The Soar Foundation

A Preventative Approach

The Soar Foundation is constantly evolving its work not only inhouse, but also in collaboration with other experts.

The Soar Foundation

JULY 6, 2021  

1. Introduction:

We are living through especially volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous times. This reality is fuelled by political instability, the global environmental crisis, social volatility, and technological advancements changing the world in a way that we can’t even assimilate. It’s an anxious time that Teenagers feel deeply, and they were feeling it long before the current pandemic escalated mental ill-health to an unprecedented magnitude. The diagnosis of anxiety, depression and self-harm has increased out of all proportion.

 

Poor mental health is one of the major factors, along with other “lifestyle diseases” like diabetes, heart conditions, cancer and so on, that cause the deaths of 41 million people each year according to the World Health Organisation. This physical and mental health picture tells a story that we cannot ignore with the same organisation predicting Depression to be the leading clinical illness by 2030. Our way of living is deeply flawed and broken – and it was broken long before COVID-19 knocked us out of our complacency. It would be wrong to blame the pandemic for our current crisis, and indeed for the struggles we are witnessing amongst our teenagers. However, we certainly can blame the pandemic for pouring petrol on an already burning fire of anxiety.

 

Over the duration of the current pandemic Soars program facilitators have found that our teenagers are dealing with three major issues at an unprecedented intensity:

1. Isolation.

2. A heightened sense of worry.

3. Ever Diminishing inner-confidence and self-belief.

 

This is where our preventative programs come in – we are the fire-fighters trying to prevent what we believe is a mental health catastrophe waiting to happen unless we act now. We believe that the fires of anxiety will continue to burn as long as we persist with educating and preparing teenagers for adulthood based on systems of education and training built on 20th century requirements. Our world has changed drastically in the last 20 years alone, and yet our systems to prepare young people for life have not. A new model that best serves the current and future needs of people is required. Such a model needs to reflect the mental and emotional complexity that is necessary for all to navigate a vastly different world where change is not only happening at a constant pace but is in fact accelerating.

 

While the wellbeing of our Teenagers and the overall prosperity of our people is priority enough to act, we are also conscious of the changing patterns in work and social environments. As global organisation Deloitte have reported, skills, tasks and jobs are becoming obsolete far more quickly, and the priority is agility over rigidity “it just takes a rethinking of the problem, and a need to be aware of how jobs, careers, and skills are rapidly changing”.

 

2. What We Need:

 

The Soar Foundation is an independent organisation founded in 2012 to seek an alternative solution to the distress we were witnessing amongst our teenagers. Our approach to poor mental health is a preventative one that insists that all teenagers can be helped to develop the skills and character necessary to navigate everyday life. We were aware that academic development of our teenagers was priority, while the personal and character development was left to chance. Environments were not being provided for Teenagers to:                                                                                

  • Understand and develop their Inner Character          

  • Recognise Emotions and have a language to communicate

  • Understand how emotions are driving their everyday behaviours, and in doing so develop a sense of agency over themselves

  • Identify their unique strengths, passions, and goals, to increase wellbeing and contribute to their ecosystem

  • Realise that past challenges and traumas don’t need to define them, but rather use them as a launchpad to greater things

  • A safe and respectful environment to understand their complex and evolving sexuality

  • A space to recognise their transition to early adulthood and what that transition will require                     

 

Soar creates and delivers preventative character-building programs for Teenagers from all backgrounds and delivers them primarily through the school system, but also in communities all over the country. We believe creating safe, non-judgemental environments for Teenagers to explore the above will prevent significant mental health issues that arise as teenagers approach early adulthood. Such preventative measures reduce the need for curative or acute services further down the line.

Thankfully we have seen welcome policy shifts from Government in recent years recognising the need for a combined education/well-being approach focusing on prevention and early- intervention.

 

3. What Soar Do:

Soar employs a peer-to-peer model where we train young facilitators to deliver programmes primarily through the school system. To date we have delivered our character building programmes to approximately 45,000 teenagers in 215 schools across 28 counties. These programmes comprise prevention and wellness workshops for young people aged 12 to 18 years from all backgrounds. Our workshops empower young people to thrive, believe in themselves and fulfil their true potential. By participating, they develop an openness to their shared vulnerability, improve their listening skills and develop the courage to share their problems with significant others in their lives. More specifically, in response to their anxieties related to the Covid-19 pandemic, namely, isolation, a heightened sense of worry and a diminishing self-belief, Soar implemented the following on-line programmes:                                                                          

  • Firstly, our Grounded-For-Greatness series covered topics such as Awareness, Courage and Resilience, and received approximately 25,000 views and engagement across our media platforms.

  • Secondly, we created a new on-line program called ‘Hustle’ where teenagers could explore the above topics together over a 4-week period from bedrooms, kitchens and sitting rooms all over the country.

  • Thirdly, we adapted our existing school-based programmes to an on-line platform and provided sessions through Zoom in schools.

