Who We Are
We are a group of youth and adults from the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement and the New Mentality program. In an effort to better serve the needs of youth, we are asking for your input to evaluate the New Mentality. You can read more about our project below and then let us know if you are willing to help us by filling out our survey.

What’s Involved
- an online survey that will take about 30 minutes to complete, with questions about your activities, feelings, beliefs, and family background (and invitations to participate in follow-up surveys after your New Mentality project is complete)
- some youth will be randomly selected and asked later in the year to take part in interviews to discuss their experiences in the program in greater detail

Why do it?
- you get to share your experiences and ideas with a team of youth and adult researchers who are trying to use young people’s thoughts and ideas to help shape the New Mentality program

Risks, Voluntary Participation, and Confidentiality
- The survey contains questions about issues (e.g., drug use, relationships) that some people might find uncomfortable or difficult to answer. All of our questions help us understand more about what things play a role in young people getting involved in positive activities and the impact of being involved.
- But remember, whether or not you do any part of our study is up to you and won’t affect your involvement in the New Mentality
- And, you don’t have to answer any questions that make you feel uncomfortable and you can stop doing this study at any time
- You can contact members of the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement to help you deal with any issues that are bothering you
- All personal information will be kept strictly confidential1. But if you tell us something that makes us believe that you are in danger or someone else is about to be hurt, the law requires us to tell someone who can help.

Results and Contact Information
- The information we collect will be summarized in reports, which may be put into scientific magazines, New Mentality and Centre publications and websites, and/or presentations at conferences.
- We will share our results with you in a project newsletter, which we will send about every six months.
- For any questions please contact

Linda Rose-Krasnor
Brock University
(905) 688-5550 ext. 3870
linda.rose-krasnor@brocku.ca
OR
Stoney McCart
Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement
(416) 597-8297
stoney@tgmag.ca

Consent
I agree to be part of the study described above based on the information I have read. I have had the chance to ask questions about the study and I know that I may ask questions in the future. I understand that I have until June 30th, 2008 to change my mind and stop being in the study.

Thank you for your help in this project. Please print a copy of this form to keep in case you need to reach us.

1. All information will be stored in secure locations and only New Mentality and Centre of Excellence researchers will be able to use it. Identifying information will be separated from survey data and only a code number will be stored with your survey. Only the project and computer managers will be able to match your name with your survey responses and we won’t use names in any of our reports. We will keep the computer files of the data (without names) for possible future analyses; the surveys will be kept for at least seven years after publication of reports and then destroyed.

2. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through the Research Ethics Board at Brock University . If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant, please contact the Brock University Research Ethics Office at (905)688-5550 ext. 3035 or reb@brocku.ca.