Training Coalitions 101: Health Education

Lauren H., Ariana, Sam, Anneke, Camille, and Lauren P.

The Health Education Training Coalition is comprised of members who are interested in obtaining more experience and exploring their interest in health education.

"When we first met together as the Health Education training coalition, it was clear that we were all interested in how to make ourselves better health educators, specifically in the maternal/child health field, and in sex education.  For our first training, we attended the QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) anti-suicide training, to better understand how to effectively listen to and refer our clients if they had any suicidal thoughts, a training that has come in handy for several of us during our service. We were also able to attend the Peer Preconception Educator training, learning how to educate peers on the importance of being healthy before you get pregnant, and the Teen Health Facilitator training, where we learned how to be effective facilitators in a teen health setting. Three of the members of the coalition were able to go on and facilitate a 4-week comprehensive sex education program as a result of the Teen Health Facilitator training, and gained valuable experience as health educators. Our favorite service project was putting on a skit for the participants of Jacksonville Job Corps at their talent showcase, where we acted as if we were taking a women’s health quiz and gave correct answers to sexual health questions, such as how to correctly use a condom and information about STD’s. The Job Corps participants loved it, and we had a lot of fun as health educators!" -- Ariana Bentz

When asked how the Health Education training coalition helped with her future career goals, Lauren Hudak said "It allowed me the opportunity to see how people can learn valuable information outside of a classroom setting."