|
|
|
Commemorates
World AIDS Day Teen
Canteen’s County Office of AIDS-Funded HIV Education Program Provides
BBQ (Hollywood)--In an effort to promote World AIDS Day, Teen Canteen and "For Love or Money" hosted a successful barbeque for over 30 clients, staff, and visitors who played games to increase their awareness about HIV/AIDS and other STDs and listened to music provided by radio station KJLH 102.3 FM.
The last couple of months have been very busy and very exciting for For Love or Money. Through our participation in Macy's Passport-In-Store 2000, we raised over $500 in ticket sales to benefit the program’s services and materials. My
three Peer Educators and I conducted an informative and successful
three-day Peer Educator Training which included Teen Canteen clients and
other peer educators from the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership
agencies. During the
training, we discussed HIV, other STDs, and risk behaviors associated
with transmission, as well as the role of a Peer Educator and the skills
that he/she may need to be effective, such as communication skills,
presentation skills, and sensitivity to others from different cultures,
backgrounds, and sexual orientation.
All of the participants made a short presentation to the group
and benefited from the information.
I was happy to learn of an average increase in score (29.5%)
between the group’s pretests and posttests. The
Office of AIDS Programs and Policy has renewed its funding of For
Love or Money, and the new program year begins January 1, 2001. We have been working hard to update and revise the current
workshop curriculum. This
revised curriculum will have a variety of workshops addressing HIV/AIDS
and other STDs, drugs and alcohol, conflict resolution and violence
prevention, relationship issues, self-esteem, communication and
negotiation skills, and sensitivity issues.
Moreover, program staff have been invited to present workshops at
Covenant House-California and Options House, on a regular basis, and
have reached about 100 residents of those programs since the beginning
of June.
We have also forged full speed ahead with street outreach in the
Hollywood and Santa Monica areas, as well as having visited local squats
(when invited), reaching over 25 homeless youths per month, providing
snacks, hygiene kits, condoms, & bleach kits, with many of those
young people returning to Teen Canteen to receive extended services.
|
|
TRAVELERS
AID SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES |
