What is WiseGuyz?

Outcome Evaluation of the WiseGuyz Program

WiseGuyz is a community-facilitated, gender transformative healthy relationships program that addresses the issues young men face and gives them tools to engage in healthy relationships. The program was developed and is offered by Calgary’s Centre for Sexuality. This project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the WiseGuyz program through a mixed-methods, longitudinal outcome evaluation with approximately 600 boys in 2 school divisions from 2019-22.

WiseGuyz Scaling Project

To date, the WiseGuyz program has primarily been offered in Calgary and surrounding areas. This project is evaluating the expansion of the program to new schools across Alberta. In 2018-19, the WiseGuyz program was scaled to 2 new schools across Alberta, and expanded to 4 schools in 2019-20. This scaling project aims to understand best practices for implementing the WiseGuyz program across different contexts.

Evaluation of the Community-Based WiseGuyz Program

To fully understand program impacts, using a variety of methods is important. This project uses a photo-based evaluation method to evaluate WiseGuyz with youth from a residential treatment setting in Canada. Participants in this project are given cameras, and use photography as a mechanism to explore what being a guy in the world means to them before and after completing the WiseGuyz program. The participants also have an opportunity to explain their photos and what they mean to them. This project provides an important alternative to survey research to understand how guys experience their world during and after the completion of the WiseGuyz program.