Online Program

283244
AMP!: A new approach to sexual health education for youth


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.

David Gere, PhD, UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Los Angeles, CA
Robert Gordon, M.A. Applied Theatre, Art & Global Health Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Elisabeth Nails, Art & Global Health Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Kristin Killacky, Art & Global Health Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Arianna Taboada, MSW, MSPH, Schools of Social Work and Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Sexual health education is widely accepted as a necessity for adolescents in the U.S., but how best to accomplish it is another matter. Who will adolescents listen to? What and how will they remember? Will knowledge have an impact on behavior? And after a long era of abstinence-only sex education, especially in the country's “red” states, what behavioral goals are we interested in anyway? These are critical questions addressed by an innovative sex-affirmative program called AMP!, an Arts-based Multiple-intervention Peer-education program in sexual health education. To our knowledge, this is the first adolescent sexual health education program to overlap these three particular strategies, previously proven to be effective on their own, while testing outcomes. Collaboratively developed in Los Angeles in 2008 by the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and the LA public schools, the program focuses on self-empowerment and open dialogue about sexual health. The interventions include a performance of original material created by college students (known as Sex or Sex-Ed Squads), testimonials by HIV-positive people, and an interactive condom negotiation session. This presentation will detail the foundations of this arts-based program in performance theory (Victor Turner, Douglas Crimp, and Augusto Boal, primarily). Feasibility will also be addressed, especially in light of wide variability in social mores concerning sex education. The presentation provides support for the notion that arts-based approaches are capable of communicating public health information in a memorable and effective way, thus contributing to a small but growing body of research on art and health.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify gaps in standard comprehensive sexual health education Describe the theoretical underpinnings and development of an innovative arts-based sexual health education model Discuss AMP!’s contributions to participatory arts and public health disciplines (Note: This abstract is submitted as part of pre-arranged panel entitled “AMP! across the nation: Exploring the impact and feasibility of arts-based sexual health education in public school settings.”)

Keyword(s): Adolescent Health, Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal investigator on dozens of grants/projects using arts-based approaches to improve health outcomes. I am also the author of a single author text, How to Make Dances in an Epidemic (Univ of Wisconsin Press), which establishes my credentials in the field, especially in relation to HIV and AIDS.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.