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This month’s question comes from Nichelle, a health educator with a New York City-based health care center. Nichelle writes:

I was hoping to get more information on resources available around reproductive health. I am facilitating a teen group at the health center, and I am not sure if this is up your alley but I wanted general tips on how to be a better health educator overall.  This month’s focus for the group is reproductive rights. I  want to give accurate information while also facilitating meaningful conversations with the girls.

Nichelle requested a phone conversation, so we scheduled a time to chat. Nichelle is based at a local high school and has been given an opportunity to create a series of workshops for young women attending the school between the ages of 14-18. When she held her first workshop earlier in the year on body image, she had low attendance. But when she held her most recent workshop, more students came.  While Nichelle has been given the freedom to structure the workshops however she wants, she was clear on wanting a higher focus on intersectionality as opposed to feminism. I followed up with her after our conversation with the information we discussed, and today I’m sharing my advice based on preparation, implementation, evaluation, and resources.

Planning

As a health educator, your top priorities are to 1) provide medically accurate and age appropriate health information and 2) provide that information in a way that is memorable and action-specific. The key here is to start with the end in mind, and work backward. By the time participants leave your workshop, what are 2-3 key takeaways or calls to action you want participants to walk away with, above all else? Don’t overwhelm participants with a laundry list of things to know. You can always pique their curiosity enough so that when they have follow-up questions, you can address them (be it in another workshop facilitation or outside of the workshop).

Starting with the end in mind will give you laser focus on what aspects of a topic you want to cover, the key points you want to share, the resources that can provide additional information, and activities that can bring the information to life. This will help you to create a workshop structure that works for you. Also, an advantage Nichelle has is that she is familiar with the participants, of which they are very open with her about their lived experiences as well as topics they want to learn more about. When you know who’ll be in the space, you spend less time in the “getting to know you” phase and you can get right to work engaging with your participants.

Implementation

What’s one way to provide health information that’s memorable and action-specific? Have participants teach back what they’ve just learned using the Teach Back Method . The Teach Back Method helps participants retain information because they’re reciting it in their own words, and since they have to teach someone else what they know, it brings up the motivation to get it right. This works out for you as the health educator because it shows where you need to correct any misunderstandings (if any). Also, this takes the focus off of you being the only expert in the room, as participants come into the space with their own lived experiences. In the case with youth, this can be a great way for them to develop skills in peer education.

Another way is to use real-world examples of the topics you’re teaching. In Nichelle’s case, she wants to have more of an intersectional lens on the topics she covers. And since she wants to cover reproductive rights and the right to parent or not parent in her next workshop, how can she do that using a real-world example?

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