  • Fourthly, despite the logistical challenges, and with the support of some incredible schools and teachers, we have managed to serve approximately 5,500 teenagers face- to-face since March 2020.

 

4. Where we Fit:  

The Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice 2018–2023 was introduced by the Department of Education and Science to support schools and centres for education in wellbeing promotion. That policy document shows clearly where Soars preventative work fits into the Department’s overall vision for the wellbeing of our young people. The document provides us with two clear illustrations of how our important interventionist and preventative work with teenagers is contextualised. The first illustration, reproduced below, the “Continuum of Support” diagram, shows that Soar fits in at the base of the triangle, that is, across its widest area, at the very foundations of the school community, which offers support for all:

(DES 2019: 14)                                  

The second clear image offered by DES’s Wellbeing Policy Statement is the diagram of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, also reproduced below. That approach to education and wellbeing views child development as a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels or layers of the surrounding environment that range from the immediate settings like family and school to broad cultural values, laws, and customs as the layers radiate out. At the core of that diagram lies the individual (in our case the teenager), whom need help within his/her microsystem of survival, given that all the other layers of influence are often applying inward intolerable pressure and stress on young people. To study a child's development then, or to offer important interventions, we must look not only at the young person and his/her immediate environment, but also at the interaction of the larger environment as well. In short, the microsystem, or the first ring, which contains family, neighbourhood, friends, school community, workplace and so on, is the most influential level of the ecological systems theory and this is where we at Soar do our important work of intervention and prevention.

(DES, 2019:11).

 Together with both these important inputs into wellbeing, we also take on board what the Department of Education and Science calls the four pillars of a whole-school approach to education for wellbeing, namely (i) Culture & Environment, (ii) Curriculum (Teaching & Learning), (iii) Relationships and Partnerships and (iv) Policy and Planning. Soar programs are designed with a macro approach for systemic change and intersect the ‘Culture and Environment’ area under school classroom climate and culture. ‘Relationships and Partnerships’ under student and staff relationships, peer relationships, student voice, community partnerships, and external supports through our links with other care providers and organisations. We are also influencing the ‘Curriculum’ through extra-curricular learning. (DES, 2019: 16)

 

5. Important Research

 

The policy document on wellbeing just quoted suggests that what is “most beneficial in the promotion of wellbeing in education is to adopt a preventative, whole-school approach that is multi-component and evidence-informed” (DES, 2019:1). We embrace an approach that is based on solid research, and there is much documented evidence to show that early interventions like those offered by Soar are effective in promoting positive well-being and improved mental health among our young people. A significant report by Monash University and the University of Melbourne (2013) on the efficacy of preventative programmes run by the Reach Foundation, on which Soar originally modelled its approach, demonstrated that many young people experience positive well-being outcomes as a result of participating in such programmes. Young people reported that they experienced (i) significantly enhanced life meaning, (ii) significantly improved engagement with life, (iii) a physiological profile (daily cortisol slope1) reflecting enhanced well-being, (iv) an increase in the use of two positive strategies explored in Reach programmes (e.g., expression of gratitude and sharing experiences) in response to personal negative events. Most importantly, this report stressed that schools participating in Reach programmes must be adequately resourced and financed to offer students additional support and access to mental health services following such interventions as many personal issues emerge over the course of these programmes.2Soar has a robust pre and post workshop process to work with the schools should further support be needed for any Teenager.

 

A more recent summary of current research into early interventions in mental health carried out in Birmingham by Connor (2017) highlights the importance of increasing the identification of young people at risk of developing mental health problems in order to prevent their transition to long-term problems later on in their lives. Such early interventions may also remove the need for care through specialist mental health services or hospitalisation at a later stage. All the evidence shows that prevention/early intervention is better than cure. Not unsurprisingly, Connor also found that in one survey teachers confirmed that, they also do feel ill-prepared to support young people with their mental health, and that they themselves suffered from increasingly high levels of stress in dealing with their own mental health difficulties often preventing them from effectively supporting their students. She concluded her report by stressing the urgent need for greater understanding of the early warning signs of mental distress in young people. She recommends that adults and teachers must learn to listen to the personal experiences of teenagers and engage them in the design and development of preventative mental health strategies in the first place. Such an approach will encourage them to become “active participants” in the research process.3 Soar is ideally placed on the one hand to help teachers help students and on the other to help students help themselves and one another in this demanding and crucial intervention.

-------------------------------------------------------                      

1 Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream and prepares us for the fight- or-flight response. The problem is that such primordial responses are today triggered by a multitude of anxieties caused by modern living.

2 See Vella-Brodrick, D. A., Rickard, N. S., & Chin, T-C. (April 2013). Evaluation of youth-led programs run by The Reach Foundation. Monash University, VIC, Australia, pp. 5 – 6.

3 Connor, C. on behalf of “Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care,” West Midlands (CLAHRC-WM) Youth Mental Health Listen and Learn, engaging young people, their families and schools in early intervention research in Medical Humanities 2017;43:124-129.

