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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Michele Perlman, MPH, Teens P.A.C.T., Community Healthcare Network, 60 Remsen Street 5J, Bronx, NY 11201, 718-387-7426, mperlman@chnnyc.org

Youth development and comprehensive sexuality education share a common goal: to promote positive outcomes for young people by offering opportunities to establish relationships, explore attitudes and beliefs, and build competencies. Integrating these two approaches is essential to helping young people create a healthy future. Community Healthcare Network's Teens P.A.C.T. program embarked on a multi-media youth development project to positively impact the sexual health of youth throughout New York City. Teens P.A.C.T. peer educators were trained extensively in sexuality education, theater and improvisation. Through a series of improvisations they developed all aspects of a series of realistic educational videos that reflect the challenges teens face communicating with partners about safer sex practices, negotiating relationships, and preventing pregnancy, STD's and HIV. All stages of the youth's participation were documented on film, which was later analyzed and compared with data collected in focus groups and individual interviews. Changes in knowledge, attitude, behavior, and competencies were identified from video footage of the project at all stages, and these changes echoed the self-reported positive impact of participation on knowledge, attitude, behavior, confidence, and social competency. These findings indicate that participation in a youth development project that incorporates comprehensive sexuality education and improvisation can empower young people to be effective peer educators and to make healthy decisions for their own future. It also serves as a model for creating effective educational tools for youth.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Identify effective youth development strategies.
• Understand the process of combining youth development, education and improvisation, and how it impacts knowledge, self-efficacy and self-esteem.
• Develop a plan for effective peer education.

Keywords: Adolescents, Community Preventive Services

Related Web page: www.chnnyc.org/video

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.pdf format, 14625.4 kb)