Our Top Sellers:
Featured Programs:
Making Proud Choices!
A Safer-Sex Approach to HIV/STDs
and Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention as a “Program That Works”
Facilitator’s Curriculum Components:
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| Facilitator’s Curriculum | $199.00 | Order |
| Required Curriculum DVDs: (sold separately) | ||
| Wrap it Up & Condom Use Animation | $99.00 | Order |
| The Subject Is: HIV | $125.00 | Order |
| The Subject Is: STDs | $125.00 | Order |
| Nicole’s Choice | $125.00 | Order |
| The Hard Way | $125.00 | Order |
| Tanisha & Shay | $125.00 | Order |
| Implementation Kit (Includes required DVDs) | $648.00 | Order |
| Student Workbooks (pack of 10) | $42.50 | Order |
AUTHORS:
Loretta Sweet Jemmott Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., John Jemmott III, Ph.D. and Konstance McCaffree, Ph.D.
OVERVIEW OF THE CURRICULUM
To reduce risk for STD/HIV and pregnancy risk related behaviors, young adolescents not only need knowledge and perception of personal vulnerability, but also positive attitudes towards condom use, skills and confidence in their ability to use condoms. The Making Proud Choices! Curriculum is designed to meet those needs.
Making Proud Choices! A Safer Sex Approach to STDs, Teen Pregnancy, and HIV prevention curriculum is an eight module curriculum that provides young adolescents with the knowledge, confidence and skills necessary to reduce their risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV and pregnancy by abstaining from sex or using condoms if they choose to have sex. It is based on cognitive-behavioral theories, focus groups and the authors’ extensive experience working with youth. Making Proud Choices! is an adaptation and extension of the original Be Proud! Be Responsible! Curriculum in that it integrates teen pregnancy prevention along with HIV/STD prevention.
GOAL OF THE CURRICULUM
The goal of Making Proud Choices! is to empower young adolescents to change their behavior in ways that will reduce their risk of an unplanned pregnancy or becoming infected with HIV and other STDs. Specifically, this curriculum emphasizes that adolescents can reduce their risk for STDs, HIV and pregnancy by using a condom, if they choose to have sex.
CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES
At the completion of the Making Proud Choices! curriculum, adolescents will have:
- Increased knowledge about prevention of pregnancy, STDs and HIV
- More positive attitudes/beliefs about condom use
- Increased confidence in their ability to negotiate safer sex and to use condoms correctly
- Increased negotiation skills
- Improved condom use skills
- Stronger intentions to use condoms if they have sex
- A lower incidence of HIV/STD risk-associated sexual behavior
- A stronger sense of pride and responsibility in making a difference in their lives
CONTENT OUTLINE
Making Proud Choices! has four major components. The first component focuses on goals and dreams and their relationship to adolescent sexual behavior. The second component emphasizes knowledge, including the causes, transmission and prevention of teen pregnancy, STDs and HIV. The third component focuses on beliefs and attitudes about condoms, pregnancy, STDs and HIV. The fourth stresses skills and self-efficacy including negotiation-refusal and condom use skill. It also provides time for practice, reinforcement, and support.
THE MODULES
Module 1: Getting to Know You and Steps to Making Your Dreams Come True
Module 2: The Consequences of Sex: Pregnancy
Module 3: The Consequences of STDs
Module 4: The Consequences of Sex: HIV Infection
Module 5: Attitudes and Beliefs About HIV/AIDS and Condom Use
Module 6: Strategies for PReventing HIV Infection: Stop, Think and Act
Module 7: Developing Condom Use and Negotiation Skills
Module 8: Enhancing Refusal and Negotiation Skills
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CURRICULUM
Making Proud Choices! was designed to be used with small groups ranging from 6-12 participants, but it can be implemented with larger groups as well. The curriculum can be implemented in various community settings, including schools and youth-serving agencies.
