141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

291763
Challenges of community instructors teaching comprehensive sex education in churches...the good, the bad, and the ugly

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Charlene Day, PhD, MPA , Education For Quality Living, Las Vegas, NV
Tricia Grisham , Education For Quality Living, Las Vegas, NV
Tareon Lofton, MPH , Education For Quality Living, Las Vegas, NV
Melva Thompson Robinson, DrPH , School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Annie Weisman, MPH , School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Crystal Lee, MPH , School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
In 2010, the fledging Office of Adolescent Health (within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) funded a comprehensive sexual health education program to be implemented in churches in areas with high levels of teenage pregnancy in Southern Nevada. The trailblazing church and community members who signed up to teach the evidenced based curriculum (Becoming A Responsible Teen) were well prepared for the task having been certified in the curriculum, participated in teach backs and continuing education workshops highlighting key facts related to working in faith communities and teaching HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy prevention. The challenges of recruiting, training and retaining instructors who were deliberately drawn from the community being served to heighten program sustainability and community investment will be documented in this presentation. Additionally, the challenges of instructors teaching a “sexy” topic in faith settings have been chronicled by project partner Education For Quality Living and will be described during the presentation. Now in its third year of funding from this presentation will describe the achievements, challenges and lessons learned from the perspective of the faith community health instructors and the training partner for the Southern Nevada Teen Pregnancy Prevention Project.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Public health or related education
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Explain the need for health promotion and disease prevention programs to recruit and train individuals from the community for faith based health initiatives Identify challenges experienced by the training partner in recruiting, training and retaining instructors from the community Describe the perspective of the instructors (achievements, challenges) about teaching comprehensive sex education in faith settings. Identify lessons learned – including the good, the bad and the ugly – from the community sexual health instructor experience and recommendations for future training of instructors.

Keywords: Adolescents, Sexual Risk Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federal, state, and local funded grants focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention, substance abuse prevention, cancer and other disease prevention. My scientific interest include working with faith communities and designing, implementing and evaluating health promotion and disease prevention programs in communities with health disparities that are sustainable beyond funding periods.
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.