Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange
  • Knowledge Hub
    • Browse the Knowledge Hub!
    • Collections
      • Featured Collections
      • Evidence Briefs
      • Research Summaries
      • What’s with Weed
      • French-Language Resources
    • Good Youth Work Practices
    • Special Reports
      • Research to Practice Reports
      • Doing Right Together for Black Youth
      • Beyond Measure
    • Book a 1-on-1 call
      with us!
  • Learn & Connect
    • CERTIFICATES
      • Centering Black Youth Wellbeing
      • Critical Youth Work
      • Program Evaluation for Youth Wellbeing
      • Using Spreadsheets in Program Evaluation
      • Cannabis and Youth
      • Cannabis and Mental Health
      • Brain Story Certification
    • REX Virtual Café
    • AND MORE…
      • Webinars
      • Workshops
      • What’s with Weed
      • Knowledge to Action Exchange
    • Book a 1-on-1 call
      with us!
  • Evaluation
    • Youth-Friendly Measures
      • Outcome Measures
      • Process Measures
      • Qualitative Tools
    • PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
      • Logic Models
    • EVALUATION
      • Evaluation Framework
      • Evaluation Toolkit
    • Book a 1-on-1 call
      with us!
  • Community Board
  • REX Blog
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Our Team
    • Our Work
    • Community Spotlight
    • Our Newsletter
    • Get in Touch!
  • Search
  • Youth Work

Sudbury Shared Harvest transforms mentorship through gardening

by Lidia Abraha February 2, 2022

Research shows that relationships, including those with mentors, play a critical role in positive youth outcomes. In order to create a transformative outcome for a young mentee, the mentor must carefully build trust through empathy, respect and structure.

January is National Mentoring Month, a time to share, discuss, and celebrate new evidence-based strategies and practices for mentoring programs. Sudbury Shared Harvest has been putting those best practices into action through their Youth Agricultural Mentors (YAM) program.

Operating since 2021, the program supports young people in developing a greater sense of connection with themselves and one another through gardening and farming. They also receive guidance from mentors with a variety of skills from biology to architecture, participants learned about plant identification, cooking, marketing, propagation and more.

“Mentorship is everything,” said Kryslyn Mohan, YAM program co-lead, “As mentors to this group, we learnt so much from them. We also learnt about ourselves, through being a mentor. The program would not be able to have such an impact without the relationships created along the way.”

As part of the program goals, they note that growing food for and with others is a great way to feel connected to the community. Participants also learned from multiple community mentors who shared knowledge during interactive workshops for youth, such as building their own worm bin and how to identify mushrooms.

YAM participants learn how to grow food in a way that works with nature rather than against it. They learn regenerative agriculture practices like composting, integrated pest management, planting pollinator plants, and more. Kryslyn says the idea is to garden in a way that helps to protect the organisms in the ecosystem including the organisms under our feet in the soil.

“Many young people are becoming more motivated to act, and learning how to grow our own food in a way that helps nature to restore balance can help alleviate the eco-anxiety so many are feeling because of the state that the planet is in, [so] learning to grow food is empowering.” says Kryslyn.

As we know, mentorship is not a one-way street, and Kryslyn agrees. They are even looking to create a mentor role for past graduates of the program to encourage the passion participants had for learning from one another will expand and grow within the school, community, and beyond.

They received glowing feedback from participants such as feeling a sense of belonging and being able to open up to others. Sudbury Shared Harvest says the program helped with their confidence as workers, by having the ability to finish a job will help them in the long-term when they are given tasks and assignments in the workforce.

The organization hopes to continue refining the program and creating more paid youth opportunities in regenerative agriculture. Learn more about Sudbury Shared Harvest and YAM. 

 

Lidia Abraha
YouthREX’s Communications & Digital Engagement Associate

PREVIOUS POST

« Teaching truth and reconciliation in Canada: The perfect place to begin is right where a teacher stands

NEXT POST

Four Teen Writers Weigh in on Their Experiences with Black Girl’s Magazine »

RELATED RESOURCES

  • Report

    Mapping the Mentoring Gap

  • Toolkit

    Becoming a Better Mentor: Strategies to Be There for Young People

  • Factsheet

    Best Practices for Mentoring Youth Facing Barriers to Success

  • Evidence Brief

    10 Good Practices for School-Based Mentoring Programs

  • Knowledge Hub
  • Our Work
  • Good Youth Work Practices
  • Community Board
  • Get In Touch
Contact Us
Phone: (437) 388-5626
Email: info@youthrex.com

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletter to learn about new resources, events and upcoming learning opportunities.

An Ontario where shared knowledge is transformed into positive impact for all youth!
The Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange (YouthREX) is a province-wide initiative based at the School of Social Work at York University. YouthREX is primarily funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.
Scroll Up