Cameron Tero

Initiatives designed to support young people’s engagement, participation and civic involvement with community have grown in popularity in Australia over the past decade. This is coincident with an increased emphasis on communitarian aspirations such as building community, promoting civics and encouraging social capital (Bessant, 1997; Botsman & Latham, 2001; Brennan, 1998; Harris, 1999). In this new policy environment, young people’s social problems, issues and needs are largely seen as a reflection of their declining levels of inclusion in civic life, a loss in community, a failure on the part of local associations to encourage social cohesion at the local level and a growing distance between the generations. According to those advancing this style of social policy, something has gone awfully wrong with the social fabric, community participation is dropping and different generations are becoming cut off from each other. The answer is often seen to be in interventions that develop social capital, build community capacity, encourage partnerships, support community enterprise, and strengthen democratic and civic participation. Precisely what this means, or how it might be achieved in youth practice settings, is not clear. Intergenerational practice has emerged as one general approach that may help put substance to aspirations for bringing young people into closer contact with others in their community. Although as yet not a significant part of the Australian policy landscape, the field of intergenerational practice has gained considerable support in the United States and is growing rapidly in Europe.

This project is a national evaluation of the Indigenous Mentoring Pilots Program. The project has a number of facets, including the development of an Evaluation Kit to assist individual projects in the evaluation of the program at specific sites, assessment of the impact of the program as a whole, examination of individual projects, and preparation of recommendations of models for mentoring indigenous students.

This project is a national evaluation of the Indigenous Mentoring Pilots Program. The project has a number of facets, including the development of an Evaluation Kit to assist individual projects in the evaluation of the program at specific sites, assessment of the impact of the program as a whole, examination of individual projects, and preparation of recommendations of models for mentoring indigenous students.