Peer Educators: Connecticut
Today’s teens are up against a lot.
- About half of teens are having sex and nearly two-thirds will have had sex by their senior year in high school.
- Every year, almost 750,000 girls 15–19 become pregnant.
- Young people account for nearly half of the 18.9 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) each year even though they only make up a quarter of the sexually active populace.
There is much at stake, and often very little institutional support. This is where peer educators step in. Planned Parenthood of Connecticut’s S.T.A.R.S. (Students Teaching About Responsible Sex) program trains high school students to provide basic sexuality-related education, resources, and referrals to their peers — both inside and outside the classroom. The focus of the program is teen pregnancy prevention, STI prevention (including HIV), and the promotion of healthy relationships through responsible choices. And these teens are making a difference.
Meet the S.T.A.R.S.
On one particular high school campus in New Haven, it isn’t that the sex education is good or bad, it barely exists. Says peer educator, Esau, 17, even when trained educators are invited into the school to talk about sex, they cannot address all the issues that teens are facing because they are only there for a short time. “They come for one month and you never see them again,” he says.
Another peer educator, Mia, 17, says in lieu of sex education, teens depend on one another for sex information. “They bounce questions off of each other and hope one of us knows the answer,” she says. She’s often shocked by how little her fellow teens know. “They’ll come talk to you about one thing,” says Mia, “but you have to go back a few steps to even get to that one thing.”
Both teens find the their work as peer educators to be effective and powerful. “When I can talk to someone who is 17 or 16 or even younger, it helps them to know that they’re not alone in it,” says Mia. “And then they can go along and pass it to others.”
And peer education doesn’t stop when you get off campus. Both Mia and Esau have used the skills they’ve learned in the STARS program to help teens that are not part of their immediate community. One had a friend of a friend who was considering abortion. “I didn’t try to talk her out of it,” says Esau, “I let her know what she could do to stay safe and stay healthy.” And Mia was able to reach out to a friend of a friend who was raped.
Change Ahead?To date, roughly $1.5 billion has been spent on abstinence-only programs. Such programs have been a resounding failure — and teens often pay the price with unintended pregnancy and infection. But with a new presidential administration on the horizon, there is hope that the trend will shift, and that the percentage of American students who receive sex education that covers all the information they need — now, only five percent — will grow.
Planned Parenthood knows that the best way to help teens prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections is to provide them with comprehensive, medically accurate sex education.
Learn how you can help Planned Parenthood bring vital information about birth control and responsible decision making to the classroom.
Join the Planned Parenthood Action Network. Tell your elected representatives it’s time to end dangerous abstinence-only programs and to stand up for real sex education!
Laura Lambert
Published: 11.19.08
|
