About the Peer Education Program
The Students’ Interests/Reasons for Being Involved
This Peer Education program was put together for high school students who had expressed an interest in being peer educators specifically in relation to the use of alcohol and other drugs amongst young people. These fabulous young people were:
- Keen to deepen their understanding of substance use
- Keen to learn more about how they might approach the topic of alcohol and other drugs with other young people in an engaging way
- Keen to deepen, strengthen and extend their already existing considerable personal qualities and skills that would help them in running interactive and engaging groups with other young people.
The Aimed-For Impact of the Program
- The peer educators would be able to put together their own presentations/workshops/conversations for groups of young people, that they would plan and present/facilitate perhaps individually, though more likely in pairs as co-workers. It’s expected that these may well be both within school settings and within the wider community
- Although aimed primarily at other young people it was also expected that there may well be presentations to adults as well, within any number of school or community contexts
- The peer educators may well act spontaneously by offering comments/support/direction in relation to alcohol and other drugs to young people who they encounter in their daily lives.
The Two-day Peer Education Workshop
The approach, explained and demonstrated, at least in part, in these four videos, is not so much information-based, because while up-to-date factual information certainly forms an important part of peer education, this is readily available and easily accessed. The peer educators were able to ask questions and pursue their own individual needs, interests and concerns in relation to facts and figures. The group was also put in touch with reputable sources of up-to-date information, resources and agencies.
The Three Parts of the Two Day Peer Education Workshop
- Take peer educators experientially through a simple yet workable Framework for making sense of/understanding reasons/contributing factors that are likely to influence use of alcohol and other drugs
- Take the peer educators experientially through a series of fun, engaging, thought-provoking activities based on the Framework presented in the workshop, that they in turn can take other young people through
- The development and strengthening of Presentation and Facilitation skills and ways of managing tricky moments in groups.
Importantly
The approach throughout all aspects of the training and in turn the workshops the peer educators would put together was to make all aspects engaging, interactive and relevant. This seems an obvious approach, based on the simple and yet vitally important reality that for education to be effective, especially in a modern world, it needs exactly these ingredients. And that particularly with topics, such as this one, where young people are presenting to other young people, and where choice, interest, personal experience and personality variables play significant role in what will be taken on board by participants.
Also Importantly
As mentioned above there is lots of room within this Framework and with the activities, to plug in other essential pieces of information/related topics/individual concerns of the young people with whom the peer educators will be working directly.