Peer Health Exchange
Encyclopedia
Peer Health Exchange is a 501(c)3 organization that was created to address health problems in today's youth. It is made up of college students in Boston
, New York City
, Chicago
, Los Angeles
and the Bay Area who volunteer in public high schools to teach health education
classes. The goal of the non-profit organization is to give teenagers the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. Peer Health Exchange does this by training college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools that lack health education [1]
has suffered. To prevent growing trends in adolescents engaging in risky or harmful behavior in sexual and personal spheres of their lives, Peer Health Exchange (PHE) works to provide this education. The Peer Health Exchange website lists these statistics: one in six teenagers are overweight or obese [2], one in five sexually active teen girls becomes pregnant every year [5], half of all adolescents who continue smoking
will die eventually from a smoking-related illness [7], one in five teenagers experiences violence in a relationship[3], each year one in four sexually-active young people contract an STI
[4], and one in three teenagers is a binge-drinker[6].
began going into underfunded and understaffed public high schools in New Haven, Connecticut
to teach health workshops. The founding members of this New Haven group, (which now reaches ten New Haven public schools with over 100 volunteers) established Peer Health Exchange, Inc in 2003. They brought their program to New York City first, training over 150 volunteers from Barnard College
, Columbia University
, and New York University
and reaching 1300 low-income high school students that would otherwise have not received any health education in school. In 2006, PHE launched a program in Boston, training college students from Boston University
and Harvard College
. In the 2006–2007 school year, PHE trained over 270 volunteers in Boston and New York City and reached 1,600 high school students. The program has also been extended into Chicago
, Illinois
, training college students from DePaul University
, University of Chicago
, Northwestern University
, and University of Illinois Chicago Campus. And to further its impact, in July 2007 PHE initiated a five-year growth plan to deepen impact in current cities and spread throughout the country to new sites, including Mills College
, University of Southern California
, St. Mary's College of California
, and University of California, Berkeley
.
The mission of Peer Health Exchange is to give teenagers the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. They do this by training college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools that lack health education[9].
In order to provide teenagers with knowledge of sexual and health education, PHE works with public high schools where much of the student body is living at or below the poverty threshold
and is at a higher risk for health issues like teenage pregnancy
or obesity.
The volunteers are recruited and chosen from surrounding colleges and then trained in the PHE curriculum which includes 12 standardized health workshops highlighting issues like: substance abuse
, nutrition
, and sexual health. They are often students including public service
in many areas of their life and 90% of past volunteers express that PHE affected their career goals after college. Using the slightly older students as peers, PHE offers the benefits of peer education while using traditional methods of instruction. The volunteers speak to the students in ways relevant to their everyday lives and can serve as role models demonstrating healthy behavior. The high school students are encouraged to articulate their values and goals while learning basic, accurate health information. They are encouraged to explore the way the media and their peers perceive and act towards issues of health. Part of the PHE curriculum is to help the students practice their communication skills as well as risk evaluation, prevention, decision-making through role-playing resembling true to life situations.
Peer Health Exchange hopes that their volunteers will help teenagers protect their bodies and lives while providing them with the knowledge and skills. Their hope is that they can apply the skills learned in PHE workshops outside of the classroom by making informed decisions. Their ultimate goal is to keep the students in—and excelling in—school, in the workforce, staying away from risky behavior, and building on a healthy future [1].
and Columbia University
teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in six New York City, New York high schools: Facing History School; Heritage School; Martin Luther King Jr. High School for Law, Advocacy, and Community Justice; Martin Luther King Jr. High School for Arts and Technology; Frederick Douglass High School; and the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction.
The New York University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in five New York City, NY high schools: East Side Community High School, Manhattan Village Academy
, Marta Valle Model School, and University Neighborhood High School, and the Urban Assembly School of Government and Law.
Boston University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in four Boston, Massachusetts high schools: Another Course to College, Boston Community Leadership Academy, Fenway High School, and New Mission High School.
The Harvard University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in two Boston, MA high schools: Charlestown High School
and Excel High School.