 

 

6. Our work with NUIG, our Research Partner

Soar work closely with the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) through the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre (UCFRC) based there. Founded in 2007, this important centre undertakes research, education, and training in the area of Family Support and Youth Development with an emphasis on prevention and early intervention for children and young people experiencing adversity. As all education worth its salt is collaborative, we take seriously the following recommendation from the Department of Education and Science that children’s and young people’s wellbeing-needs and their best interest stem largely from “partnership and collaboration with other departments and agencies since wellbeing of children is a shared responsibility.” (DES, 2019:9)

 

In our work with UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre we are involved in closely monitoring the effectiveness of interventions like those made by Soar. Working clusters are divided into three categories: (i) Prevention, (ii) Intervention and (iii) Prospective and we contribute to the first category in this division as Prevention is for us a central principle in our core philosophy. In our cluster we collaborate with, help to inform, and learn from fellow helping organisations committed to the wellbeing of teenagers like Gaisce President Award, Foróige, Narrative 4 Empathy Project and Roots of Empathy etc. This collaboration allows for a comprehensive and more global assessment of the state of young people’s current wellbeing in all its facets as well as sharing a positive vision with respect to its on-going improvement.

 

7. Social Return On Investment (SROI)

 

Money spent on intervention and prevention is money well spent. Prevention and intervention are better than rehabilitation and cure and they are far less costly in the long run. As you are aware, SROI is a method for measuring values that are not traditionally reflected in financial statements, including social, economic, and environmental factors. It identifies how effectively a company or organisation uses its capital and other resources to create value for the community. Soar is all about building up the strong values of positive mental health and wellbeing of the community through working with our teenagers who are the future backbone programmes implemented by Soar prevent the everyday difficulties and challenges of our young people from escalating into far more serious problems later on. We strongly believe, and our quoted research proves it, that young people who involve themselves in strong intervention programmes are far more likely to complete their education, secure meaningful employment, contribute to their communities, live healthier lives, and, in turn, reduce the strain on our over-worked health services.

 

To do this we need to trust our Teenagers and challenge ourselves as adults to find the balance between protection and suppression. We cannot prevent worry or stress visiting our teenagers, nor should we try. Doing so will only prevent our Teenagers from developing the necessary character, skills, confidence, and resilience to navigate and thrive within our changing and demanding world. What we need to do is provide safe, non-judgemental, courageous, environments where Teenagers can authentically understand themselves and the world around them. They are more able than we think. They have more wisdom than we think. They know more than we think they know. So lets raise our own awareness as adults and not pass on our worries and fears to our teenagers by over-protecting and stunting their development.

 

Soar’s contribution to the national effort to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our teenagers is evidenced in our 5 Year Mission to reach every Transition Year Student in Ireland with a Preventative Character-Building Programme by 2025. Our message is brief but strong: “Engage earlier. Why wait for more serious problems to engulf us?”

 

Documents Consulted:                                                          

·       Connor, C. (2017) on behalf of “Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care,” West Midlands (CLAHRC-WM) Youth Mental Health Listen and Learn, engaging young people, their families and schools in early intervention research in Medical Humanities 2017;43:124-129.

 

·       DES (2019) The Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice 2018–2023. Lawlor, E., Neitzert, E., Nicholls, J & Goodspeed, T. (2012) A Guide to Social Return On Investment.

 

·       Vella-Brodrick, D. A., Rickard, N. S., & Chin, T-C. (April 2013). Evaluation of youth-led programs run by The Reach Foundation. Monash University, VIC, Australia.

 

of our country. SROI is an internationally recognised and accredited framework, designed to understand the benefits and social value of projects such as those of Soar, as perceived by key stakeholders. SROI can be used to manage and improve social impact and so we use it as a methodology in the evaluation of all our projects given the inherent importance of this concept to Rethink Ireland.4

 

Working closely with Dr. Cormac Forkan (2021), Senior Researcher at UNESCO Child & Family Research Centre, our partners in education, we found that an SROI approach revealed the following positive outcomes for our participating teenagers from our important intervention called “Hustle” during the current pandemic:

  • A Growth in Self-awareness

  • Improved emotional management,

  • Improved relationships with others,

  • More sense of belonging

  • Greater Self-efficacy

  • More empathy

  • Greater Self-confidence/ Self-belief

  • More maturity

  • Greater sense of potential

  • More social support

  • The growth of independent and critical thinking,

  • More self-confidence, and

  • Greater Emotional Resiliency

8. Conclusion

  • To conclude, we would ask the Government to continue to invest in preventative interventions, interventions that focus on reducing the risk factors associated with mental illness. Engaging early to prepare young people mentally and emotionally means they can approach life with optimism and a sense of opportunity. If our education and training systems fail to prepare our teenagers, we are in fact preparing them to fail. Early interventions like the practical

  • 4 Rethink Ireland provides cash grants and business support to the social innovations who can make a real difference. “Our task is to fuel these innovations with the knowledge and the advice they’ll need to succeed on a nationally impactful scale.” https://rethinkireland.ie/about-us/ accessed 03/07/2021.