Heritage Skills Development Center

Evaluation Report

“Bridging the Intergenerational Gap Between African-Canadian Seniors and Youth”

Period Covered by This Report:
From: January 2006
To: November 2006

Delivery Organization: Heritage Skills Development Center (HSDC)

Contact Person: Charity Lebeanya
Phone/TTY: 416-345-1613
Fax: 416-345-8696
Email: info@hsdconline.org

Sponsoring Organization: Tractors for Our Daily Bread Canada

Contact Person: E. Eto
Phone / TTY: 416-932-2369
Project Sponsor / Member: Biyi Opaleye
Phone: (416) 731-5537
E-mail: president@nigeriansincanada.com

Terms of Reference

“Bridging the Intergenerational Gap Between African-Canadian Seniors and Youth” is an outreach and gap-bridging project targeting at-risk seniors and youth that encourages community participation and capacity building and provides avenues for socialization activities. Some of the project activities will include: cultural heritage appreciation potluck, internet/computer literacy, storytelling, self-expression through poetry and music, information sharing, personal development, networking and learning opportunities. The participating seniors will interact with people of all ages, sharing information about their cultural heritage and ideas of common value. This project will provide a forum for participants to learn from one another, and help bridge the gap between people from different generations within similar cultural heritages. Through active participation, the community’s needs will be fulfilled, and its ability to respond to social challenges will be strengthened. Individual and community capacity will also be developed. The social isolation of vulnerable members of our community will be reduced, and their self-esteem and self-confidence will be increased.

Through this project, African-Canadian youth will be able to get a sense of their own heritage and participate in cultural activities. African-Canadian seniors, with their wealth of experience from their home countries, will be able to impart their knowledge, wisdom, experience and leadership skills to youth. Also, they will provide a critical outlook on life and past history in a non-classroom or textbook setting, while the seniors will learn life skills and computer/internet skills from youth. This will provide an opportunity for African-Canadians of various backgrounds to bond, learn, network, and make new friends in a culturally appropriate environment. In such a pro-cultural environment, participants will be able to feel a sense of belonging as part of a group, as well as to find their own distinct identity.

Goals and Objectives

To promote intergenerational interaction, learning and bonding between seniors and youth in our community.

To reduce social isolation by encouraging the ongoing involvement of all community members.
To empower our seniors by providing life skills and encouraging active living and a healthy lifestyle.
To reduce the identity crisis often suffered by African-Canadian youth and improving their self-esteem and self-confidence
To reduce high-risk factors among disadvantaged African-Canadian families living in Scarborough through a community outreach and support program.
To encourage our seniors to share their skills, experience and wisdom with the younger generation.

Activities Carried Out to Achieve the Set Goal:

Hired a part-time Project Coordinator who recruited volunteers, and successfully managed, organized and monitored the project implementation and evaluations.
Project publicity and promotion as well as intensive community outreach activities were carried out.
9 project volunteers (5 seniors and 4 youth) were recruited, and orientation and information sessions were provided.
30 people (18 seniors and 12 youth) participated in the project
Developed project activities, including the development of methods for performance measurement – e.g., evaluation and questionnaire forms
Developed project flyers and formed Project Management Committee, made up of 5 people (2 seniors, 2 youth and 1 adult member of our community).
Carried out actual project activity delivery, including:

Two workshops on personal development. The seniors used the opportunity to talk to the youth about impulse control, anger, time and stress management, conflict avoidance and resolution, self-awareness, anti-violence, peer pressure, saying NO to drugs, understanding the impact of drug use, the impact of gang membership, the importance of staying in school, the importance of civic participation, the rights and responsibilities of good citizenship; and they shared information about training centres, educational institutions and colleges, employment issues, job search workshops, job listings and websites, etc. This forum enabled participating youth to acquire interpersonal skills and achieve overall personal development through role-play and self-expression.
Two storytelling workshops enabled the participants to tell traditional stories promoting the richness of the African cultural heritage and history and celebrating African leaders’ contribution to society. This forum provided the participants with opportunities to express themselves freely through their imagination, observations, community interaction, everyday life experiences, past experience and ordeals, etc.
Internet/computer classes – a bi-weekly activity designed to encourage civic participation and political literacy, and to enable participants (particularly seniors) to connect with loved ones all over the world. It also helps keep them abreast of current events in the community.
Potluck / Cultural Appreciation Day / Networking and Bridging Intergeneration Gap – This activity was conducted on a monthly basis (Saturdays). It was designed as a mix and mingle event for seniors, youth and community members. It is an opportunity to socialize, dress-up, feel good, and share information of common interest and concern, including learning about the various opportunities in Toronto. It is an opportunity to sample the cultural heritage, history, storytelling, and food from various cultures, and to be part of Canada’s multicultural experience.

