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For 15 years, Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties has offered its Peer Educator Program, which aims to end ignorance of sexual health among young people.Breathing new life into the program are participants such as Zach Bradley, 16, of Northwood High School. Bradley recounted recently counseling a friend who thought sex in a hot tub was safe because she “couldn’t get pregnant” there.
“I totally took her off the page,” said Bradley. “Before that I was all fun and games and then I turned serious and she’s like, ‘What just happened?’”
Another peer educator - Arthur Medrano, 17 — seized “the opportunity to teach others” and co-founded Arroyo Valley High School’s Healthy Living Club in 2009 when a friend got pregnant at 16.
Public Health Institute 2009 data found there were 2,730 teen births in Orange County at a cost of $59 million in lost revenue and public assistance.
Bradley, also president of Northwood’s Gay-Straight Alliance, welcomes blunt discussion on sexual health. After passing out condoms at a park near their school, one person told him via Facebook that he didn’t know what sex was yet. “I told him it’s not about sex ... [but] educating yourself about all sexual health.”
The program prepared Bradley to discuss myriad topics including healthy relationships, safe dating, body image, and the facts on Planned Parenthood’s services, which are primarily preventive and educational. Stephanie Kight, Planned Parenthood’s senior vice president of community affairs, described Bradley’s effectiveness with his peers as “incredibly powerful and normalizing.”
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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