Students aged 12 to 17 are able to attend the program. Photo Credit: iStock.
Hamilton’s YMCA recently began offering a program allowing students to serve school suspensions at their Employment and Immigrant Services facility on Main Street at Macnab Street South.
Normally, when students are suspended, they are required to simply stay at home.
The YMCA Alternative Suspension Program instead “provides support and assistance” to students, offering specialized workshops and conversations aimed at reducing future suspensions.
The YMCA says that the program offers participants “an opportunity to address their time away from school into a positive and restorative experience, fostering personal growth, autonomy, and the development of social skills.”
Students aged 12 to 17 are able to attend the program but must be referred to the YMCA by their school.
Once in the group, mornings are spent working on independent school work and taking part in one-on-one sessions with youth workers.
In the afternoon, students then attend group workshops which are specialized based on the student’s reason for suspension.
Workshops focus on mental health and wellness, self-esteem, conflict management, impulsivity, and motivation.
The program also includes open gym time.
At the end of each day, the program youth worker contacts the student’s school and their parents to provide an update and plan for an eventual reintegration meeting.
When the student’s suspension has been served, a reintegration meeting takes place involving the student, their parents, and the student’s school, after which they return to class.
Following the suspension, the program youth worker conducts meetings about four to six weeks later and follows up with the student’s school for a final time three months later.
According to the YMCA, the program focuses on three steps: cool down, reflection, and commitment.
They say that being in a new environment allows students to “cool down” and put “a stop to the downward spiral.”
After that, programming, especially one-on-one meetings and group workshops, allow students to reflect on their actions.
Finally, meetings are meant to motivate students to make positive changes.
While the YMCA Alternative Suspension Program was founded in 1999 by the YMCAs of Quebec, the Hamilton-based chapter only started offering the initiative last year.
Evaluation of the overall program found that it had a positive influence on 85 per cent of participants in the medium-term and 50 per cent of participants in the long-term.
Meanwhile, 75 per cent of parents of participants noted a change in their child’s behaviour after the program, while more than 65 per cent said that communication and collaboration with their child’s school has improved.
Over 20,000 students have taken part in the program, which is offered at 67 locations worldwide.
The program is considered so successful that the YMCA has even expanded it to Australia, England, Ireland, and France.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
