Suicide prevention and health promotion through youth leaders

The Teck John Baker Youth Leaders (TJBYL) Program is built on the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation’s Natural Helper curriculum, and has been adapted to conform to the Alaska Native/Inupiaq culture. The program’s premise is that when youth have problems, they seek support and guidance from their friends first. The TJBYL program identifies young people—mostly high school students--who are respected and trusted by their peers, and trains them to be effective supports and role models in their school and village communities.

The presentation describes a preliminary evaluation of the TJBYL Program that tracks key indicators of success, including process and outcome measures. Process indicators document the consistent participation of youth leaders and the number and kinds of activities youth leaders are involved in and initiating. Process indicators also document perceived accomplishments (as self-reported by youth leadrers, advisors and administrators) of the Youth Leaders at each school and in aggregate. Outcome measures include the academic and behavioral health benefits of participation for the youth leaders. These health indicators include measures of self-esteem, self-efficacy, subjective wellbeing, and grade achievements and school engagement. The number of incidents of bullying or interpersonal violence measure the school climate, as do the number of referrals made to counselors and regional health providers. Outcome also include the number and strength of connections between adults and youth leaders.

The presentation will discuss implementation challenges and preliminary results from this pilot evaluation. Next steps for a comprehensive evaluation will be described.