High school club gets accolades for support and service
Sachem’s Teens as Teachers Class and Club were honored at the 2018 Interfaith Anti-Bias Task Force Annual Spring Convocation and Awards Breakfast at the Suffolk County Legislature building.
Sachem’s Teens as Teachers is a Health Education substance abuse prevention education initiative taught at Sachem East and North High Schools.
The course and club were developed in order to proactively address the growing problem of substance use and abuse among our students.
The purpose of the peer-to peer substance abuse education program is for the students to collaboratively work with one another, educating their younger peers on how to stay drug-free and empower students with the skills to make health enhancing decisions.
The program uses the peer education model to facilitate substance abuse prevention lessons to middle school students.
The Peer-to-Peer Substance Abuse Education program uses peer educators to serve as advocates, group facilitators, discussion leaders, and credible role models for successfully resisting pressures, to the students in the middle schools of Sachem.
The skill-based lessons facilitated include goal setting, communication skills, managing emotions, and resistance skills. Both peer educators and those they teach are benefited by increased self-esteem, increase knowledge and skills about health and drug related issues, and develop advocacy and leadership skills.