LENGTH
The curriculum has eight hours of content divided into eight 1-hour modules. It can be implemented in eight sessions of sixty minutes each or in four 2-hour modules. In community settings, it can be implemented in a two day format (4 modules each day), four day format (2 modules each day) or an eight day format (1 module each day).
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
The curriculum requires the use of a monitor with DVD capabilities.
TYPES OF ACTIVITIES
Making Proud Choices! includes a series of fun and interactive learning experiences designed to increase participation and help adolescents understand the faulty reasoning and decision-making that puts them at risk for STDs, HIV and unplanned pregnancies. Activities are designed to increase comfort with practicing condom use, address concerns about negative effects of practicing safer sex and build skills in condom use and negotiation.
The activities incorporate social cognitive-behavioral skill-building strategies (i.e., presentation, modeling, and the practice of condom use negotiation skills). The curriculum involves culturally sensitive video clips, games, brainstorming, role-playing, skill-building activities and small group discussions that build group cohesion and enhance learning. Each activity lasts only a brief time and involves adolescents getting out of their seats and interacting with each other. In this way, it is possible to maintain interest and attention that might fade during a lecture or lengthy group discussion. Below is a description of the types of activities used in the Making Proud Choices! curriculum.
- The goals and dreams activity focuses on having the adolescents consider their goals for the future and how participating in unsafe sex might thwart the attainment of their goals.
- Video clips are used to depict young adolescents in various situations. These clips evoke feelings, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes about HIV/STD, sexual involvement, and HIV/STD prevention skills.
- The role-play scenarios are designed to provide participants with the confidence and skills to negotiate condom use. These realistic role-play scenarios provide adolescents with a variety of ways in which they could use the prevention skills that they learn in this program.
- The curriculum incorporates the “Making Prouder Choices! Be Proud! Be Responsible!” theme, which encourages the participants to be proud and behave responsibly for themselves, their family,and their community.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK USED IN THE MAKING POUD CHOICES!
Research shows that curricula are most effective if they are based on a sound theoretical framework. The Making Proud Choices! curriculum draws upon three theories: the Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action and its extension, the Theory of Planned Behavior. These theories have been shown to be of great value in understanding a wide range of health related behaviors.
Two major concepts derive from these theories that are included in Making Proud Choices!:
- self-efficacy or perceived behavioral control beliefs, which is defined as a person’s confidence in his or her ability to do the behavior (i.e. use a condom) and
- outcome expectancies or behavioral beliefs, which are beliefs about the consequences of the behavior.
Below is a description of the two types of self-efficacy or perceived behavioral control beliefs and the four types of outcome expectancies or behavioral beliefs emphasized in the Making Proud Choices! Curriculum.
Practicing safer sex is easy: “I can do it”
Many young people find it difficult to practice safer sex because of peer pressure, partner pressure, and their perception of how others think of them. Therefore, they are less likely to negotiate condom use with their partners. In Module 5 youth examine their attitudes and beliefs about condom use and in Modules 7 and 8, youth learn how to negotiate condom use with their partners.
Getting your partner to cooperate in practicing condom use is easy: “I can do it”
Practicing safer sex within a relationship is not something our participants can do by themselves. They need the cooperation of a partner. Unfortunately, many of our participants’ partners may not be willing. For example, attempts to negotiate condom use may be interpreted as mistrust, belief that the other person is not “clean,” or some other misperception. We must be sensitive to our participants’ desires to maintain their partners’ interest and avoid conflict
At the same time, we need to provide them with opportunities to practice responding to their partners’ objections tactfully and effectively. In Modules 7 and 8, the youth are taught negotiation skills which they can practice through role-plays and other interactive exercises
Goals and Dreams Beliefs
The belief that sexual involvement might interfere with one’s goals and dreams for education and a career. In Module 1, the participants engage in a Goals and Dreams Activity and discuss obstacles to their goals and dreams including the consequences of sex. This belief is incorporated throughout the curriculum
Prevention Beliefs
The belief that condoms can reduce the risk of pregnancy, STDs and HIV. This belief is incorporated throughout the curriculum
Partner-Reaction Beliefs
The belief that one’s partner would not approve of condom use and react negatively to it. This might prevent a person from practicing safer sex. In Modules 7 and 8 participants learn negotiation and refusal skills necessary to communicate with their partners about condom use.
