Truth about the youth

Welcome to Xavier Ecoville– a new home to more than 500 surviving families with about 2,586 individuals, who hope to recreate their life after the havoc!

When Typhoon Sendong hit Cagayan de Oro City last December 2011, vanished houses were among its many destructions. In response to the cry of the displaced survivors, Xavier University (XU) donated a 5.2-hectare land in Barangay Lumbia for them to resettle, which is now Xavier Ecoville.

Spearheaded by XU, with the collaboration of many other organizations, the resettlement project started in January 2012. It aims to build a “values-driven and self-sustaining” community. In line with the community’s goal to have members with total character and to achieve the community’s full potential, XU and its partners came up psychosocial and psycho-spiritual programs for the people to participate in. It tackles values formation and spiritual development of the vulnerable sectors of the community.

A portion of its vulnerable population includes the youth, which the organization strives to form with values to achieve peace and over-all development in the community.

Empower the youngsters

The youth are wealth of the community, and having gone through such a catastrophe, they need intervention to help them grow and be able to engage themselves in the community. Part of the population is the out of school youth, who rarely participate in the programs.

Hence, programs are tailor-made to serve their best interest, while forming them socially and spiritually.

Assess to progress

The XU Department of Psychology conducted The Xavier Ecoville Impact and Needs Assessment Study, which gathered qualitative and quantitative data about the community’s needs and the existing program’s impacts on the community.

Ms. Maita Ignacio, one of the researchers from the Psychology Department said, “It was a request by Xavier Ecoville that we conduct an impact and needs assessment on the programs that were given to them by outside groups and inside units.”

Using the concept of community resilience1, the study focused on assessing the youth’s adaptations on the new community through the use of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in determining general qualitative responses.

The FGD was conducted with eight (8) participants from the youth sector of the community. The discussion covered the assessment of their needs and the impacts of the existing programs to their lives.

After which, they measured the quantitative responses of 52 youth participants regarding the points raised during the FGD through asking them questions regarding indication of wellness in three categories: (1)healthy behavior patterns; (2)adequate role functioning in school, home, or work; and (3) quality of life.

The results

The FGD gathered qualitative results that fall under the three (3) categories mentioned above. It was used as the basis in making the questionnaire for the survey.

The survey gathered quantitative data about the youth’s wellness and the impacts of the programs to their behavior and their lives.

In terms of healthy behavior patterns, the results show a positive perception of the program as it yielded a mean of 3.2202 with the highest possible score of 4. This indicates a healthy behavior perception among the respondents.

In terms of role functioning, the result for high role functioning yielded 51.9% and 48.1% for low role functioning. It indicates positive perspective in their roles in different units of society, such as family, school, and community.

“The results were collective. So, most likely, the numbers will dissipate because they have different issues individually. On a personal note, they show a good result if you blend it with the entire population,” Ms. Ignacio said.

In terms of quality of life, the results were a contradiction. The responses of high quality of life yielded 48.1%, while the low quality of life yielded 51.9%. This is an indication of low view of general wellness of their lives. Although percentages show an inclination to low quality of life, the mean score of the participants is above average (2.9579).

“In their individual views, they have that perception. You can see in Xavier Ecoville that they have different issues in their homes, in their environment. So, collectively, their perception on their quality of life is not that high,” she said.

After all

In general, the responses the participants of the study are positive, but suggested developments in the youth program. Despite the slight deviance of the survey results from the FGD results that the questionnaire was based on, the study points out that the results vary because of the difference of the perspectives of the youth in the community.

The indication on the impacts of the youth programs is positive as it generally garnered higher scores. It recommended more activities for the youth to engage in to develop them physically, socially, academically, and spiritually to thrive in the community of resilience and sustainability.

Ms. Ignacio said, “What they need are collective programs that will have a great impact on their well-being; to improve their emotional, psychological, and cognitive well-being in their current situation and how they can be able to help themselves.”

She added, “I think the youth can achieve peace if there is really unity and good coordination with their heads. I’m not saying that the rules are not properly laid, it’s just that they need to put emphasis on rules’ consistency and discipline in the organization.”