90 Minute Workshop

Category: Adolescents & Young People

Presentation Date & Time: 03/25/98 15:45:00

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY RISK! We have tried "just saying no" to drugs. We have tried "eroticizing safer sex". We have tried to "smoke out" teen-age cigarette use. None of it accomplished the hoped for outcome. In fact, adolescents continue to take risks, in spite of our best efforts to educate them about danger, lowered health outcomes or shortened life expectation. Once again, we may be speaking two separate languages. This interactive workshop will look at how youth define risk, how they decide which risks to take and how they evaluate information on consequences in their lives. Effective HIV prevention and education must be based on a shared language about risk behavior. Adult and peer educators cannot continue to develop lists of options, which lack relevance for the young people in our client populations. This workshop will enable participants to strategize about risk reduction programs that work.