Discussing our Goals

Why Wonderfully Made?

Wonderfully Made program seeks to empower and motivate young women to develop the interpersonal skills. Sessions will be offered every two weeks over five months for a total of ten workshops. The mission of this program corresponds to the agency’s mission of developing and fostering a respectful, collaborative and inclusive environment for each other, and the community. Likewise, practising an inclusive and anti-oppressive practice which dismantles and addresses discrimination, harassment, victimization, and other forms of violence against each other, service users, and the community.

Some staff are volunteers and others are program coordinators, and each has been working in the field for different lengths of time, some staff have different and/or more experience than others. This program will specifically have one program outreach and four interns from the masters and bachelors of social work programs or diploma programs. This will help provide input and perspective. The youth outreach must be experienced and have been at the agency for more than two years to be able to facilitate the workshops. Program staff need to follow proper code of ethics of confidentiality and respect the inherent rights and dignity of all persons (CASW Code of Ethics, 2020). Those with a social work background are aware of this; however, other staff will need to undergo training of the code in order to help with the program. All program staff and “professionals should be culturally competent when operating in social service settings” (Nadan, 2017, p. 76). This means that facilitators should have the knowledge of oppressive systems and power structures that marginalize young Black girls. Facilitators should also adopt strength based and anti-oppressive frameworks that are filtered through a feminist lens.

During session days, staff will divide their time up between three tasks: face-to-face contact, which will comprise approximately 75% of their time; supervision and consultation, which will comprise approximately 25%; and advocacy, which will comprise approximately 5% of their time. This overall use of workers’ time places more emphasis on providing direct support to participants. However, on non-session days, the workers’ time will be divided differently: 35% will be dedicate to report writing, 20% to telephone contact, 20% to consultations, 15% to advocacy, and 10% to face-to-face contact. This prioritizes back end work to help the participants to succeed while still maintaining contact with participants to further their outcomes.

Program Interventions and Activities

The program activities include workshops a variety of subjects, including eating well and staying healthy, self-care, mindfulness, and resilience. The workshops will cover the topics that directly affect Black girls’ mental health, such as isolation, social justice, and the ability to cope with stigma and intimate partner violence (IPV).

To enhance the professional identity, résumé and cover letter training will be offered for mentors. The training workshops session will focus on employment to identify challenges that young Black women encounter when applying for jobs. Résumé and cover letter workshops can help women write their own effective résumés and cover letters. The workshops will be held once every two weeks, and there will be one-on-one counselling sessions provided if participants need additional information.

Participants can attend as many workshops as they wish, and participate in the rites of passage program. We understand that mentors lives may change, and thus once they enter the program they continue to remain involved as much as they wish. Mentors are encouraged to remain in the program for a minimum of one year. Mentees can remain involved from 12 years old, until they wish to become mentors at 16 years old.

Satisfaction of the Program and the Stakeholders

Once the participants have completed the program, they will be given a program evaluation survey. The survey will provide a general questionnaire about the program and the service delivery. By conducting the survey, the family ourteach will be able to implement changes to the program according to the recommendation mentioned by the participants for the next cohort. Through the success of the cohort within the program, the stakeholder satisfaction will increase. For example, implementing these changes will improve the quality of the program and will allow program to reach its mission goals and program objective. The participants will also be given a survey after completing their placement. This will give the outreach staff a chance to evaluate the placement, the readiness of the participants, and whether or not the workshops met their learning needs. These measures of satisfaction will help program coordinators evaluate the effectiveness of the placement in conjunction with the material covered within the workshops. By making the necessary changes and adapting to the needs of the cohort, the program can be more efficient and effective. In addition, the social workers will also provide the participants with support during and after the completing of the program, though the support will vary depending on the participant’s needs.

Data Collection Methods

Quantitative data can indicate how many participants completed the program and how many were able to get a job at a livable wage. Quantitative information is often expressed in terms of percentages, ratios or prices, and quantitative methods of data collection provide assessment for results, rating scale surveys, and methods of observation that count how many times something has occurred (Smart, 2020). The data collection will include a rating scale survey to determine how many participants reported getting benefited. Qualitative data will also be implemented as it can collect feedback from participants regarding the program and what they found helpful or challenging.

Cultural Appropriateness and Ethical Considerations

Since we are focusing on young Black, Indigenous and racialized women, it is important to ensure that evaluation methods are relevant and appropriate. For example, the assessment tools used, or questionnaires could be first implemented as pilot methods with participants to improve them according to the participants’ suggestions. Since our participants might be from different racial backgrounds, it is important to have participants’ perspective on assessments and ensure we use tools that are appropriate (Smart, 2020). The principles for ethical conduct of the Canadian assessment society indicate that evaluators should be culturally and socially sensitive to the stakeholders in an appropriate manner to this environment (Canadian Evaluation Society, 2014). Ethical considerations are essential when working on data collection and involving stakeholders as part of the evaluation process (Anderson Draper, 2006). For example, when working with other community organizations, it is important to keep participants’ personal information confidential. This program aims to minimize any ethical issues, and, because participation is entirely voluntary, participants will be able to discontinue participating with no consequences at any time. Moreover, the questions asked in questionnaires or surveys are not intended to be sensitive where it may trigger emotions.

The Story of Wonderfully Made

Why we do what we do, who we service, and why young people are powerful agents of change?

We developed Wonderfully Made due to the lack of appropriate services for Black and racialized girls, and to address the barriers they experience their daily lives. Black girls and young women feel disconnected from others. In the media, they are bombarded with images that either do not reflect or represent them or their identity or that misrepresent them and promote harmful stereotypes. In schools, Black girls often do not have positive connections and do not see themselves reflected in the teaching who are supposed to support them. Moreover, they are not represented thoroughly in the curriculum and are therefore at risk for poorer outcomes, including low self-esteem, disengagement from community, and mental health challenges. Furthermore Black girls and women experience barriers to their education and employment goals due to systemic racism, poverty, lack of support, and exposure to high risk communities.