My-Peer Toolkit

The My-Peer project was a collaboration of community agencies and research centres working together to create a resource for the broader youth sector to develop, manage and evaluate peer support programs. The project was carried out throughout 2009 and further research into this area is aspired to be continued in the future.

Project Goal

The project’s goal was to develop good practice standards for the design, implementation, evaluation and sustainability of youth peer programs used as an early intervention, preventative, mental health promotion strategy for vulnerable youth populations.

Objectives

The My-Peer project aimed to develop:

1. Best practice standards for the design and implementation of peer-based approaches including:
   • self care and resiliency for both trained peers and target group;
   • facilitation of peer group processes;
   • supervision protocols for identifying individual support needs and skills development;
   • boundary management for trained peers; and
   • training strategy and curriculum.
2. An evaluation framework and instruments to measure the effectiveness of youth peer programs
3. Sustainability guidelines for community-based youth peer programs
4. A dissemination strategy and sector training

Background

The My-Peer project built on formative work conducted during 2005-2008 by the WA Centre for Health Promotion Research to examine the role of youth peer programs in mental health promotion for at risk adolescent populations.

An action research approach was selected to develop good practice standards for youth peer programs in collaboration with the partner agencies and research centres.

Read more about the formative research:

• POSSAY
• POSSAY 2