1. Flying Under the Radar:
a look at Travellers,
New Zealand’s innovative,
youth friendly,
resilience programme

2. Opportunities for growth
Adolescence is a challenging time involving change, loss and transition
Opportunities for growth
Without support and skills young people can feel distressed
Possible increase in incidence of mental health concerns
Background to Travellers _ the Min of Ed is currently looking to develop resources for teachers and students because of the understanding of the difficulty of transitions of young people from primary to secondary schools

3. The WHO Four Level Whole School Approach to School Change
Focus of
Travellers
Create an environment conducive to promoting psychosocial competence and wellbeing
Mental health education:
Knowledge, attitudes & behaviour
Psychosocial interventions & problems
Professional treatment
Whole school environment
Part of general curriculum
Students needing additional help at school
Students needing additional mental health intervention
3%-12% of students
20%-30% of students
Entire school community
All students & teachers

4. A school-based targeted small-group programme for young people who identify themselves as facing tough times in their first year of secondary school
New Zealand’s Response

5. Development No existing programmes
Transition to secondary school can be traumatic for some young people
Young people often under the radar in schools
Can be dealing with significant issues (walking wounded)
No programmes existed in NZ that specifically provide for students who were finding the transition to Secondary school difficult.
Such students present as outwardly conforming / appearing to cope but are often dealing with significant life issues.
We wanted to find a way to identify such students and provide a structured programme to support them / increase their resilience
Our aim is for better connected, more resilient young people feeling good about themselves. Hopefully this leads to better educational and health outcomes for them

6. Development
Designed for students who self identify that extra support would help
Designed to be “school owned”
Provides a structured programme to build student resilience and well being
Trialled for 4 years in a range
of schools
Now available NZ wide
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - CBT

7. How it works 3. Travellers programme 2. Data 1. Online questionnaire
Provided on all Year 9 students taking survey
Assists Counsellors to select students they think will benefit from Travellers
Allows schools to select students for other programmes the school may run
1. Online questionnaire
Short online real-time web-based
questionnaire
School’s total Year 9 student cohort
~30,000 NZ students have taken
3. Travellers programme
6% of students = 1800 students
8 Week programme
90 minute sessions
2 facilitators
Students are able to record their thoughts and feelings. Anything they write is captured by the questionnaire. Questionnaire works on self revelation – often the first time students have had the opportunity to reveal their concerns in a confidential / safe way.
to select students they think will benefit from undertaking the Travellers programme

8. Data Global / Individual Feel good – Yes / No
Distress score – Weinberger Short Scale
Number of events rated as major
Number of schools
If a student answers No to the Feel Good question – they are required to provide comment. System records this.
Distress score is created by using the Weinberger Short Scale – produces a figure from 0 – 60. Any score in excess of 40 indicates distress .Number of events the student reveals as having an effect on them. Number of schools picks up transience – normal to have three schools in NZ – Primary, Intermediate [ Middle School ] Secondary
Other reports generated by the system include Ethnicity, Not feeling good comments, gender and global data.
Individual student questionnaires provided for whole cohort

9. Global Data

10. Ranking
Student’s name
System classifies students into one of four risk groups. High, Med, Low. Not ranked. Travellers candidates are most likely to be in the medium group. High group will contain students the school already knows about and the Counsellors are most likely working with these students on a one to one basis. The questionnaire can also reveal students in the High risk group that the school didn’t know about. This allows action to be taken to deal with theses students issues. The Not Ranked group are the students who fall between the low risk and medium group. Their data is provided so that Counsellors can assess whether they would benefit from the Travellers Programme.
Student’s name

11. Selection Students interviewed and their permission sought
Programme runs for 8 weeks during school time
8 – 10 students per group
90 mins per session
Facilitated by 2 trained school staff
Approach:
School identifies likely candidates for a Travellers programme from the student data.
Programme normalises the ups and downs in life. Provides students with strategies to cope when this occurs.

12. Session Outline Session One & Two: Session Three:
Life is a journey. Sometimes the path can be more challenging than at other time
Session Three:
Our self-esteem is our belief in our own self-worth
Session Four:
Trust your feelings – it's OK to feel.
Expressing yourself is healthy.
It's natural to find change stressful

13. Session Outline Session Five: The way I think affects how I feel.
I can’t always change things, but I can change the way I think about things.
Session Six:
Fun and laughter help reduce stress.
Relaxation re-energises.
Session Seven:
Everyone needs support at times. It can be practical and/or emotional.
Session Eight:
Challenges in life can help us grow.
There are strategies I can use to do life.

14. The Programme Contains all the resources to run the programme
Involves story telling/ making meaning from stories.
Strong oral rather than written component
Mix of games/group discussion/individual reflection
Takes a learning styles approach so that all students are catered for
Facilitator manual provides guided approach for facilitators

15. Impact of the Travellers Programme

16. “Travellers helped me deal with feelings and understand what they meant. It’s OK to feel and everybody does.”

17. "You feel special and involved, with a sense of wanting, like you're wanted somewhere. I am normally left out of things. I feel happy to be involved in something. It makes me feel good. They let me be myself and don’t tell me off for it."

18. "It helped me open up and face my problems, which is good for me
"It helped me open up and face my problems, which is good for me. You gave me hope and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart."
“Alex” story if time allows

19. Facilitator comment
“A very overweight year 9 student chose to join the Travellers group 5 years ago. During the programme she chose to go to the counsellor for personal counselling. She told the counsellor that the group experience after 4 sessions gave her the courage to talk to the counsellor about sexual abuse that had happened for many years. The counsellor supported the student for 3 years with life issues and assisted in the abuse stopping.”
McAuley High School
“I find it very useful as a counsellor and facilitator in that if I have ex-Travellers kids as clients, it is very easy to do CBT with them as there are so many CBT related activities there.” Papatoetoe High School
McAuley High= Joan Fogarty, Papatoetoe High = Lynn Papp

20. Overall Impact
Increases mental health / emotional literacy of students who participate in the programme
Allows group counselling – hopefully reducing the workload of busy counsellors
Schools are approaching Skylight to pick up the programme
Schools report greater student connectedness and access to school health / guidance networks

21. Current Situation in NZ
Running in 95 schools throughout NZ
Schools see Travellers as:
Providing valuable data on school culture
Assisting young people to be more resilient
Assisting young people to have greater emotional literacy
Assisting young peoples’ mental well being

22. Transportability
Programme crosses socio – economic boundaries and cultures
Programme able to be adapted for other cultures / countries
Adapted for use in Denmark / Australia

24. Contact Bice Awan Skylight Chief Executive Ph: +644 939-6759
Aileen Davidson
Skylight National Travellers Coordinator
Ph: