Becoming Peer Health Leaders: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Youth Leadership Camp Preparing Peer Leaders for Participation in a Health Promotion Initiative.

Youth are critical partners in health promotion, but the process of training young people to become meaningfully involved is challenging. This mixed-methods evaluation considered the impact of a leadership camp in preparing 42 grade seven students to become peer health leaders in a ‘heart health’ initiative. The experiences of participants and their sense of agency were explored. Data were collected from pre and post camp surveys, focus groups, student journals and researcher observations. Findings indicate that relationships with peers and adults were key to agency development, and participants appeared to broaden their perspectives on the meanings of ‘health’ and ‘leadership.’ Significant changes on two sub-scales of the Harter Perceived Competence Scale for Children were also found. Suggestions for practice and further research are provided.

Determining the Effectiveness of the Therapeutic Recreation Specialist - Certified Training at Baycrest Health Sciences

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the “Champion” training of the Therapeutic Recreation Specialist – Certified (TRSC) at Baycrest Health Sciences (BHS). BHS recently implemented a new model for Therapeutic Recreation Services that employs the model of champion for implementation of both best and next practices within the organization. This mixed methods study used both case study and program evaluation in order to understand whether the training that comprised of five different topics allowed the six participants to develop the skills needed to be champions. The results supported that learning did occur during the training and that the experience was positive for the participants. The overall finding from this study is that while the training was useful, the participants did not feel confident about utilizing these skills without further training; hence, this training can only be considered an introduction to the concepts presented.