Raise Foundation | Evaluation Report 2024
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Youth Advisory Collective reflections
The Raise Foundation Youth Advisory Collective (YAC) is made up of a diverse group of passionate young people (18-25yrs) across Australia who share their perspective to make a difference to the work we do at Raise. Through ongoing consultation, our YAC ensures we incorporate the youth voice and reflect the needs
of young people across all our decision making. After reading the 2024 outcomes, I am not surprised by these statistics in the slightest. While there are always going to be some young people that are not in a place to receive help, the Raise program clearly has positive impacts on high school students. I particularly love the results on resilience and other factors before and after the program. Raise is so great because of its ability to cater for specific mentee needs and the freedom provided by the program allows the mentor and mentee to conduct sessions in the way that feels right. This serves as a benchmark for school based mental health practices which many services struggle to meet for various monetary and staffing reasons. As this data shows, the problems students today are facing are so individual, and the Raise program has enough flexibility to never pigeon-hole a student. I believe the success of this evaluation are the result of balance between a greatly structured and researched program and the flexibility to adequately help students and make them feel like their problems are heard. Raise continues to improve and evolve, matching the ever-changing landscape of high school that social media is creating. Raise will need to continue to innovate and change to engage the increasingly isolated and confused youth. Dillon YAC Member
The 2024 Evaluation Report is a wonderful testament both to the courage and vulnerability of this year’s mentees and the commitment and generosity of our mentors. To have 96% of mentees feel that Raise mentoring has helped them in at least one area is an overwhelmingly positive outcome which affirms the impact that one-on-one connection can have on a young person’s life. As a young person who had a number of key mentors during my time at school, I really resonated with the comment made by one of this year’s mentee’s about how helpful it is to have someone to talk to who is not related to you. At a time when loneliness is increasingly an experience that many young people can relate to (62% of mentees), there is immense power in having a mentor choose to get to know you for no reason other than being genuinely interested in your life and the challenges you are facing. It is heartening to see that, after mentoring, many mentees felt both more hopeful towards school (37%) and their future (45%). The fact that there was mentee growth in the four key outcomes – resilience, school belonging, hope for the future and asking for help – by the end of the program foregrounds how impactful it can be to have a mentor recognise your inherent worth and walk alongside you in helping you navigate the difficult situations, experiences and emotions associated with high school, mental health and growing up more generally. I truly believe that giving students the opportunity to experience relational safety with their mentors and feel seen, heard and supported is invaluable, especially considering the consistently high stress and mental health challenges that young people are facing. Zali YAC Member
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