On Sept. 18, the first session of the sex-education workshop “Get with the program: a guide to comprehensive sex education and positive health outcomes” was hosted by creator and graduate student of public health, Laura Peapenburg, in conjunction with SAGA.
Although the event was in partnership with SAGA, Peapenburg wholly organized and put together the event for students to learn and understand the importance of sex education and its positive outcomes.
“When I first started this, the interviews for it was looking at mental health disorders within the LGBT community, especially with on-campus students, and it kind of was like, okay, well what can I actually fill a need for,” said Peapenburg.
Stating that a comprehensive sex education class was needed and called for, Peapenburg is using their program to fulfill the need as well as advocate for HIV prevention.
“I’m hoping that most people walking away from this will be like, ‘Yeah, I use HIV prevention regularly and get tested,’” she said.
Alongside sex education, the program also promotes the positive outcomes of mental and reproductive health and encourages youth to seek help.
“The other half of this is trying to give young gender- and sexual-minority people tools to approach their doctor’s office,” said Peapenburg, referring to the workshop’s name.
In the section of community and behavioral health, the workshops are part of Peapenburg’s trilogy project which has been in the making over a year. Her program calls for three sections within the project.
“The first section is interviewing and working with a community to find what a problem is within the community,” she said. “The second semester is actually creating the program.”
The program will continue for the next six weeks and will take place each Sunday at 7 p.m. in Warf Pickel Room 513.