Hedonistic Beliefs
Before young people change their behavior, they must have a reason, or source of motivation to do so. Unless adolescents see how they can personally benefit from doing something differently (for example, practicing safer sex), no amount of skill will be enough to produce change. Many young people do not believe that pregnancy, STDs and HIV could really happen to them. One goal of Making Proud Choices!, then, is to increase participants’ sense of personal risk. Personal risk refers to a person’s belief that “Pregnancy, or STD and HIV infection could happen to me.”This is addressed throughout the curriculum, and specifically in Modules 2, 3, and 4.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE MAKING PROUD CHOICES!
Three overriding themes provide the Making Proud Choices! curriculum with a unique approach that has proven to be successful with young adolescents:
The Community and Family Approach
An important component of our approach is the strong emphasis on family and community. The Making Proud Choices! curriculum emphasizes how teenage pregnancy, STDs and HIV affect the various communities in which young people live. The importance of protecting one’s family and community is used as a motive to change individual behavior. This strategy differs from the traditional approach of HIV prevention which focused solely on protecting oneself as the motive to change risky behavior. The Making Proud Choices! theme encourages adolescents to be proud of themselves and to abstain from sex or practice safe sex in order to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, not only for their own sake, but for the sake of their families and community as well.
The Role of Sexual Responsibility and Accountability
Many adolescents do not express their sexual feelings in a responsible or accountable way. This is evidenced by the high incidence of pregnancy and STDs among our teen population. It is also evidenced by adolescents’ own accounts of their poor condom use and multiple sexual partners. Learning to be sexually responsible and accountable is something that adolescents need to be taught. The Making Proud Choices! curriculum teaches participants to make responsible decisions regarding their sexual behavior, urges them to respect themselves and others, and stresses the importance of developing a positive self- image. They learn that by being responsible and practicing safer sex, if they choose to have sex, they will be able to reach their goals and dreams.
The Role of Pride and Making Proud Choices With Safer Sex as Their Choice
Adolescence is a difficult period of development. Adolescents are often faced with confusion, mixed emotions, and uncertainty. They are bombarded with sexual messages from various sources, including the media, popular music, and their peer group. They are often pressured to be sexually active. They struggle with issues of self-esteem, self-respect, and self-pride. Due to this, it is extremely important that they learn to feel good about themselves and their decision to practice safer sex. The Making Proud Choices! curriculum illustrates that making proud choices about safer sex and condom use can actually lead teens to develop a sense of pride, self-confidence, and self-respect. The role-play exercises and other skill-building activities reinforce the many positive benefits, both psychological and physical, of practicing safer sex.
RECOMMENDED TRAINING
Educators knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, STDs and adolescent sexuality that have experience implementing an STD/HIV prevention curriculum with youth need approximately 6-8 hours of training. The training should include reviewing the curriculum, discussing various issues in the curriculum, its implementation and what is unique, different and reasons for it. In addition, selected lessons should be modeled and the participants should have an opportunity to practice them and receive feedback.
If the educators are not knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, STDs, adolescent sexuality and have no experience implementing an STD/HIV prevention curriculum with youth, then 24 hours of training are needed. During the training, HIV/AIDS, STD and adolescent pregnancy knowledge and prevention skills should be reviewed and reinforced. Implementation strategies, training issues and the trainees’ comfort level with adolescent sexuality should be discussed. The content of the curriculum should be reviewed and the trainer should walk the educators through the curriculum, as through they were students. A question-and-answer period should be held afterwards. Lastly, the trainee should practice the curriculum and receive performance feedback.
STUDENT WORKBOOKS AVAILABLE!