IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i6p3338-d769285.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of a Pilot Peer-Mentoring Empowerment Program on Personal Well-Being for Migrant and Refugee Women in Western Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Shelley Gower

    (Curtin School of Nursing, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • Zakia Jeemi

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • Niranjani Wickramasinghe

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • Paul Kebble

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • David Forbes

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • Jaya A R Dantas

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

Abstract

The Empowerment and Peer Mentoring of Migrant and Refugee Women study (EMPOWER) examined the effectiveness of a participatory, peer mentoring program specifically tailored for migrant and refugee women to build ability, confidence, and knowledge to seek employment, a known contributor to mental health and wellbeing. Female migrant mentors ( n = 21) supported five cohorts of mentees ( n = 32), predominantly from Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds, over a period of 3–12 months each between September 2019 and November 2021. The program consisted of both individual mentoring and group workshops facilitated by content experts and the research team. The mental health and wellbeing outcomes for the mentees were explored through individual interviews with both mentors and mentees. Results indicate the program helped participants develop social connections, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and personal health and safety skills. There are ongoing mental health needs in this cohort related to competing priorities and trauma. The development of trusting, respectful relationships with mentors who are committed and flexible is essential for positive wellbeing outcomes. Peer mentoring programs for migrant and refugee women can enhance mental health and wellbeing outcomes and facilitate independence. Mentors need resources to provide appropriate mental and physical health support for some groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Shelley Gower & Zakia Jeemi & Niranjani Wickramasinghe & Paul Kebble & David Forbes & Jaya A R Dantas, 2022. "Impact of a Pilot Peer-Mentoring Empowerment Program on Personal Well-Being for Migrant and Refugee Women in Western Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3338-:d:769285
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3338/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3338/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pam Nilan & Ibtihal Samarayi & Terence Lovat, 2012. "Female Muslim Jobseekers in Australia: Liminality, Obstacles and Resilience," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 2(5), pages 682-692, May.
    2. Minkler, M. & Blackwell, A.G. & Thompson, M. & Tamir, H.B., 2003. "Community-Based Participatory Research: Implications for Public Health Funding," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(8), pages 1210-1213.
    3. Wallerstein, N. & Duran, B., 2010. "Community-based participatory research contributions to intervention research: The intersection of science and practice to improve health equity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(S1), pages 40-46.
    4. Pam Nilan & Ibtihal Samarayi & Terence Lovat, 2012. "Female Muslim Jobseekers in Australia: Liminality, Obstacles and Resilience," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 2(5), pages 682-692.
    5. Gaillard, Desireé & Hughes, Kate, 2014. "Key considerations for facilitating employment of female Sudanese refugees in Australia," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 671-690, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shelley Gower & Zakia Jeemi & Jaya A. R. Dantas, 2022. "“You Have to Go Gently”: Mentors’ Perspectives of a Peer Mentoring Empowerment Program to Reduce Marginalization in Refugee and Migrant Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Ilse Blignault & Hend Saab & Hanan Youssef & Heba Baddah & Klara Giourgas & Lisa Woodland, 2023. "“It Is Definitely a Good Program for Everyone from Every Community”: A Qualitative Study of Community Partner Perspectives on the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Mindfulness Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(16), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Claire P. Street & Poh Yen Ng & Haya Al-Dajani, 2022. "Refugee Women Business Mentors: New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shelley Gower & Zakia Jeemi & David Forbes & Paul Kebble & Jaya A. R. Dantas, 2022. "Peer Mentoring Programs for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Refugee and Migrant Women: An Integrative Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Nicolette I. Teufel-Shone & Anna L. Schwartz & Lisa J. Hardy & Hendrik D. De Heer & Heather J. Williamson & Dorothy J. Dunn & Kellen Polingyumptewa & Carmenlita Chief, 2018. "Supporting New Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Lotte Prevo & Stef Kremers & Maria Jansen, 2020. "Small Successes Make Big Wins: A Retrospective Case Study towards Community Engagement of Low-SES Families," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-13, January.
