SHPEP History
SHPEP has existed within Bread Youth Project for a number of years and has provided innovative services to young people. The aims of SHPEP were:
- to train and support young people to become peer educators to deliver sexual health training to a range of young people
- to deliver informative sexual health workshops to young people and professionals working with young people
- to provide information and advice to adults and professionals working in sexual health and health related arenas.
SHPEP's peer educators were all young people aged 14-23. They were trained by our youth workers and other young people to deliver a range of activities. These workshops were friendly, non-judgemental and designed to meet the needs of various groups of young people. SHPEP sessions covered issues such as contraception, sexually transmitted infections, safer sex, peer pressure, relationships, pregnancy and sexuality.
Bread uses peer education in its work as it encompasses Bread's values of empowering young people. Peer education is about young people talking to other young people, passing on informed knowledge, skills, opinions and attitudes about particular issues and subjects. The benefits of involving peers in the education process of other young people are clear. Peer educators are, for example, more likely to have credibility with other young people than a health professional. Messages are more likely to be listened to if those delivering them appear to easily identify with young people and are not strongly associated with 'the authorities'. This is particularly useful if the issue being discussed is drawn mainly from young people's own experience.
Peer educators in SHPEP have also acted as role models for other young people. Young people who become involved in this process gained much from it in terms of their own personal development. Some of those skills were transferred to other areas of young people's lives.
Please note that the Sexual Health Peer Education Project (SHPEP) is not currently active. We are seeking continuation funding.