Assisting youth with life skills

SIGN Life Skills works with youth ages 12 to 20 to prepare them for the adult and working world. Services include one-on-one individual and group mentoring, opportunities to meet socially with their peers, and in all activities encourage them to utilize the 40 key internal and external assets that will assist them in their growth and development. In this podcast, we talk to Christopher Smith, the manager of SIGN Life Skills.

Transcript

Dick DeRyk 0:00

Welcome to Sign for the Times. The Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbors, commonly known as Sign, is a not-for-profit agency in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada that provides 24 social and community programs and services that fulfill its mission to provide leadership, programs, and services that assist, support, and empower children, adults, and families to achieve lifelong success. SIEM believes that this will lead to strong and caring citizens and strong and caring communities. Our podcasts explore those programs and include conversations with those closely involved with SIN and with people who have used the services of SIN. My name is Dick Dureich. We're talking today with Christopher Smith, who's the manager of uh the Signed Life Skills Program. Now, Life Skills is a fairly general term. Uh, Christopher, tell us what the purpose of the program is and what you intend to or hope to, I guess, achieve uh with it.

Chris Smith 1:05

Basically, the goal of our program is to set up youth with uh the skills required to be successful in their adult lives. And um, for a lot of people, we we think of hard skills like cooking and job searching, and those are all skills that uh we can assist with and have in the past. But a lot of our focus now is on uh something called 40 developmental assets, which is really what we structure our program around. And um, within these 40 developmental assets, they're split up into external assets and internal assets. And just to give a quick explanation on that, the external assets are supports, opportunities, and relationships young people need across all aspects of their lives, as well as the internal assets are personal skills, commitments, and values they need to make good choices, take responsibility for their own lives and be independent and fulfilled. When I'm focusing on these, I really try to work on building peer interactions, relationship building, working through anxiety, uh, what supports are out there in the community as well as my program. That way the individuals can always feel supported. And I think that helps them be successful going forth.

Dick DeRyk 2:22

Now, the program is intended for young people. This is this is a youth program, correct?

Chris Smith 2:27

In our program, I work primarily with uh youth between the ages of 12 and 20. And that seems to be when you look at the 12 to 16 years, very crucial part of learning to build healthy relationships. I mean, we know there's lots of struggles that youth go through in their lives in a typical setting. So, on top of that, we're adding new pressures with the post-COVID world. And so I think my program is really starting to see extra successes.

Dick DeRyk 2:58

What are you finding about the post-COVID world? Is has it had a fairly major significant impact on young people?

Chris Smith 3:06

I mean, I think it does, just like it it has with all of us. But I think with a lot of the virtual uh classrooms and learning opportunities, that it has made it difficult for youth to have that face-to-face connection that I think prior to COVID, we were starting to see disappear a little too. I mean, with the introductions of our cell phones and that, it's easy to be lost in a device as opposed to our face-to-face connections. And I think with our program, it's learning how to navigate uh using this technology that can help us, but also keeping those physical connections.

Dick DeRyk 3:44

So I'm I'm assuming that generally your preference or the program's preference is to meet with people, young people face-to-face. Um the program that uh I know you've had going for through the spring and into summer is called Teen Lounge at the uh at the public library uh in York and downtown. Tell us about that. How did that get started? This is kind of an opportunity, like we were just said mentioned, for kids to get together in person, right?

Chris Smith 4:14

Uh the way this worked was I had kind of an idea in my head that, you know, I offer group sessions and uh mentorship that we could talk about later, but that's more almost feels like a classroom setting, even though that's kind of not what I'm trying to make it feel like. So, this idea of the teen lounge was where's a place that we can just get together and have fun. And I know board games are something that a lot of the youth enjoy playing. So I approached the library and pitched this idea of let's get a room once a month where youth 12 to 18 can come, play some games, have fun, meet people with similar interests. And if they show up to the library and decide board games aren't for them, but they want to go talk about books, movies, whatever interests they have, they're meeting uh individuals with uh similar interests and getting to make new connections. So, in the youth's perspective, it's a fun night. They can come hang out, come and go as they please, meet new friends. And then for myself, I get to facilitate a safe environment for youth and help the youth um model positive interactions.

Dick DeRyk 5:21

I find it, I'm not sure whether ironic is the right word, but interesting that you know, as as predominant as video games are and have been, that there really is a movement back to you know face-to-face games like uh board games. And and we're finding that in the community, for instance, in sports, you know, golf, baseball, uh, football. Kids are kind of there almost seems to be a bit of a desire to get back to doing things off-screen.