    4. Held, Suzanne & Hallett, John & Schure, Mark & Knows His Gun McCormick, Alma & Allen, Sarah & Milne-Price, Shauna & Trottier, Coleen & Bull Shows, Brianna & Other Medicine, Lucille & Inouye, Jillian, 2019. "Improving chronic illness self-management with the Apsáalooke Nation: Development of the Báa nnilah program," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    5. Katrina G. Claw & Casey R. Dorr & Erica L. Woodahl, 2024. "Implementing community-engaged pharmacogenomics in Indigenous communities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-5, December.
    6. Currie, Melissa & King, Gillian & Rosenbaum, Peter & Law, Mary & Kertoy, Marilyn & Specht, Jacqueline, 2005. "A model of impacts of research partnerships in health and social services," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 400-412, November.
    7. Heather Lochotzki & Karen Patricia Williams & Cynthia G. Colen & Olorunfemi Adetona & Charleta B. Tavares & Georgina M. Ginn & Rejeana Haynes & Wansoo Im & Tanya Bils & Darryl B. Hood, 2022. "A Framework for Interfacing and Partnering with Environmental Justice Communities as a Prelude to Human Health and Hazard Identification in the Vulnerable Census Tracts of Columbus, Ohio," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Tabia Henry Akintobi & Payam Sheikhattari & Emma Shaffer & Christina L. Evans & Kathryn L. Braun & Angela U. Sy & Bibiana Mancera & Adriana Campa & Stephania T. Miller & Daniel Sarpong & Rhonda Hollid, 2021. "Community Engagement Practices at Research Centers in U.S. Minority Institutions: Priority Populations and Innovative Approaches to Advancing Health Disparities Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-14, June.
    9. Scholz, Roland W. & Czichos, Reiner & Parycek, Peter & Lampoltshammer, Thomas J., 2020. "Organizational vulnerability of digital threats: A first validation of an assessment method," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(2), pages 627-643.
    10. Kristine Wray & Akarath Soukhaphon & Brenda Parlee & Amabel D’Souza & Carolina Freitas & Iria Heredia & Chelsea Martin & Carrie Oloriz & Tracey Proverbs & Neal Spicer, 2020. "Aligning Intentions with Community: Graduate Students Reflect on Collaborative Methodologies with Indigenous Research Partners," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Yingling, Marissa E. & Hock, Robert M. & Feinberg, Mark E. & Holbert, Amy A., 2020. "Community-engaged process to adapt evidence-based programs for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Adams, Wallis E., 2020. "Unintended consequences of institutionalizing peer support work in mental healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    13. Lotte Prevo & Stef Kremers & Maria Jansen, 2020. "The Power of Trading: Exploring the Value of a Trading Shop as a Health-Promoting Community Engagement Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Jessica A. Thomas & Emma R. Miller & Paul R. Ward, 2022. "Lifestyle Interventions through Participatory Research: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review of Alcohol and Other Breast Cancer Behavioural Risk Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-14, January.
    15. Judith Langfermann, 2024. "How Citizen Entrepreneurship Works," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 10(2), pages 327-334, July.
    16. Edith M. Williams & Julien Terrell & Judith Anderson & Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, 2016. "A Case Study of Community Involvement Influence on Policy Decisions: Victories of a Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-9, May.
    17. Leonor Mercedes Ward & Mary Janet Hill & Nikashant Antane & Samia Chreim & Anita Olsen Harper & Samantha Wells, 2021. "“The Land Nurtures Our Spirit”: Understanding the Role of the Land in Labrador Innu Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    18. Danielle Whicher & Julia Alamillo & Lexi Ouellette & Breyon Williams, "undated". "Engaging Community Members in Evaluations of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Programs," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 9ec8c65652bb470c897399292, Mathematica Policy Research.
    19. You, Weimu & Chen, Weifeng & Agyapong, Michael & Mordi, Chima, 2020. "The business model of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) laboratories – A triple-layered perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    20. Kaplan, Deanna M. & deBlois, Madeleine & Dominguez, Violeta & Walsh, Michele E., 2016. "Studying the teaching of kindness: A conceptual model for evaluating kindness education programs in schools," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 160-170.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3338-:d:769285. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.