Youth Peer is a project that hums. Visiting one of the sessions that take place every weekday from 4 to 6 is like stepping into a large, beautifully functional family. For youth clients, volunteers, university students, junior and senior staff, management partners and administrators, it is simply an enriching place to be. 
To sum up in a sentence what can truly only be experienced, Youth Peer provides a supportive place for at-risk youth, ages 8 – 18, to be tutored and mentored by volunteers who are close to their age.
It is this relationship—youth and peer mentor—that sparks the magic that happens here. After an hour of one-on-one tutoring, the magic continues into the second hour with guitar instruction, creative art projects, games and—very important—eating!
Socializing with university and high school mentors, staff and other youth is a big part of the learning process for clients. Young people want to come back because they know they are not only welcomed, but also accepted unconditionally as “part of the family.”
INFORMATION
Youth Peer Program
What:
free after-school peer tutoring/mentoring, with art and music instruction
Who:
students ages 8 – 18, referred by a partner agency
When:
4-6 PM, Monday – Friday
late September – early June
Where:
Southside Learning Centre
266 Whitney Avenue
Sydney, NS
Contact:
Brian Dwyer and Sylvia Dearing, Co-Directors
902 539-8228
902 539-7407 (fax)
ypp@syd.eastlink.ca
Supervisor: Barry Waldman
Barry serves, on a volunteer basis, as the overall administrator of the program, managing financial and funding issues as well as supervising senior staff and directing the scope and direction of the program.
Co-Directors: Brian Dwyer and Sylvia Dearing
Brian and Sylvia deftly share management of the day-to-day operation of Youth Peer, including staff, volunteer, and youth client issues.
Each September, Co-Directors, Brian and Sylvia, and Volunteers Coordinator, Shannon Fuller begin to organize another year of tutoring matches. Volunteer tutors from local high schools, NS Community College and Cape Breton University are recruited (though many return from year-to-year) and trained. At the same time, clients are being interviewed, scheduled and matched with their volunteer mentor.
All the students who come to Youth Peer are referred by one of the twenty-two Management Team partner agencies. These agencies span the range of social, health and educational services for youth in the area, so it is likely that any young person who needs the help of Youth Peer will be able to get it. There is no charge for Youth Peer services. Sylvia and Brian interview each referral and his or her parent individually. The kids are invited to come—never pressured—and they, and their caregivers, are asked to sign simple statements of Freedoms and Expectations which outline the guidelines governing youth, caregivers and staff responsibilities. Behavioural problems at the centre are extremely rare.
By late September/early October, the tutoring matches are beginning. They take place every week day from 4 to 6 pm in three rooms at Ashby Complex—an in-kind contribution of space donated to EPIC and Youth Peer by the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board. This is no “drop-in” centre as all students are carefully matched with “their” volunteer and asked to come on a specific day that is appropriate to their age and needs.
In addition to Brian, Sylvia and Shannon, the staff includes part-time Youth Assistants whose job it is to make sure that the sessions run smoothly. For the 2011-2012 school year, the capable team of assistants are
Frances Martin, Nadine Hutchison and Brandy MacInnis.
With Shannon as their immediate supervisor, they make reminder calls, prepare snacks, help the tutors, fill in when necessary, and clean up the mess when it’s over! Youth Peer has been lucky to find wonderful assistants from the ranks of our loyal and capable volunteers.
Also on staff, meet Creative Arts Instructor, Susanne Donovan and Guitar Instructor, Emile Conn who further the student’s education, enrichment and exposure to the arts.
Wrap-Around Educational Support
In 2010, Lynne O’Neill joined the Youth Peer team as a part-time Educator. 
It is Lynne’s job to help selected students by providing wrap-around support. This is accomplished by communicating with student, tutor, YPP staff, parents, guardians, teachers, school personnel and representatives of other appropriate community agencies in order to enhance positive interactions and develop sustainable strategies for the on-going support and ultimate success of any targeted student.
Breakthrough
In September 2011, former Youth Peer Director, Barb Donovan and Psychologist, Garth Nathanson, along with Writer Assistant, Alicia Morrison, initiated this innovative program. Operating on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, selected present and former Youth Peer clients, ages 14 – 23, were invited to take part. The overall goal of Breakthrough is to increase the self-esteem and social adaptiveness of youth participants living with mental illness by engaging them as volunteers to create the Breakthrough Handbook, a Youth Guide for Confronting Crisis and Developing Resiliency. Having a safe forum for discussing pitfalls and coping mechanisms to living with mental illness—as well as feeling needed and appreciated, and gaining practice at social interaction—helps at-risk youth avoid self-destructive choices and behaviours.
Give Right Back Project
Give Right Back, initiated in 2008, provides targeted high-risk youth who have been receiving support from Youth Peer, the opportunity to give of themselves to others. In September 2011, Alicia Morrison, who also works with the Breakthrough team, took over this project. She works with other staff, including Educator, Lynne O’Neill, identifies community organizations that are receptive to volunteer assistance and matches that service to a particular youth who is also receptive to “giving back.” EPIC and Youth Peer believe that this kind of service can instill the vital feelings of being involved, needed and appreciated which can avert self-destructive behaviour in marginalized kids.
Parents PEACE Program
The Parents PEACE Program, on-going since 2005, is an important part of Youth Peer — so important that it merits its own page. Go here to read all about our evening parenting group facilitated by Peggy Vassallo.
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THE MAGIC
One-on-one academic tutoring takes place during the first hour of the sessions. The matched student/tutor quietly work on whatever that client most needs. 
Tutors are trained to respond not only to the academic needs of the client, but also to their emotional state—not as a therapist—but as a friend. In other words, if the youth is having a bad day and can’t concentrate on math, the tutor is empowered to switch to something more suitable and less stressful for that day. At Youth Peer, the belief is—and experience has shown—that the student benefits more from the attention and demonstrated caring of their peer mentor than from a sole focus on academics. Having said that, the rooms during that first hour are calm and organized. The youth clients are generally only too happy to work quietly with their tutor, one-on-one.
The second hour is for:
MUSIC
CREATIVE ARTS
EDUCATIONAL GAMES
SOCIALIZING & SNACKING
LEARNING TOGETHER
BIRTHDAYS
GENERALIZED GOOFINESS
See more pictures from the 2007 – 2008 year here:
The Magic
See photos and get information about the
Volunteers of Youth Peer
If you are a high school or university-aged student in the Cape Breton area and would like to be a volunteer with Youth Peer, please call Brian, Sylvia or Shannon at 902 539-8228 or email: ypp@syd.eastlink.ca
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Ten Years of Memories
credits:
original ‘bird/book’ Youth Peer logo by Blake MacLean, former volunteer.
“The little program with a big heart” is a quote from a Volunteer Canada online article about the Youth Peer Transformation project; written Spring, 2004; Volunteer Canada was one of the funders during the 2003-2004 year. More information on EPIC funding.
