The first section presents the results focused on fidelity of implementation which was documented based on the analysis of the Leader Logbook. This is followed by the results of the thematic analysis which revealed two overarching themes: successes and challenges. These two themes were comprised of seven sub-themes.
Fidelity of program implementation
As noted in Table 1, 30 out of 31 planned sessions were carried out (97%). One session was cancelled due to bad weather during the winter months (3%). Twenty-three sessions out of the 30 implemented sessions (77%) were executed using the TPSR structure on which the program was based. Of the seven sessions in which adaptations were made to the typical TPSR program structure, adaptations were preplanned for six of the sessions due to either the time needed for the planned PA or life skill activities (e.g., when the youth went skating, swimming or had the photographer attend) or for holiday and end of session parties. One session was adapted because of issues with transportation being late and therefore no life skill was carried out for that session. Of the remaining 23 sessions, all planned PA and life skill of focus were delivered appropriately. Further, it was noted that youth voice was provided over the course of the program, particularly with regards to the types of PA incorporated in the program. For example, one youth stated: “I liked when you guys would ask us before you just picked any random sport…I liked having a say” (Y-6), while another youth went on to say:
They give you the option of if you wanted to play first or have snacks or do the lesson. I think it was nice because they’d give you the choice of what you feel comfortable doing and they’d make you feel more comfortable and give you more expression. (Y-5)
Lastly, one youth discussed that having a program that was youth-driven was ideal compared to other programs:
I liked how it was sort of our own thing. It was run by the leaders, but we would pitch ideas and [the leaders] would try to do them. With other groups I’ve been in, it’s sort of like they do all the planning; they pitch the ideas and we do them. I like this part. (Y-3)
Therefore, it appears that GJWHF was implemented as designed which may help explain the successes outlined below.
Successes
Four themes emerged related to program successes which included using ‘Rose and Thorn’ to facilitate relational time, providing intentional opportunities for leadership, having communicative program leaders who supported one another, and engaging youth in different types of physical activity. These themes are highlighted in greater detail below.
Using ‘Rose and Thorn’ to facilitate relational time
The importance of using an activity like ‘Rose and Thorn’ was recognized by both youth and leaders as having a positive impact and an effective means of connecting with each other. Originally, the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity was planned to be an ice breaker at the start of the program, but it was soon understood that the youth enjoyed this time to share with each other. As a result, the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity was implemented at the beginning of every session during relational time. This activity allowed time for the girls to talk with each other, listen to each other and relate to each other, as well as facilitate a relationship with the leaders. As one leader explained:
Now they [the youth] all come in and it’s like ‘I have a good rose today’, or ‘I have three roses’ and it’s something that they definitely look forward to and they know it’s coming at the beginning—they’ve come to expect it…so we’ve kept it going all year, and I guess it gives the kids some time to reflect on how their week’s been going or some of the problems they’ve been having at school. And they’ll chat about it with you, so it’s good to kind of talk through things with them and then it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the session too. So that’s been a really cool highlight. (L-5)
The youth also felt supported by their peers and leaders in this activity as highlighted by these two quotations: “I liked the ‘Roses and Thorns’. You get to tell what happened, like you can share with everyone what happened in your life. And it kind of helped…like if you don’t have anyone to talk to” (Y-9) and:
In ‘Rose and Thorns’ we get to speak out and say we have a problem, we get to tell people the problem and they’d actually listen…I like ‘Rose and Thorn’ because you got to share what’s going on in your week. I felt like other people would understand what was happening, and what I did and stuff. Like say I was mad at something, they would understand, and not bombard me. (Y-4)
Similarly, the youth felt that this activity helped increase their relationships with the leaders: “I think the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity is nice—it makes me feel as if they [the leaders] want to know what’s going on and it makes me actually feel more comfortable with them” (Y-5).
