Reaching At Risk Youth Through near-Peer Programs

Background:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention is developing a communications program, i2i: What are You Looking For?, to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships for 11- to 14-year-old youth in high-risk urban communities (YHRUC) as part of Dating Matters, a comprehensive teen dating violence (TDV) prevention initiative.  Due to concentrated poverty, lack of resources, and exposure to community violence, this audience may be at an increased risk of TDV. In addition, few health communication programs have been effective in reaching this target audience and have focused on the specific topic area of TDV. 

Program background:  Peers have a powerful influence in the lives of YHRUC.  As such, the communications program plans to leverage this influence and engage near-peers, slightly older youth ages 15-18, to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships among YHRUC through its i2i Ambassador Program. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  To inform the development of the i2iAmbassador Program, CDC conducted a near-peer exploratory research to collect learnings and best practices from several programs targeting youth on sensitive topics.  Research was broken out into three phases:

1. Phase I – Reviewed current TDV prevention programs with peer outreach programs to understand how to incorporate near-peer and peer education; and reviewed published articles, reports, and analyses on peer outreach in general, as well as peer outreach with a focus on youth, to identify best practices;
2. Phase II – Conducted interviews with community-based organizations to learn about best practices with similar youth audiences in order to capture experience-informed information on near-peer outreach; and  
3. Phase III – Conducted interviews with industry organizations to learn about best practices in implementing peer outreach or brand ambassador programs in the private sector.  Phase I findings provided a better general understanding of how to best engage near-peers as part of the i2i program.  Phases II and III provided experience-informed information on the development, implementation, and best practices of peer/brand ambassador programs that could be incorporated into the i2i program. 

Conclusions:  The presentation will discuss how the research was translated into the final program design.  For example, research showed that co-creation and youth authenticity should be considered as a part of the program to provide youth with a sense of ownership over the program, which will enhance their commitment and interest, and provide team-building among the youth.  The program not includes the Ambassadors as co-lead the communications program by:

• planning for and hosting at least three events, including kick-off and closing events;
• developing and managing content for the community’s i2i Facebook page;
• monitoring and responding to Facebook posts; and
• co-developing content for the SMS text message program. 

Implications for research and/or practice:   Near-peers have a role in designing and implementing a communication program that may improve reach and impact.  This presentation will provide examples of peer outreach roles and practices that are drawn from previous research and the current project that could be applied to other programs dealing with a similar audience and topic.