the initial evaluative findings | Realist approach: Includes an exploration of the formal program theory through a literature search, review of program documents and interviews with key stakeholders (peer staff, non-peer staff, and students that work in the program) to identify preliminary context, mechanism, outcome patterns and general successes and challenges Participatory approach: Includes a workshop for the study purpose and background, general evaluation principles, and an exploratory discussion to collect feedback on design and current issues within peer support that included peer staff, non-peer staff, and students that worked in the program Post-Realist and Participatory Data Collection: Includes peer interviews, client online surveys, peer online surveys, and knowledge mobilization based on the information gathered from the realist and participatory approaches | The realist approach aimed to gather information and contextualize initial contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes identified by key stakeholders to inform refined research questions for additional program evaluation The participatory approach collected feedback on initial design and current issues of interest within peer support The post-realist and participatory data collection was used to help refine the scope of the evaluation |
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Day, 2020
UK
| Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Department for Education | The Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing were piloted in 2018 with the aim of understanding how schools, colleges and CYPCOs can set up and deliver peer support to improve youth mental health and well-being Participating organizations designed and tailored their model of peer support to fit individual needs and circumstances | Aim of evaluation was to understand the set up and delivery of peer support programs so that replicable models may be produced for different contexts Evaluation efforts aimed to answer questions related to program models, implementation, and benefits and outcomes | A mixed-methods approach was used to quantitative and qualitative data Organization pilot leads completed an online survey to establish baseline measurements Follow-up qualitative telephone interviews were complete with a sample of pilot leads Case study visits were conducted with a purposive sample of pilot leads Participatory research tools were used to provide feedback from youth Pre and post quantitative survey of youth to measure change in individual wellness outcomes | Social and emotional well-being and resilience Personal development Organizational outcomes and capacity building |
