BxTHUNDER youth peer education workshops: The 'Aha!' moments

BxTHUNDER intervention is the product of a youth-led Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) initiative developed to reduce mental health disparities in Bronx adolescents. As part of a randomized control trial (RCT), it is being implemented in multiple community sites in the Bronx, NY. BxTHUNDER is a positive youth development program that 1) empowers teens as ambassadors to other teens to reduce mental health stigma and increase knowledge; and 2) consolidates and reinforces their knowledge and skill base by active teaching. The program has two parts. The first is 14 sessions that utilize mental health professionals to build strengths, protective factors, resilience and positive mental health through teaching of specific social skills to increase competence for participating youth. The second part engages the youth to lead and participate in a four week peer education workshop component. As part of this component, the participants learn to incorporate their experiential knowledge and learned skills into facilitating workshops for their peers and community to reduce stigma and promote knowledge and understanding of mental health issues among teens. In effective interventions, it is important to ascertain participants' learning and ownership. This workshop component has turned out to be the 'Aha!' moment for both the participants and the program trainers: it is an important indicator of the individual ownership and group learning process. In this presentation, we will explain the two components of the BxTHUNDER program and how developing and implementing the workshops leads to these 'Aha!' moments.