YPSILANTI
THE CORNER THEATRE TROUPE/PEER EDUCATION PROGRAM
The Center for Community Building at the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Communities, is implementing this program in partnership with The Corner Health Center of Ypsilanti. The Corner Theatre Troupe/ Peer Education Program (TT/PE) is an innovative health education program developed by the Corner Health Center, which provides live theatre performances and follow-up workshops on topics of concern to youth. The areas of focus are on violence prevention, specifically as it relates to substance abuse. Theatre troupe members and peer educators are Ypsilanti and Willow Run high school students. Audience participants are young people in area middle and high schools including traditional and alternative schools as well as community agencies and neighborhood centers. This program also trains theatre troupe members and peer educators to facilitate workshops that address the negative impact of violence and alcohol abuse.
The Corner Theatre Troupe /Peer Education program has been in continuous operation since 1982, and in that time has reached approximately 25,000 audience members including young people and teachers in the Ypsilanti, Willow Run and Lincoln school districts. The high demand for presentations exceeds our current capacity to provide them. Over the past three years, Troupe and audience members consistently have shown increases in knowledge and skills from pre to post test on tobacco, substance abuse and HIV/ STI prevention surveys. The Corner Theatre Troupe’s creative and peer oriented style of health education is popular and effective. The program is a powerful method of instruction and influence, especially for vulnerable adolescents.
Goal :
The goal of this program is to reduce violence and reduce and/ or delay the onset of alcohol use among the culturally diverse Ypsilanti youth.
Objectives :
- Provide 120 hours of training for 25 Troupe members/ Peer Educators
- Po provide 30 performances half of which are on violence and its relationship to substance abuse
- Provide 60-70 follow-up workshops, half are on violence and substance abuse
- Reach 1000 or more youth, 500 of whom participate in the violence and substance abuse prevention component of the project
- Administer a pre-test to audience members and a control group prior to performances and a post-test following the final workshop
- Administer a pretest to troupe members at the beginning and a post test at the end of the program year
- Review and interpret data, enter evaluation data into a statistical program, compile and analyze the results, and write a final report on the impact of the project on participants.
Program Content
The Theatre Troupe/ Peer Education program consists of about 25 developing, young artists and peer educators from Ypsilanti and Willow Run high schools. In the year 2007 staff will provide over 120 hours of training to Troupe members in theatre and health. The Beginning Troupe’s theatre curriculum consists of acting, voice, improvisation, movement and character development. Those with more advanced theatre skills, members of the performing Troupe, study script writing, artistic expression, directing and performing. Health education focuses on adolescent risk-taking including violence and substance abuse.
Performances: The performances in this program are delivered in three parts:
1.A short play portraying a conflict which is left, unresolved.
2. An “in character” discussion with audience members, in which the actors respond to questions about the characters’ histories, plans and concerns. During this segment the audience is encouraged to make suggestions about how to resolve the conflict presented in the performance. The cast, still in their role, responds to the ideas expressed by the audience. The actors may also reenact the skit based on audience suggestions, helping to demonstrate what you say and how you say it can effect the outcome of a situation.
3. A peer education discussion between actors, now “out of character”, and audience members. Troupe members/ peer educators respond to audience questions, describe local resources for help, and discuss the issues presented in the performances as they relate to their own experience.
The first follow-up to a skit is a reality workshop. Recovering young adults from Dawn Farm, a treatment program for chemical dependency, share their personal stories with the audience. Including true stories increases the authenticity, credibility and significance of the performance. The stories help personalize risk and break through teens’ sense of invulnerability.
The second follow-up is a skill-building workshop, during which students learn information and skills to practice healthier and safer behaviors. Because learning and developing competence takes place through modeling and imitation, young people not only need to see the skills demonstrated, they also must practice them. The skill-building workshops include games and role-playing activities in which students discuss, observe, model and practice appropriate communication, resistance and anger management skills.
Research Basis for the Program: The TT/PE program uses relevant research to shape its project. “Effective programs targeting adolescents rely on peers to deliver some or all of the content. Peer involvement in the intervention, implementation and normative education appears critical to the success of those intervention and education efforts” (SAMHSA, 2002). Underlying The Corner Theatre Troupe/ Peer Education Program is peer involvement in program planning, development and implementation.
Primary Prevention of Alcohol Misuse, 1998, reports that interventions which include a theatre performance and follow-up education had a significant impact on behavioral issues. In 2004, Slusky reported their theatre program’s impact on audience members using post performance surveys. These include empowering teens “to choose healthy behaviors and change the harmful subculture within their schools.” Post performance surveys cited that the percentage of 8 th graders who drink decreased from 35% in 1999 to 18% in 2003. They also demonstrated that at 7%, marijuana use among 8 th graders was the lowest it had ever been, down from a high of 19% in 2001. The Corner’s three-tier intervention begins with a Theatre performance.
Follow-up education is also well integrated into The Corner’s program and consists of two workshops. (A) Reality workshops: these personalize the risk and break through a teen’s sense of invulnerability (“This can’t happen to me.” ) (B) Skill building workshops: Botvin’s research along with others’ demonstrates the positive impact skill-building has on youth’s assertiveness, communication and resistance skills. One of the TT/PE program’s major components is a skill building workshop that incorporates many of the same activities found in the Lifeskills and other model based program curricula.
The conclusion in SAMHSA’s chapter on synthesizing research findings states that “Programs that combine life skills, interactive delivery, intensive participation and strong implementation consistently produced stronger and longer-lasting positive effects on substance use.” The Corner incorporates all of these elements into its TT/PE program .
Evaluation: A process/formative evaluation is conducted throughout the project, as well as an outcome evaluation at the end of the project. In addition, the evaluation includes a control group to compare the changes in those receiving the intervention.
Staff Profile
Go to Center for Community Building and Civic Engagement (CCBCE)