Some youth shared that the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity also helped them to increase their confidence throughout the year: “I can speak out louder in front of them and show my ‘Rose and Thorn’ now. At the first day, I couldn’t do it because I was too shy. Now I’m comfortable sharing in front of everyone” (Y-8). In addition, the leaders discussed that the youth respected and listened to their peers, problem solved, and appreciated each other. Two leaders discussed the importance of having decided as a group to keep the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity as part of the relational time at the beginning of every session: “That’s what the girls really enjoy and in and of itself – learning to listen to each other, appreciating each other, contributing to the group – that’s what ‘Rose and Thorn’ does and those are life skills too” (L-2) and:
I think it is important, and we don’t want to downplay that. Originally, it was used as an ice-breaker, but the youth definitely get a lot of skills out of it like communication skills, listening to others, respecting others when they’re talking, problem solving, someone’s having an issue at school, some of the kids will open and be like, ‘oh, that happened to me too, and this is what I did’. So I think there’s definitely value in that. (L-1)
Finally, one of the girls explained that ‘Rose and Thorn’ helped the youth feel like others care. “I liked the talking, just getting to know how people’s days were…so I like the fact that we do ‘Roses and Thorns’ to see how everybody’s week has been. It kind of shows us that we do care” (Y-3). As seen by the above quotations, the girls seemed to thoroughly enjoy the ‘Rose and Thorn’ activity which provided a supportive environment and fostered relational bonds between youth, as well as between youth and leaders.
Providing intentional opportunities for leadership
The GJWHF program was designed to end by providing the youth the opportunity to teach a PA-based life skill activity to their younger peers—BGC members between the ages of seven and nine that did not participate in the GJWHF program. This was perceived as being a great success by the youth, as expressed by these two quotations: “I felt like a leader for the kids to help them have fun…felt proud about the game I came up with and it was really good” (Y-4), and “we taught the other kids…that was fun. You learn different things from it…like to help others and to teach other people what I’ve learned” (Y-2). This activity was also reinforced as a success by the leaders, as they recognized that when provided such opportunities the youth step up, are able to teach and take a leadership role. One of the leaders discussed the impact of this activity: “some of the girls had some great teachable moments, like where they brainstormed a quality and then defined it to other younger youth” (LL-Apr. 17, 2012). Furthermore, it was outlined by this leader that the youth seemed to take great initiative when planning and implementing these activities for the younger club members.
The youth took great ownership and pride in teaching their activity, even during the practice run the week before. They were well-spoken in their explanations to the group and showed a lot of confidence, maturity, and put forth a good effort. They did demonstrations and used constructive feedback provided by leaders. (LL-May 9, 2012)
Another leader highlighted during a session debrief that the youth were “very creative and the young girls had a lot of fun participating. One group went as far as bringing treats for the kids and adding it in as part of the obstacle course. They really took great ownership” (LL-May 9, 2012). Finally, one of the program leaders reflected on the overall process of the youth-led end-of-program activity:
For the teaching part, I think it went really well; better than originally expected. They took on a great leadership role within their own groups when they were planning and developing the activities. It gave them their own purpose, like it was on them as to what they were going to choose—everything was left up to them, which was great. I think they really enjoyed having that flexibility…it was all independent and I think they really enjoyed that. (L-5)
Having communicative program leaders who supported one another
Over the course of the program, a major success was having a strong supportive network of program leaders who were responsible for implementing the program. As one leader explained, consistent communication was critical to effective implementation:
Open lines of communication. We always sent out an email once a week beforehand and just kind of talked about what we’re going to be doing, does anyone have any questions or suggestions on how we can make this session better…so I think that’s been really good. (L-5)
This helped the planning process over the course of the program to continually keep all leaders involved in what each session would entail. The consistent communication via email also provided opportunities for any of the leaders to deliver feedback or suggestions. Furthermore, in addition to communicating for logistical reasons, leaders communicated with each other for guidance and advice. One leader indicated: “One of the other leaders, she’s been working with the BGC for years and years and she has experience working with youth in camps and things like that, so she’s sort of the person that I turn to” (L-1).
