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PEER EDUCATORS
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Peer Educators
The peer educator model is popular in this country and around the world. Peer education programs recruit and train people representative of or belonging to a larger group that will be the focus of a health education intervention. The educators are trained to be a health resource for their peers and can often impact individual behavior and/or social norms. Peer educator groups can be affiliated with a school, a prison, a community based organization (CBO), a faith-based institution or a clinic. They conduct a wide variety of health education methods that may include informal conversations with peers in natural social settings, formal presentation in classrooms or to groups, theatre events, individual education, outreach, and organizing health events such as health fairs, dances, concerts or walkathons. Peer educators, like others in the field, rely on a wide variety of methods including social network media to inform and motivate peers about healthy behaviors.
Peer educators are often employed in the fields of reproductive health, violence prevention and related advocacy issues. Though commonly associated with youth/young adults, peer educators vary in age, gender, and health focus.
Promotoras are one example of a peer education approach: peer workers are recruited from Hispanic communities to raise awareness of health and educational issues in their neighborhood. Most often, a Promotora is a Spanish language speaking adult woman.
Benefits of Peer Education Programs
Trained peer educators often can reach certain populations more effectively because as members of those communities, they have established trust. Receiving information from a peer educator is similar to receiving advice from a trusted friend. Trained peer educators can:
- Develop leadership and facilitation skills that serve them well in meeting career and personal goals
- Model positive behaviors and impact social norms in their community
- Effectively communicate health messages using culturally appropriate language references.
- Refer clients to other local services
Research suggests that programs developed with youth adult partnership effectively reduce their sexual risk-taking behaviors. (Peer Education: A Viable Approach for Reaching Youth)
Success of peer education programs is directly linked to the quality of the recruitment and training procedures, as well as program design. Strong program designs incorporate specific behavioral theory (an explanation of why and how people adopt new behaviors) as the foundation of the intervention. A key feature to maintaining consistent program excellence is providing supervision and integrating incentives to sustain retention of peer educators. For a comprehensive review of behavioral theory, refer to the classic resource: Theory at a Glance: A Guide for Health Promotion Practice
Information about a model peer education program is found at http://www.myspace.com/talkinsex. This peer program has been in existence for six years and trains approximately 15 peer educators per year. To better understand the programs success, they are sharing some key documents with SWAP readers:
This agency has also developed interesting materials to promote its services. Link to radio ads that promote the broad spectrum of vital reproductive health care offered by Planned Parenthood including birth control and education, cancer screening and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. For additional information contact Pedro Elias at Pedro_elias@ppmarmonte.org or Mica Ghimenti at Mica_ghimenti@ppmarmonte.org
Peer Education Resources:
The Youth Peer Education Tool Kit by the Interagency Youth Workgroup
Note a particularly helpful document: Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education: A Training Manual
The Promotora Community Health Worker Model, A Strategy to Reduce Health Disparities and Improve Wellness http://www.nmqf.org/presentations/08J3LemusM.pdf
Peer Education and HIV/AIDS: Past Experience, Future Directions http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/peer_ed.pdf
Educators Reference Desk: Peer Education Programs
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi/Resources/Counseling/Peer_Education_Programs.html
From Theory to Practice in Peer Education http://www.fhi.org/NR/rdonlyres/e3lxovwbju6esfwy7jb33arqwwgd4y5uknpyniast4r5ik2vvthsp6vt5somdzf762cyms6imrd75k/Section1enyt.pdf
Peer Developed Resources on SWAP
