A Needs Assessment and Preliminary Program Evaluation of a Community Social-Emotional Learning Program

Mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, are becoming increasingly common among children and adolescents, yet still only a small portion of youth receive the support they need. For these reasons, many community organizations have been focused on helping children develop the social and emotional skills which help to support children’s mental health and avoid mental illness. This project involves evaluating such a program, called Brainworx!, which is run by a Canadian not-for-profit, Start2Finish. A team of developmental psychologists will evaluate the social and emotional needs of children involved in the program. They will also evaluate how children’s social and emotional skills change over the course of the program. Finally, the team will make recommendations on how the program could be modified to better promote the social and emotional needs of children in the program.

Faculty Supervisor:

Heather Henderson

Student:

Partner:

Start2Finish

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: