The School of Health Studies at Brandon University put out the call for practicum placements for students in the Psychiatric Nursing Program and the Shilo MFRC answered.

We are pleased to have two students, Christina and Amanda, collaborate with us on the first phase of our community development project.

As in many communities, we feel we could be doing a better job of reaching specific populations – in this case, youth aged 13-17. We want to make sure we are doing everything possible to meet the needs of youth attached to the military through programming and services available at the MFRC. How do we go about doing that? That's where the community development project comes in.

Phase one of the project will result in the development of a needs assessment tool to be administered to youth in military families.

Phase two is the actual administration of the needs assessment.

Development of a program, service or event to meet the needs identified is the goal of Phase three.

Phase four involves offering the program, service or event as outlined in Phase three.

The fifth phase of the project is to evaluate the success of the program, service or event in meeting the needs of the youth.

Throughout the project, community stakeholders will be consulted and reported to in order to ensure a community approach. The BU students are supervised by preceptors at the MFRC and their instructional associate at Brandon University. Ethical considerations and confidentiality are of critical importance and will be monitored closely.

Project updates will be available on our website (www.shilomfrc.ca), in our free community newsletter, the Shilo Stag, the Westman Journal and by contacting Christine at 765-3000 ext 3227.