Community Taking Action TV Show--ABCD Health Services (It Pays / Sister2Sister Program) Segment

welcome to community taking action a B

Cities program highlighting people and

organizations that are doing things in

and around the Boston community today

we'll be highlighting health services

and joining us for that conversation

will be Jacqueline white and Lindsay

Redmond thank you for joining us thank

you thank you you guys are both program

coordinators okay so what do you

coordinate i coordinate the it pays

program it's a several week-long

intervention usually about five or six

weeks and we usually are operating with

pre-existing groups so community

organizations that already have groups

or have teen groups with access to girls

what is your role you know within this

program the in terms of making it happen

I oversee implementation of the program

I make sure that we're sticking to to

the evidence-based curriculum that we

work with it means I'm doing all of the

scheduling I connect with the the

programs that we work with going to

shift over and we're going to talk to

Jaclyn and get a little bit know learn a

little bit more about the assisted

assist a program that you run so the

coordinator of this is a program it's

different from the it pays program in

that it's a one-time intervention um

which may be good for scheduling

purposes for the target group that we

look for so it's a brief intervention

about hour hour and a half depending on

how much information the young women

already kind of come with and so what I

do is during that session is this a risk

assessment that's done to kind of see

with a young women are at and it will

let me know it'll let me know that what

behaviors they may be engaging in that

may be putting them at risk for sexually

transmitted infections or HIV with that

moving forward we kind of take that

information and i work on skills to help

them kind of move forward and be safer

and healthy are you the primary person

that is having this conversation with

the young girls yes definitely I'm the

primary pressing having a conversation

with the young women doing the risk

assessments we do a lot of community

outreach to get the young women so I

myself will go out with the health

educator who also kind of spreads to

were in the community so that my face is

seen and then so I make the original

contact with the young women hopefully

face to face and then again so now that

they've become familiar with me it

provides an opportunity to see a

familiar face because they're going to

be talking about intimate information

during this risk assessment how do you

establish a level of trust and comfort

in a one-time intervention because it is

that one time I'm not going to see this

person again they're very willing and

open to speak about the information

that's requested on a risk assessment

our biggest hang-up and in my groups is

I work with younger women than

Jacqueline does and remember their age

group 14 to 19 at 14 you may or may not

be sexually active but more than likely

going to be shy about it even if you are

and I'm finding that a lot of the girls

most of the girls aren't at 14 which is

what the data tells us as well 14 is

usually they're still there still not

entering into sexual relationships um

when you hit 15 16 it starts increasing

exponentially give me a success story

what a success look like I would say my

biggest success story would be one of

the young women who I spoke with I was

talking to the young ladies about making

goals for themselves maybe you know and

I don't come from a values-based

perspective so I say you know whatever

you want your gold to be that's your

goal but let's make a plan so that when

you get into a situation that maybe you

know requires a little bit more savvy

you already have a plan and when the

young women came to me and said you know

you were right it came out of nowhere

the situation but I was prepared and I

had a plan and that felt really good to

hear she was protected in that situation

right for me it's hard to measure

success and then I only see the

individuals one time but for example I

met with a young woman last week who

divulged some information that was

putting her at risk for receiving sti's

in a way that she had she had never

thought of this specific sexual act

could warrant st eyes and just a matter

of fact that she walked away receiving

that information and it was almost like

shock value for her and she

walk to I think I just never knew that

you know and that now she will use the

condoms moving forward so she doesn't

have to necessarily stop her behavior

but you know make an addition to it by

using the condoms to make her that much

safer and that for me was a success

someone in the audience may know of a

young lady young girl that has a need to

have a conversation with either of your

programs what's the best way to reach

out for me the best way and it depends

on the person I'm available through

email I have a work cell phone and a

office phone so i'll just quickly give

out the office phone number at 61 7348

62 64 and my email is jacl why n dot

white just like the color at ABC at

Boston ABCD org actually and the best

way to reach me would be office phone 7

6 17 3486 454 we thank you for joining

us on community taking action joining

with us next time as we highlight more

programs more people more organizations

that are doing things in and around

Boston for the community until next time