The Duval County Health Department’s Maternal and Child Health Division received a grant from Every Woman Southeast to increase knowledge of reproductive health and reduce STD and teen pregnancy rates among college-age teens and young adults in Jacksonville’s urban core.

DCHD will recruit youth from faith-based community organizations within zip codes 32202, 32204, 32206, 32208, 32209 and 32254 to be trained as Peer Heath Advocates (PHA) to deliver the life-course and reproductive health messages.

The goals are to:

• Train minority college-age students as Peer Educators/Advisors;
• Reach the college-age population with targeted health messages emphasizing preconception health and healthcare;
• Arm the peer educators with materials, activities and exercises to train their peers in college and in the community at large.

DCHD will use a modified version of the Preconception Peer Educator training, which the Coalition has used to trained dozens of local college students. The Coalition has also partnered with the Health Department to launch JaxSHARE a sexual health social media campaign that will be utilized as part of the new grant program.