Meeting the Integration Needs of Refugee Youth: Community Partnership Case Study

1. Meeting the Integration Support Needs of Refugee Youth: The Role of Community-Based Participatory Partnerships N. Ernest Khalema, Assistant Professor Faculty of Social Work - University of Calgary (Edmonton)George C. Ishiekwene, PhD Youth Programs - Catholic Social Services – Edmonton Prairie Metropolis Centre & Alberta Employment and Immigration Brown Bag Seminar Edmonton, Canada April 20, 2009

2. Abstract Agency, community, and institutional partnerships have demonstrated potential for improving the schooling experiences of youth from refugee, war-affected, and disrupted schooling back- grounds; but only recently have their multilevel impacts been systematically evaluated and articulated. This presentation profiles a case study that highlights the evolution, development, and implementation processes and outcomes of a community-based participatory partnership (CBPP) project entitled: Project Youth: Integration and Education (PYIE). PYIE began in 2004 and was aimed at supporting the educational needs of recently arrived refugee youth in Edmonton’s inner-city with an overall mandate of enhancing the adaptive/settlement capacity of refugee youth in ways that minimize distress and promote healthy and positive school experiences.The partnership between Catholic Social Services (CSS), St Joseph High School, refugee youth, and other community collaborators was explored using a multi-method longitudinal case study approach. The conversion of the Career and Life Management (CALM) curriculum, the use of school and community resources, the adoption of non-formal delivery styles, one-on-one counseling, a systematic practice evaluation component, and the adoption of a strength-based leadership development were among the strategies for which the partnership’s evaluative and implementation process bore substantial outcomes. Lessons and limitations for potential PYIE model replication in other contexts will be discussed in order to guide educators, researchers, and policymakers on the process of implementing effective school-based programs to support refugee youth in schools.

3. Presentation Focus This presentation profiles a case study research that highlights the evolution, development, and implementation processes as well as outcomes of a community-based participatory partnership (CBPP) project entitled: Project Youth: Integration and Education (PYIE)

4. Rationale and Motivation • Growing desire and demand for educational resources that help build the knowledge and skills needed to develop and sustain effective partnerships to support the integration needs of refugee youth. • Stimulate interest in community-based participatory partnerships as a novel concept for school-based interventions .

5. Key Questions in understanding CBPP • What is meant by successful CBPP aimed at supporting refugee and immigrant youth? • What are the factors that contribute to successful CBPP? • What are the barriers and facilitators that impact successful CBPP? • What ideas, recommendations and strategies can build the capacity of communities, youth, agencies, funders, and other stakeholders to engage in successful CBPP?

6. Partnerships & Collaborations:What is the Difference?

7. CBPP Key Principles • Multilateral collaborative approach • Interdisciplinary

8. CBPP Characteristics • Synergistic collaboration • Community involvement • Stakeholder commitments

9. CBPP Project Components Outcome Based Logic Model Evaluation Informed by Literature Process and Practice for Policy Reform Academic Rigor

10. Definition • Refugee vs. Immigrant • Some challenges are specific to refugee youth, others are common among both immigrants and refugees.

11. The Refugee Youth Literature • Mental Health • Sociology • Social Work • Cross-Cultural Psychology

12. Key Challenges facing refugee youth • Specific challenges facing refugee youth • Trauma • Settlement • Family • Community • language

13. Immigration Stages Selection Reception Adjustment Adaptation Integration

14. InterventionProject Youth: Integration and Education (PYIE)

15. Approach “Positive” Youth Development (PYD) vs. “At Risk” Youth

16. Background • PYIE began in 2004 and was aimed at supporting the educational needs of recently arrived refugee youth in Edmonton’s inner-city • PYIE grew out of a shared desire to address the needs of students from refugee backgrounds enrolled at the school.

17. Project Development • Target group (Sample): • Refugee students in St Joseph High School • In Canada at most 2 years • at risk (living on their own and/or socially vulnerable) • 17 – 20 years old, in grades 11 and 12 • little or no formal school experience • Program Core Areas: • Basic Life Management Skills • Education Planning • Employment Skills Development • Career Goal Setting

18. Community Resources Model of Partnership St Joseph High School Catholic Social Services PYIE

19. PYIE Logic Model ACTIVITIES OUTCOMES INPUTS OUTPUTS

20. Research & Outcome-based Evaluation: Longitudinal Cohort Design

21. Gender Distribution per Year

22. Gender Distribution For Five Years

23. Country Profiles of Cohorts

24. Social context Process of Data Collection • Qualitative • Quantitative

25. Program Evaluation • Internal • External

26. Data Collection Strategies

27. Evolution of Partnership/Collaboration

28. Social Context Social Organizational Processes Individual/Community Outcomes CBPP Processes

29. Thinking Outside the Box: CBPP Community-based Participatory Partnerships : • Brings community resources together • Facilitates activities for refugees and immigrants • Provides analyses • Helps guide the process

