Evaluating an indigenous sexual health peer education project.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Many Indigenous Australians are dealing with a wide range of sexual health issues including contraception, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The Indigenous Peer Education Program provided training to young, marginalised and disadvantaged Indigenous people to become sexual health peer educators within their communities.
METHODS: The initiative comprised peer educator training, capacity building, and the development and dissemination of sexual health educational materials through an arts-based strategy. Evaluation involved a retrospective qualitative methodology, including document analysis, interviews and focus groups.
RESULTS: The program was successful in training 22 young Indigenous peer educators and developing and disseminating more than 2,600 sexual health education resources to young Indigenous people and their community.
CONCLUSIONS: The project had a positive immediate impact upon young Indigenous participants who reported and demonstrated increased knowledge of sexual health issues and skills as peer educators. The evaluation documented the program development and the immediate effects on participants, but did not enable an assessment of long-term effects for participants, service providers or the community. The evaluation identified areas for program improvement and challenges for program sustainability. The initiative was well supported within the local community and peer educators continued to engage in opportunistic sexual health promotion.