Issue:

Adolescents need to understand the impact that their sexual choices can have on their lives now and in the future. Messages about the importance of such choices that come from teens closer to their own age often are more acceptable to young teens.

Project:

Each year competitively select 70 high school students to attend a rigorous three-day training on the Emory Campus. Train these students to present educational programs in the public schools and to lead group discussions in teen clinics.

Result:

To date the Jane Fonda Center has supported the training of close to 400 teens in cooperation with Grady Health System Teen Services Program.

In middle schools, the trained Teen Leaders teach skills that younger peers can use to manage increasingly complex social situations. The Teen Leaders age adds credibility to their presentations as they serve as role models showing that teens can behave in sexually responsible ways. In clinics the trained teens act as peer educators and provide needed reproductive health information and help lead discussions.