Chris Smith 5:51

Am I right in I yeah, I think so. I think there's just something about that face-to-face interaction and positive uh fun and laughter uh that you can't mimic through a video game or through a video chat. You know, there's just real-time cues that help us engage in a positive manner. And I think that's where when we're looking at board games, physical activities, even music groups, right? If I'm interested in being part of a band, joining a band with people in real, uh in real time would be a lot different than trying to do it through my phone. So I I do think that we are starting to see a bit of a shift back to in person, just to kind of get those real connections again. I think that's kind of healthy. Yeah, I think so. I think it's again, you really get to know someone when you're meeting them in person, right? I get I'm more invested. I have to be uh conscious of showing up to these activities with my friends on time and put that investment in, which in return, I generally will get a positive, positive feedback, right? So I think uh youth are starting to realize that's maybe the connection that they uh once had that they're trying to get back to.

Dick DeRyk 7:04

So, how is Teen Lounge? Uh it's been running since uh since spring. Uh what kind of reaction have you been getting from uh from the kids who come there?

Chris Smith 7:13

You know, I think it's been quite positive. So we're right now um hovering around an average of eight to ten individuals that show up every month. They always seem to have fun. I would say the majority of them stay the whole two hours, and it's it's not mandatory to stay the two hours. And I think what the youth really value too is I've given them the opportunity that if there are certain games or activities that I do not have at that event, let me know and I'll I'll do what I can to get that so we can have what the youth want.

Dick DeRyk 7:43

Next one's coming up uh what in a week's time or so?

Chris Smith 7:47

Yeah, June 20th at the library, and it will be from four to six.

Dick DeRyk 7:52

Are you uh looking at perhaps continuing this through the summer when when schools are out?

Chris Smith 7:58

Yeah, so I think with uh school being out, uh that that lends a lot of uh free time for individuals and not always not every individual has the opportunity to be in all sorts of activities or go on uh family trips. So my goal is to offer the team lounge through the summer a couple times per month during um normal hours. Um so there'll be daytime hours, I'm thinking, but uh my goal would be to have it a couple times. So once that information is solidified, it will be posted on our website.

Dick DeRyk 8:31

Website and our social media. We'll uh we'll let people, we'll let the kids know about it. You also do you do mentorship and and you work with uh with uh teachers and staff in schools. Tell us tell us about that. What what's involved in that? Um, where is it? When is it?

Chris Smith 8:49

So I guess we got to go back a little bit. The one-on-one mentorship generally would happen in my office previously. And what that is, is again those 40 developmental assets. We I work with the youth to target goals that they want to work on with the 40 developmental assets in mind. So, I mean, we'll work on things such as their values, the commitment to learning, constructive use of time, boundaries, expectations, positive identity, that all fits within the 40 developmental assets. But the one-on-one mentorship allows me to really target deficiencies that that youth wants to improve, as well as their current strengths and to build upon those strengths. So they're really in charge of what we work on, and I just help them navigate uh how to improve on all that. So then this year, I think one of the issues was being a one-staff program, I'm very I'm very much tied to the amount of mentorship I can provide after hours. So I decided to approach the schools and explain my program, and the counselors really saw a benefit of having me come in and work with some of these individuals. And I think also where that alleviates pressure is if these are individuals that are busy after hours, but are struggling in school, they're still getting the benefits of the life skills program during their school hours. So it gives them a break from some of the academics, but still working on important skills.

Dick DeRyk 10:16

Do they volunteer for this? Are they referred? How does a how does a young person get to you? How do they find how do they find out about the program?

Chris Smith 10:26

It is technically a referral, but it's open to anyone. Uh, a parent can refer them to myself, and all that information is on our website. Various programs through Sign have referred clients to me. Um, schools have referred to me, uh, mental health has referred to me. So my youth come from all different avenues of life, but it is open to anyone to make a referral. And then once a referral is made and I have capacity, I just work with the family or the guardian to sign an authorization form to uh accept services with myself, just because the youth aren't minors in most cases.

Dick DeRyk 11:05

Yeah, yeah. So the parents are involved, or the parents should be involved, need to be involved.

Chris Smith 11:10

Yeah. So I mean, again, it's the involvement of the parent at the very minimum is that signing the authorization form. I really do try to work with that individual. And I mean, we do have, I try to build a relationship with the family as well, just to make sure that everyone's on the same um playing field.

Dick DeRyk 11:28

There's one-on-one sessions, there's also group sessions.