Evaluation/Monitoring:

Administered evaluation questionnaires
Conducted face-to-face interviews
Reviewed project documents
Monitored the response of participants – for example, level of participation, interest shown, attendance records, etc.
Conducted 4 follow-up focus groups and discussions
Conducted telephone surveys of 32 participants
Asked structured questions about the details of each workshop to determine if they understood the information provided

Community Outreach:

This project was promoted in the following ways:

Designed and distributed 1,500 flyers, and spread word of mouth in our local neighbourhoods
Made presentations at various places, e.g. small groups, churches, mosques, sporting and recreational events, social gatherings, community forums, events, workshops and consultations
Through our past clients and their friends
Held 4 information sessions at the recreation room of Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) unit 26 at 400 McCowan Road
Placed a community announcement on the radio such as Sound of Africa, CKLM and CHRY

Collaborations and Partnerships:

Tractors for Our Daily Bread Canada – Provided project sponsorship and participated in project supervision, monitoring and some of the evaluation processes.
Toronto Community Housing (TCHC), Unit 26 – Owns the building in which we currently occupy 1125 sq metres of workspace. In addition to the office space, there are the recreation space and the kitchen which we share 2,250 sq metres whith TCHC and tenants. We pay no rent and have no lease obligation. This partnership is an economic blessing and facilitates a productive relationship between the landlord, tenants, and ourselves.
Tropicana Community Services – Our location proximity to their childcare facility permits us to share resources and information.
Volunteer Centre of Toronto – We have a working understanding that allows us to source qualified volunteer teachers to assist us in the delivery of our various courses and Projects.
IBM Canada, Lexmark Canada, and Computers for School Ontario – These organizations provided needed computer equipment at no cost and are indeed meaningful partners in our skills development projects.
Cross-Edge Network/ Canadian Ghanian Organization (CGO) – Provides a stream of input that assists us with advisory services, referrals, and evaluation processes.
Management Advisory Services – We have a long-standing arrangement, through which this not-for-profit Executive Consultant Group provides planning, management, and evaluation services at no cost.
Gamtron Accounting Services – Our financial integrity is protected through our relationship with this financial accounting service, provided on a volunteer basis.
African-Canadian Social Development Council (ACSDC) – We have a strong and continuing partnership with this organization, which has provided us with funding and advisory support for several of our projects.

The Unexpected Successes

Able to increase the number of community volunteers to help out in various aspects of the project.
Increased turnout by local community members, local businesses, members of other organizations and other interest groups.
More partnership relationships established, including Casa Loma Toronto, the Toronto District School Board, Ontario Science Centre, and our local community high schools.
More community members were mobilized than we had anticipated particularly seniors and at-risk youth. They now meet on a bi-monthly basis as a result of this project activities, and an African Cultural dance project is now formed.
More community professional volunteers were recruited and trained to help out with project planning, implementation and evaluation. Needs outside the scope of these project activities were noted and will be incorporated in our other grant application. Some key volunteers promised to stick around for a longer time to ensure continuity and reduce project memory loss.
Helped us to recruit more youth to participate in our other upcoming youth led projects e.g Youth Challenge project, volunteers, Youth Sewing Tutor, etc.

The Unexpected Challenges

Time issues: lots of time spent waiting for the funding, start-up, community outreach, project promotion, recruitment and planning activities.

Dealing with logistics as more people turn out than anticipated

Some people request activities that are not within the scope of the project.
Limited funds and resources because needs exceeded the original budget and turnout was higher than originally anticipated.

Summary of Project Results / Impacts:

Various methods were used to document the progress of the project, including written evaluation sheets, informal verbal questions and interviews, open-door feedback opportunities and academic partnerships. The information obtained has been used in planning future directions for the project.

The amount of response and referrals received from the participants, community partners, and volunteers demonstrated the effectiveness of this project. For example:

There was less than 5% dropout rate in the workshops.
The participants showed high enthusiasm, as the workshops were designed in participatory format and in an adult learning situation.
Provided a sense of self-worth to seniors and enabled youth to become more focused.
Created greater connection between the organization and the community members, and helped to reduce at-risk factors.
Reduced social isolation, as the participants had an opportunity to interact with other members of the community and establish greater personal networks.
Provided participants with opportunities to revisit the past and remember their cultural heritage.
Provided opportunities to learn about social and community resources.
Provided the seniors the opportunities to feel young at heart and be with the people of their cultural heritage.
Provided participants with a sense of self-worth and satisfaction at being needed and contributing positively towards their community development.
Increased participants’ self-esteem and self-confidence, leading to self-fulfillment, satisfaction and individual capacity building.
Increased participants’ bonding and sense of belonging through their participation in a suitable ethno-cultural environment, as it provided an opportunity to mix and mingle, make new friends and share ideas and common interests.
Enabled participating youth to find their own individual and cultural identity, leading to more focused youth and reducing the issues of identity-crisis.
Facilitated the acquisition of leadership skills through intergenerational learning, two-way mentorship and relationship building.