User:Martin Couzins

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Straight Talking Peer Education project

Introduction

The Straight Talking Peer Education project [1] was set up as a registered charity in 1998 by Hilary Pannack to raise young people's awareness of the problems associated with teenage parenthood.

Baroness Joyce Gould, chair of the UK government's Independent Advisory Group for Sexual Health and HIV [2], is president of the charity, which employs 50 people, mostly teenage parents.

In the UK the rate of teenage pregnancy is the highest in Europe. As a part of its Every Child Matters[3] initiative, the Government has committed to reducing the rates of teenage pregnancy by half by the year 2010.

The charity raises awareness of teenage pregnancy by using teenage parents as peer educators to deliver courses on teenage pregnancy for pupils in years 9 and 10 as a part of their Sex and Relationships Education. Each course consists of five sessions of one lesson per week and helps young people to understand what it's like to be pregnant and a parent.

References

Straight Talking Peer Education Annual Accounts, 2006 [4]

Independent evaluation of Straight Talking Peer Education by Judy Corlyon, principal researcher/consultant at the Tavistock Institute.[5]

Partnership working Straight Talking received European Social Funding to meet with organisations in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Italy and Austria and exchanged ideas.

Categories Teenage pregnancy, charities based in UK, parenting, pregnancy