Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117546

Pat W. Mosena, PhD, Principal Investigator, Options for Youth, 5646 S. Kimbark, Chicago, IL 60637, 773-288-1682, mosena@aol.com and Joyce Ho, PhD, Options for Youth, 5646 S. Kimbark, Chicago, IL 60637.

Peer Advocates for Health (PAH) is a community-based program designed to provide reproductive health training, individual support, and employment to adolescent males, ages 14-18, living in underserved inner-city neighborhoods on Chicago's south side. Development of the PAH program model was supported by DHHS, Region V, Office of Family Planning through Title X. Between 2000-2004, 90 young African American males from 16 high schools were recruited and trained. As Peer Advocates they provided information to over 5,000 other adolescents and distributed 15,000 condoms in their own schools and communities. The average age of PAH participants at intake was 15.9; all were in school; 65% had previously had sex, and 85% had never been to a clinic for reproductive health. After six months of training, reproductive health knowledge, communication, and clinic utilization increased significantly among PAH participants. Reported condom use remained high (88%), and 85% of those virgin at intake remained virgin. Approximately half of the PAH participants remained with the program for six months or longer; those who left were generally older with more sexual experience. In an effort to identify unmet needs, the current paper uses both qualitative and quantitative program data to compare characteristics and program experience of those young men who left PAH with those who remained in the program. Recruitment and retention strategies for young African American males in Chicago are discussed. Lessons learned through development of a community-based program for inner-city adolescent males and recommendations for replication of the PAH program model are provided.

Learning Objectives:

• List three recruitment strategies for enlisting young males in urban environments to become peer advocates and educators of reproductive health in their communities.
• To identify components of the Peer Advocates for Health program model which might be successfully adapted to meet the needs of different ethnic groups and/or environments.
• Provide guidelines for developing a community-based program addressing the reproductive health of young men and training adolescent males to educate their peers.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation