“Peer Education” Project

Two projects, named “Peer Education on alcoholism – Unplugged - substance abuse” and “Peer Education on sexually transmitted diseases”, promoted by A.S.P. 7 of Ragusa, Department of Prevention, Ser.T. of Vittoria, have been approved under the article 7, paragraphs 6 and 6 bis of the Legislative Decree No. 165 of the 30th of March 2001. The two projects have been developed according to the guidelines of the Prevention Regional Plan 2010-2012, as referred to in the Council Decree 03220 of the 30th of October 2010;

the project “Peer Education on alcoholism – Unplugged - substance abuse” aims to achieve its purpose by using forms of empathic listening, contacting directly young people, by means of a mobile unit, in their gathering places, in the squares, in the meeting points, outside the pubs and the discotheques of the Province of Ragusa, in order to provide them advice and to guide them towards public and non-profit sector services, by means of external personnel specifically selected and trained. Also, all the citizens and especially the adolescents and the young who use narcotic drugs are the beneficiaries of the interventions of the project, in order to help them in solving specific social problems.

A team under a contract for continuative and coordinated services (co. co. co.), works in this project. It is composed of two psychologists, a sociologist, a social worker, two sociocultural workers and a driver, that work with a multidisciplinary approach and interact with the operators of public services.

The project “Peer Education on sexually transmitted diseases” consists of weekly meetings with second, third and fourth year students of the high schools of the province, which are based on discussions about clinical cases, the method of role playing, the use of media (videos, films, slides) and subsequent group debate. Meetings are conducted by two professionals trained on the method of empathic communication. The project is based on the method of Peer Education: after a group of students is trained, they may become, in their turn, the trainers of all the other students of the school, in the following years.

This method proven to be the most adequate for conveying information about these subjects between peers, by using the characteristics of the typical languages of this age group. The objective is to make up for the lack of information among students and to ensure basic knowledge in order to compensate for the lack of training of the teachers in charge. In fact, during the interventions, entry and exit questionnaires will be administered in order to monitor learning progress; moreover information brochures on sexually transmitted diseases will be given, as well as basic behavioral information on how to avoid infections. Two psychologists under a contract for continuative and coordinated services (co. co. co.) work in this project, in collaboration with the operators of the Mobile Unit.