The University of Chicago undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE curriculum to teenagers in five Chicago, IL high schools: Dyett High School, Hubbard High School, Kenwood Academy, Perspectives Charter School, and Woodlawn Charter School.
The DePaul University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in two Chicago, IL high schools: Roosevelt High School and Kelvyn Park High School.
The program has been extended to California where the University of San Francisco
, St. Mary's College, Mills College
, and University of California Berkeley are putting on pilot programs for the academic year of 2008-2009.[1]. As of the 2010-2011 school year, PHE volunteers teach the curriculum at Arise High School, East Oakland School of the Arts, Leadership Preparatory High School, LPS College Park, City Arts & Technology High School, College Preparatory and Architecture Academy, Mandela High School, Fremont: Media College, Preparatory High School, Leadership High School, Lighthouse Community Charter School, Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School, MetWest High School, Millsmont Academy, Secondary Oakland Aviation High School, Oakland Military Institute, Oakland Unity High School, Skyline High School, and the Youth Empowerment School [10].
From evaluations completed in the 2005-2006 academic year by the PHE students, there were improvements in knowledge as well as actual decision-making that will only hope to improve in their futures. Over 80% said that they will use something that they learned from their Peer Health Exchange workshops to make healthy choices in the future[8]. Almost half of the students said that they did so during the six months that they were in the program[8]. In terms of knowledge, the PHE students made 20% improvements from a Pre-Test they took before embarking in the program and a Post-Test after it was completed[8].
While 100% of the high school principals participating in the program for the 2005-2006 academic year said they would recommend the program to other high schools, over 90% of the college volunteers said they would recommend participating in Peer Health Exchange to their college peers[8].
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and the Bay Area who volunteer in public high schools to teach health education
Health education
Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health...
classes. The goal of the non-profit organization is to give teenagers the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. Peer Health Exchange does this by training college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools that lack health education [1]
The Problem
Due to staffing shortages and budget cuts in public high schools, sexual and health educationHealth education
Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health...
has suffered. To prevent growing trends in adolescents engaging in risky or harmful behavior in sexual and personal spheres of their lives, Peer Health Exchange (PHE) works to provide this education. The Peer Health Exchange website lists these statistics: one in six teenagers are overweight or obese [2], one in five sexually active teen girls becomes pregnant every year [5], half of all adolescents who continue smoking
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
will die eventually from a smoking-related illness [7], one in five teenagers experiences violence in a relationship[3], each year one in four sexually-active young people contract an STI
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
[4], and one in three teenagers is a binge-drinker[6].
The plan and the hopeful solution
In 1999, six graduates from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
began going into underfunded and understaffed public high schools in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
to teach health workshops. The founding members of this New Haven group, (which now reaches ten New Haven public schools with over 100 volunteers) established Peer Health Exchange, Inc in 2003. They brought their program to New York City first, training over 150 volunteers from Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and reaching 1300 low-income high school students that would otherwise have not received any health education in school. In 2006, PHE launched a program in Boston, training college students from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
and Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
. In the 2006–2007 school year, PHE trained over 270 volunteers in Boston and New York City and reached 1,600 high school students. The program has also been extended into Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, training college students from DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
, University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, and University of Illinois Chicago Campus. And to further its impact, in July 2007 PHE initiated a five-year growth plan to deepen impact in current cities and spread throughout the country to new sites, including Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, St. Mary's College of California
Saint Mary's College of California
Saint Mary's College of California is a private, coeducational college located in Moraga, California, United States, a small suburban community about east of Oakland and 20 miles east of San Francisco. It has a 420-acre campus in the Moraga hills. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church...
, and University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
The mission of Peer Health Exchange is to give teenagers the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. They do this by training college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools that lack health education[9].
In order to provide teenagers with knowledge of sexual and health education, PHE works with public high schools where much of the student body is living at or below the poverty threshold
Poverty threshold
The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country...
and is at a higher risk for health issues like teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...
or obesity.