Although the leaders discussed having a supportive network two of the leaders recommended that future years incorporate more training in helping with aspects that arise not directly related to the program curriculum such as dealing with social cliques and issues that the youth may be experiencing outside of the program. One leader shared “We had a debrief with (university supervisor) and at the end of the program, but I think more regular training or informal discussions of the behavioral understanding and how to act on certain behavioral issues that arise.” (L-5) while another leader stated:
More of a structure in training would have been helpful and maybe…knowing how to handle certain situations better. I do find that when there are certain things that people will say, where I’m not really sure how to handle the situation. (L-1)
Engaging youth in different types of physical activity
As mentioned, one of the main goals for this program was to provide opportunities for the youth to be physically active. Results found that each session provided sufficient opportunities for youth to engage in a variety of physical activities. From the leaders’ weekly reports of the session implementation, they outlined a number of program achievements with respect to providing an environment supportive of PA. During the program session debriefs, two leaders stated: “all of the activities were successful in getting the girls active while applying a life skill” (LL- Feb. 12, 2012) and “the girls had fun and they were successful in getting their heart rates up and getting them active” (LL-Feb. 23, 2012).
Not only was the program successful in facilitating PA, but also providing opportunities to youth that they might have otherwise not have had the opportunity to do. One leader stated:
A youth-led dance instructor tried a new method of dance with the girls called the GROOVE method. It allowed for a lot of independent movement, and I think the kids really enjoyed it. It gave them a sense of ownership and independence, while allowing for creativity. (LL-Dec. 13, 2011)
Yoga was another activity that many of the youth were able to try for the first time: “Yoga went very well! All the girls were sweating and working hard…they all gave 100% effort and tried very hard (no one gave up). Something new and exciting to do!” (LL-Nov. 1, 2011). Additionally, the youth played lacrosse, went swimming, and skating. The following quotations highlight the youth’s perceptions of the variety of activities: “I really liked the games and how sometimes we would go places—Oh I really liked the swimming activity which was really fun” (Y-1) and “I liked soccer, racquet hockey—oh and huckle buckle. I liked the walking that we did all the way to the river. And swimming–I got to do tricks in the water” (Y-7).
Overall, the youth participants thoroughly enjoyed the PA opportunities they had during the program. This youth discussed how the experience helped her at school: “It got me more active and for some reason it just got me happy and I was just like ‘oh yeah I’m going to have something to do after school!’ and my mom is happy because I’m more active” (Y-3). As mentioned, it is critical to ensure the youth are enjoying themselves during the activities in order to ensure adherence to the program and participation in PA. “We had the girls run a lot, while not really realizing it, and having a lot of fun; you could tell they were all tired at the end but had enjoyed themselves” (LL-Jan. 24, 2012).
Challenges
As with any program, especially in the first year of implementation, there were challenges. Three main themes emerged which included difficulties with the facility and transportation, recognizing that, at times, some activities were too much like schoolwork, and issues related to and social distractions and cliques.
Difficulties with facility and transportation
One challenge that was encountered was the space allocated for the program—it was too small for the group. There was a small craft room for the relational time and awareness talk and GJWHF only had access to the larger gymnasium for the PA time. One leader emphasized this issue:
The room for the life skills, once we were more than 12 girls, it was pretty crammed, so it got loud and sometimes it would be hard to talk over them, so if we could get a bigger room, more private, more isolated. Especially next year, I think we’re estimating to get more girls, so a bigger room would be the ideal. (L-3)
Additionally, as the room in which the girls participated in the life skills activities was right beside the gymnasium, it was often quite loud and distracting having other BGC programming going on at the same time. “If there were people in the gym, the room was right next to the gym and you could hear all the balls thrown and all the kids playing and having fun so it was a bit distracting” (L-3).
As mentioned, another challenge was transportation. A large majority of the participants travelled, with their leader, to the program from a different BGC clubhouse. As a result, over the course of the year, some issues occurred with transportation since the program relied on taxis to transport the youth from clubhouse to clubhouse. The issue of having non-reliable transportation caused serious disruptions in at least two of the program sessions. The leader stated: “Taxis didn't come therefore multiple waves of people caused constant interruptions. Only had 15 minutes to do life skill…a little bit frustrating” (LL-Dec. 6, 2011).
