Billings Teen Council: Peer Led Sex Ed

Teen Council is an award-winning peer education program that inspires and trains teens to become effective and passionate sexuality educators and advocates. Research shows that peer educators make a lasting impact in their communities. When students see a peer presenting about social situations and pressures with confidence and knowledge, they listen.

Teen Council: Peer to Peer Sex Education

Teen Council is Planned Parenthood’s award-winning peer education program. We empower teens to educate their peers about healthy sexuality and relationship issues.

(How) Peer Education Works.

Planned Parenthood of Montana strongly believes in the effectiveness of peer education as a model for reaching young people with important health information. We work to empower teens to share information through formal classroom presentations and through informal interactions with friends, family, and classmates. When students see a peer presenting about social situations and pressures with confidence and knowledge, they listen.

The Peer Education Institute provides the support, curriculum, and training to start a Teen Council program in your community.

What is Teen Council?

Teen Council is made up of a diverse voluntary student body from local schools. Members come to the group with different beliefs and viewpoints. Teen Council members meet weekly in groups of about a dozen teens with a Planned Parenthood educator to discuss various sexual health and relationship issues. No one is expected to already know about sexual health and prevention issues.

Teen Council members take what they learn during meetings and create classroom presentations to share with their peers at various schools and community groups.

Planned Parenthood strives to create Teen Councils that are strong and varied in membership, with an emphasis on building a group that is anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic.

What do Teen Council members do?

Through the power of peer education and accurate and unbiased sexuality information, Teen Council members work to end ignorance, promote tolerance, and improve communication between teens and the important people in their lives.

Teen Council members:

Create peer to peer dialog. 
Educate on topics such as HIV/AIDS, harassment, healthy relationships, delaying sex, family communication, multicultural awareness, and more!  
Act as resources by sharing sexual health information with friends and peers. 
Participate in weekly meetings and trainings to increase knowledge and skills.

Testimonials:

Teen Council was one of the most influential experiences of my high school career, and I genuinely think that I would not be in the incredible place that I am today without that group. It taught me leadership, responsibility, and it helped me find my voice and a group of friends who challenged me and supported me. I always felt like I had a safe place at Teen Council. I developed a passion for reproductive justice and education that has shaped how I live my life to this day. Teen Council made me feel like I could make a difference in the world, whether it was by testifying in front of the legislature, or just teaching a peer what an IUD was. The first time I learned about gender pronouns was at a Teen Council Conference, and the first time I learned about Intersectional feminism was at a Planned Parenthood conference. The knowledge that I learned from those experiences has shaped me into the advocate and activist I am today. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to have had the opportunities that I did through Teen Council and Planned Parenthood.

Teen Council has taught me how to prepare and present projects and presentations, communicate with my peers in a more academic context, discuss reproductive health in medically accurate context, and understand how women's health is at risk. I plan to attend law school and all these skills will help me communicate, and pursue change in women's health. I want to be the change of the future and Teen council has enabled me to do so. I have developed my confidence and voice because I've learned so much about the things I care about.

For more information about the Billings Teen Council, contact [email protected].