The volunteers are recruited and chosen from surrounding colleges and then trained in the PHE curriculum which includes 12 standardized health workshops highlighting issues like: substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
, nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
, and sexual health. They are often students including public service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
in many areas of their life and 90% of past volunteers express that PHE affected their career goals after college. Using the slightly older students as peers, PHE offers the benefits of peer education while using traditional methods of instruction. The volunteers speak to the students in ways relevant to their everyday lives and can serve as role models demonstrating healthy behavior. The high school students are encouraged to articulate their values and goals while learning basic, accurate health information. They are encouraged to explore the way the media and their peers perceive and act towards issues of health. Part of the PHE curriculum is to help the students practice their communication skills as well as risk evaluation, prevention, decision-making through role-playing resembling true to life situations.
Peer Health Exchange hopes that their volunteers will help teenagers protect their bodies and lives while providing them with the knowledge and skills. Their hope is that they can apply the skills learned in PHE workshops outside of the classroom by making informed decisions. Their ultimate goal is to keep the students in—and excelling in—school, in the workforce, staying away from risky behavior, and building on a healthy future [1].
The Schools
Undergraduate volunteers at Barnard CollegeBarnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in six New York City, New York high schools: Facing History School; Heritage School; Martin Luther King Jr. High School for Law, Advocacy, and Community Justice; Martin Luther King Jr. High School for Arts and Technology; Frederick Douglass High School; and the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction.
The New York University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in five New York City, NY high schools: East Side Community High School, Manhattan Village Academy
Manhattan Village Academy
Manhattan Village Academy is a small, public high school located in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. It consists of grades 9–12. The school is part of the New York City Department of Education...
, Marta Valle Model School, and University Neighborhood High School, and the Urban Assembly School of Government and Law.
Boston University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in four Boston, Massachusetts high schools: Another Course to College, Boston Community Leadership Academy, Fenway High School, and New Mission High School.
The Harvard University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in two Boston, MA high schools: Charlestown High School
Charlestown High School
Charlestown High School is a public school located at 240 Medford Street in Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts with a zip code of 02129. Charlestown High School is the only high school in Charlestown. Charlestown is part of Boston which means the school is part of the Boston Public School System...
and Excel High School.
The University of Chicago undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE curriculum to teenagers in five Chicago, IL high schools: Dyett High School, Hubbard High School, Kenwood Academy, Perspectives Charter School, and Woodlawn Charter School.
The DePaul University undergraduate volunteers teach the PHE health curriculum to teenagers in two Chicago, IL high schools: Roosevelt High School and Kelvyn Park High School.
The program has been extended to California where the University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
, St. Mary's College, Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, and University of California Berkeley are putting on pilot programs for the academic year of 2008-2009.[1]. As of the 2010-2011 school year, PHE volunteers teach the curriculum at Arise High School, East Oakland School of the Arts, Leadership Preparatory High School, LPS College Park, City Arts & Technology High School, College Preparatory and Architecture Academy, Mandela High School, Fremont: Media College, Preparatory High School, Leadership High School, Lighthouse Community Charter School, Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School, MetWest High School, Millsmont Academy, Secondary Oakland Aviation High School, Oakland Military Institute, Oakland Unity High School, Skyline High School, and the Youth Empowerment School [10].
The Success
PHE has grown off of studies that demonstrate that teenagers are more likely to absorb health information from peer and educators their own age as opposed to adults. From their own study, 74% of PHE high school students reported that having college students teach them helped them learn the important health topics[8].From evaluations completed in the 2005-2006 academic year by the PHE students, there were improvements in knowledge as well as actual decision-making that will only hope to improve in their futures. Over 80% said that they will use something that they learned from their Peer Health Exchange workshops to make healthy choices in the future[8]. Almost half of the students said that they did so during the six months that they were in the program[8]. In terms of knowledge, the PHE students made 20% improvements from a Pre-Test they took before embarking in the program and a Post-Test after it was completed[8].
While 100% of the high school principals participating in the program for the 2005-2006 academic year said they would recommend the program to other high schools, over 90% of the college volunteers said they would recommend participating in Peer Health Exchange to their college peers[8].