Some activities were too much like schoolwork
One challenge was attempting to avoid having the program feel too much like schoolwork. For the life skills activities, the leaders tried to incorporate as many active or discussion-like activities as possible to avoid the feeling of doing schoolwork (e.g., sitting at a desk completing worksheets). However, for some of the life skills activities, a workbook was used to have the youth write down their ideas related to the skill (e.g., thinking about the future, writing down goals for the life skill of goal setting). Therefore, at times, these workbook activities were a challenge as indicated by these two leaders.
If you’re someone who is struggling in school and you come to the club and you want to participate in the program, and you get a workbook that’s full of words you can’t read and you’re sitting at a desk again, I think it kind of re-creates an environment where a lot of our girls aren’t very successful and don’t feel very good about themselves…It’s very school-like. (L-2)
I think having the in-class portion does have its benefits, but it’s just trying to limit the amount of regimented, school-like activities that there are…You have to be adaptable and it might not work out exactly how you planned in the workbook or manual. (L-5)
In addition, many of the activities that the girls chose were similar to what the girls would participate in during a physical education class so the leaders made an extra effort to go beyond what would be done in within the school curriculum.
We tried to plan stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily do in gym class, or if you do soccer or basketball, try and go one step further than what they [the youth] would do in gym class. If they wanted to play a game of bump, play a game of bump, rather than do drills. You could tell they didn’t love it [doing drills] so we kind of left it to be a little bit more unstructured and up to the youth to decide. (L-5)
One of the most important elements the leaders recognized early in the program was that the youth were not as engaged when the PA was regimented like a sport practice so leaders worked to ensure that the activities were not rigid and more enjoyable for the youth.
As long as they’re moving and getting PA, that’s the most important part of it. I guess be on the basketball team if you want to learn the more structured stuff, so that was something that we had to re-adjust—we were like ‘okay, this isn’t working as well as we hoped. We’ll move on and try it a different way’. (L-5)
Social distractions and cliques
In line with the above challenge, the leaders struggled with behavioral management of the youth a few times over the course of the program. The youth were from two different clubhouses and the youth who were from the clubhouse in which the program was run were often very distracted by other people and other programs at the club. Therefore, there was an ongoing issue of these youth milling in and out of the sessions at their own leisure. Towards the end of the program this became frustrating not only to the leaders, but also the other youth. While one leader expressed that there was “bickering between certain girls” (LL-Feb. 7, 2012), another leader stated:
In some ways, I think it’s easier for them [girls at home clubhouse] because they have other options, so if they’re feeling shy, they can just go hide in the computer room where the girls [from other clubhouse] don’t have those options. They bus here and this is the program and they’re going to participate in the program. (L-4)
Although not discussed during the interviews, some of the youth who attended the program on a regular basis openly discussed their frustration with the lack of commitment of some of the participants displayed during the program sessions. Related to this, the leaders also occasionally struggled with behavioral challenges due to having all of the girls in one group and so a leader suggested changing this in the future:
Separate them [the youth] into smaller groups…something that we want to work on for next year. Maybe get one or two more leaders…if we do get a big group of 20 girls, split up 10 and 10 and then break those groups smaller. (L-5)
In addition to informal discussions that took place throughout the program, some of the youth took the opportunity to express their concern on their confidential paper indicating elements of the program they did not like: “what I don't like about the GJWHF is that there are no communications between the (name of clubhouse) girls or with the (name of clubhouse) girls and that would be the only reason why I don't really like the program” (AYF-9) and “I think I didn't really talk to the (name of clubhouse) girls that much and I wanted to” (AYF-8). When asked what she did not like about the program, one youth stated: “the (name of clubhouse) girls. It’s not like we’re trying not to talk to them, but I don’t know, we just didn’t bother talking to them as much” (P-10). Lastly, a leader that works at the clubhouse where the program was held had built a strong relationship with the youth from this clubhouse over many years and tried to explain why this issue might have occurred:
For our girls, the ones at (name of clubhouse), I think they actually were a little bit uncomfortable with the idea that there were new girls coming to the centre that they didn’t know and that was kind of like—you know, girls that age, they kind of have their friends and it’s a little bit uncomfortable to meet new people. (L-4)