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Education Services

The Education Department at Planned Parenthood of Western PA works to improve the lives of youth, parents, and families in western PA by providing educational services across the region, including comprehensive sexuality education to school-aged youth, professional training to youth-serving providers, community workshops, and support to parents.

Our team of educators come from diverse public health, education, and youth-development backgrounds. They are relatable, knowledgeable, and nearly unflappable, handling dozens of difficult questions weekly with sensitivity and frankness. They employ a strengths-based, highly interactive approach to instruction and work to adapt to the needs of each unique group.

Our curricula are age-appropriate, medically-accurate, and informed by a growing body of evidence around what is effective to help people, and youth in particular, live sexually healthy and responsible lives that set the stage for healthy futures. We seek to meet people where they are and to act as a resource for teachers and professionals who support youth each and every day.

For more information or to inquire about scheduling a program, please email [email protected] or click the button below to submit a request form online.

Peer Education

PPWP's Peer Education program, Peer Helpers, is a comprehensive teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention program designed to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy to avoid sexual risk behaviors, make healthy decisions, and promote norms around those same behaviors amongst their peers.
 
Peer Helpers are middle and high school youth in Allegheny County. Over its 30+ years, the program has consistently met its goals of 99% pregnancy prevention and 100% school completion for participants through relationship-building, proven sexuality education methodology, and a positive youth development approach to working with students on a long-term basis. Many Peer Helpers start in middle school and continue all the way through high school graduation.
 
During weekly sessions with beloved facilitators, Peer Helpers engages in important conversations around decision-making, communication, gender, personal values, consent, digital citizenship, contraception, STD prevention, and much more, with all lessons based on content tied to the National Sex Education Standards. Six key concept areas were identified by SIECUS’s K-12 Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education – human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Curricula from the Office of Adolescent Health's list of evidence-based programs form an important backbone of the content, with other lessons drawn from nationally respected and in-house curricula.

Peer Helpers also demonstrates:

  • Increased confidence around practicing healthy sexual behaviors such as abstinence, condom use, birth control use, and talking with a partner about STD testing
  • Increased knowledge around essential sexual health topics
  • Increased intentions to use birth control and practice healthy sexual behaviors (including their convictions that they will not be sexually active without doing so)

These shifts help give youth the support they need to set healthy boundaries, pursue positive relationships, and communicate and protect the decisions that make sense for their lives. PPWP believes that this type of high-quality sexuality education helps youth thrive.

For more information on the Peer Education program, call our Peer Education Coordinator at 412-258-9738.

Community Education

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania community educators provide sexuality education and violence prevention programming to schools, churches, social service agencies, prisons, out-of-school time programs, and other community-based organizations.

Programs are individually tailored to meet the needs of your group. Our programs include single session or multi-session workshops, or an ongoing series.

Fees for our community education programs are affordably set at $50.00 a session, with significant discounts for multi-session and ongoing series. As with our healthcare services, we are committed to reducing barriers to these essential services, so don't hesitate to contact us, even if your organization's budget is tight, and we will work to ensure that services are affordable or even free for you.

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