30. Principles of Community-based Participatory Partnerships aimed to support Refugee Youth

31. Sustainable Impact • Funding • Policies • Procedures • Partnerships

32. CBPP Analysis • Strengths • Weaknesses • Opportunities • Threats

33. Further Dissemination • There is a need for further dissemination of the learning from the PYIE process. • Working on obtaining ethics approval at different levels (i.e. CSS, St Joseph High School, and University). • Academic & Working Papers • developed a publication plan to share learning about CBPP, curriculum development, logic model development, and evaluative processes (3 papers in draft). • Resource Development & Research

34. Further Dissemination: Resource Development • Conceptual Framework • Curriculum • Expanded Model • Resource Tools for Teachers • CBPP Analysis

35. Further Dissemination: Research • Development of a project investigating support needs of refugee students undertaking post secondary education and the barriers they face in meeting their educational goals (with Dr. Janki Shankar, Eugene Ip, and Dorothy Jacques-NorQuest College). • Development of a project investigating policy implications for capacity building in CBPP for sustainability .

36. Acknowledgements • Youth Participants, Mentors & Volunteers • Current and former CSS staff (Alice Colak, Mary Gallivan, Tigist Dafla, Linda Lam, Mary Fiakpui, Frank Bessai, Taro Hashimoto & Pauline Mukashema) • Partners at St Joseph High School (Lynn Smarsh, teachers and support staff) • PYIE Advisory committee members (Clare Denman, Keri McEachern, Emilie DeCorby, James Garang, Dwain Tymchyshyn, Karen Bardy, Sandy Mitchell, Andrea Burkhart, & Judy Carter) • PYIE external evaluator (Ann Goldblatt-Centre for Health Promotion Studies-University of Alberta) • Funders(Alberta Learning and Alberta Employment & Immigration)

37. Selected References Bowen, G., Martin, J., Mancini, J.A. , & Nelson, J. (2000). Community capacity: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Community Practice, 8, 1-21. Fleisher, C.S. (1991). "Using an agency-based approach to analyze collaborative federated interorganizational relationships." Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 27 (1): 116-30. Khalema, N.E (2002). “Reconceptualizing Racialized Teaching Pedagogies: The Transformative Capacity of Visible Minority Teachers in Alberta” In Richardson, Annette, Saradhi Putttagunta, and E.Alice Halvorsen, (Eds.) The Canadian Multicultural Experience: Myths and Realities. The International Cultural Research Network Press. Khalema, N. E., George Ishiekwene, Tigist Dafla, Frank Bessai, & Roz Zulla (2008). “Realities,Challenges, and Intervention Strategies to Support Refugee & Immigrant Youth in Edmonton” Alberta Teachers Association Conference, Edmonton, Canada , May 01, 2008 Mancini, J.A., & Marek, L.I. (2004). Sustaining community-based programs for families: Conceptualization and measurement. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 53, 339-347. Mancini, J.A., Martin, J.A., & Bowen, G. (2003). Community capacity. In T. Gullotta & M. Bloom (Eds.), Encyclopedia of primary prevention and health promotion (pp. 319-331). New York: Plenum. Uhlik, K.S. (1995). "Partnership, step by step: A practical model of partnership formation." Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 13 (4): 13-24. Rush, B. & Ogborne, A. (1991). Program logic models: expanding their role and structure for program planning and evaluation. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. 6 (2), 95-106. Selsky, J.W. (1991). "Lessons in community development: An activist's approach to stimulating interorganizational collaboration." Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 27 (1): 91-115. Wood, D.J. and B. Gray. (1991). "Toward a comprehensive theory of collaboration." Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 27 (2): 139-62.

38. Presenters’ Biography • N. Ernest Khalema is a community-based researcher in Edmonton and currently an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Calgary (Edmonton division). He has worked as an immigrant and refugee youth settlement counselor, research coordinator, and project manager for a number of non-for-profit organizations and post-secondary institutions in Alberta. Some of his research publications include: Enhancing Settlement Services and Supports for African Immigrant Youth in Edmonton: A Needs Assessment (2001); The Aftermath of September 11 in Edmonton (2002); Hope (Elikya) Youth Project Supporting Disadvantaged Immigrant Youth in North-East Edmonton (2002); Towards an Educational Equity Policy in Edmonton Schools (2003); Employment Experiences of African-born Professionals in Alberta: An Analysis of the Economic Status in Relation to their Academic Credentials (2005); Project Youth: Integration and Education (2003-2008); and Retention and Recruitment of Personnel in the Human Service Sector (2008). • George C. Ishiekwene is a trained physicist with a Master of Education in Science Education and a PhD in Physics.  George currently works on several community development projects in Edmonton to empower and build skills for immigrant and refugee youth. He has worked as a youth settlement counselor for the Catholic Social Services for more than five years implementing the Project Youth: Integration and Education program.  He has initiated several youth projects within the immigrant community, and has also coordinated a homework program within the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.

39. THANK YOU! ekhalema@ucalgary.cageorge.ishiekwene@catholicsocialservices.ab.ca