Chris Smith 11:31

Yeah, so my group sessions I do weekly here. They target a bunch of youth in a broader capacity. So again, we're working on a lot of those same things that I do on my one-on-one mentorship with the Four Developmental Assets, but it's more in a broader uh sense just because I have 10 individuals at my group session. So it's not so individualized. The other thing I do with my group session is I really take advantage of a lot of the uh services we have in New York did. So I've had uh SHA come in and provide Narcan training to all my individuals. I've had them uh provide training around STIs and communical diseases uh as well as safe sex. I've had our Next Step program come in and deliver a presentation around boundaries and uh consent. So I'm really trying to take uh the resources we have in our community and also have them come and show their face to build more relationships. Because I'm not always going to be involved with these youth, but I want them to know all these other services and um programs we have available.

Dick DeRyk 12:41

And you mentioned several of them that are actually signed programs. I'm sure there are a number of programs in sign uh that would benefit some of the youth. Summer sessions, summer coming up. We talked about the teen lounge, but summer is also for some for some young people, can be kind of a lonely time because they don't have the daily connection with other kids at school.

Chris Smith 13:06

Yeah, so I think what happens with summer is we see lots of individuals, their lives get busy. So the commitment to a weekly session um is just not possible. And that's okay. I mean, summer is a break from school, it could also be a break from my program. Now, that being said, I think there are some individuals that would benefit from it between the one-on-one mentorship, the team lounge, and then I also plan on offering uh one group session per month of the summer, and that will be open to a uh a broader audience because my group sessions right now are a very targeted audience. In those sessions, I plan on one of them being about job readiness and the skills maybe needed to apply for jobs. And we know when you're between the ages of 14 and 16, you need to do a youth uh readiness uh certificate. So that's something I can assist with, as well as the second session would kind of talk about self-care. We know that uh in life there's lots of difficult times and we need to take care of ourselves. So making a plan with those individuals and what that looks like.

Dick DeRyk 14:15

Tell us a little bit about Christopher Smith. What is your background? Uh, what are your aspirations for this program?

Chris Smith 14:21

Yeah, I actually grew up in Niagara Falls, and in 2013 I made the journey uh to Saskatchewan where I started with uh Saskabilities Agency here, and I worked there for almost nine years, which was kind of what I had gone to school for, working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It was very rewarding experiences that I had with them. And then uh 2021, I saw an opportunity to work with Sign in one of their programs called Family Preservation, where I worked with families to help strengthen their families in order to prevent their children being apprehended or to reunify children in some circumstances. Growing up, I've worked with multiple uh organizations that worked with youth, and that was something that I had always found more rewarding and uh just inspiring. So I've worked with Timor's Children Foundation camps in the past. And so this opportunity to run the life skills program came along last summer, and I uh was successful, and that's how I ended up in this program. And my aspirations with this program is just to try and target as many youth as possible and provide these skills and just be another tool that they can utilize for their success. Because at the end of the day, I don't believe that it's myself or my program that will be their success. It's what they do with all the services that I can provide.

Dick DeRyk 15:53

Really up to them, isn't it? In the end, you you can be a resource, you can be a help.

Chris Smith 15:58

Yeah, that's exactly it. I mean, at the end of the day, they're the captain of their ship. And if they want to utilize the tools that I have for them to be successful, they can choose to do so. And maybe my tools aren't the best, but there's some other tools that I can help connect them with. And at the end of the day, they get to choose whether uh they want to utilize that or not.

Dick DeRyk 16:19

How do they get in touch with you?

Chris Smith 16:20

So I think the easiest place to go would be our website, because then that under our website would be the Life Skills program and it have all the current information, as well as they can email me uh directly at c.smith at signyorten, um, or they can text me at 306-621-2553 or leave a voicemail. I think the youth do want these services, and we're very much needed in the community because I was looking back through uh my contacts for the last fiscal year, and uh we serviced 56 uh youth uh in between uh April 1st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023. I think that uh lots of youth are accessing our program and really enjoying it.

Dick DeRyk 17:10

And a number of those would have been youth that if it wasn't for the program might not have known where else to turn or might not have received the uh uh the help and and the uh the advice that they were looking for.

Chris Smith 17:26

Exactly.

Dick DeRyk 17:27

New Science for the Times podcasts are published regularly. In upcoming podcasts, we will talk with those who have been assisted by Science various programs and with the program managers and staff who provide that assistance. If you have comments or suggestions, please feel free to email communications at signyorten.ca or use the contact options on our website at www.signjorten.ca. We are also on Facebook and Instagram, all at signyorten. Thanks for listening, and we will talk again soon.