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Working Together for Change via School-Based Program

Houston-area teens and community leaders talk about responsible sex and strong male role models

 

The tagline, “You don’t want no baby mama drama,” resonated in the ears of local teenaged boys as community mentors urged them to understand the importance of responsible sexual behavior.

Before the 2006 school year started, more than 100 Houston-area boys and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity members assembled in The University of Texas School of Public Health auditorium in the Texas Medical Center to take a candid look at what it means to be suddenly thrust into parenthood, or to get a sexually transmitted disease, or to bear the full consequences of not respecting the women in their lives.

Through Project Alpha, a national intervention program established with the help of Ron Peters, Dr.P.H., professor of behavioral sciences at the School of Public Health, the boys frankly discussed with their peers and mentors the important issues of sex, relationships and fatherhood.

“As a young teen about to be 18, I’m learning to be responsible in everything I do – whether it is in school or in relationships,” said Daniel Keaton, a senior at Aldine’s Nimitz High School. “You got to be your own man.”

There are four essential components to Project Alpha: reproductive health information; social and economic issues tied to adolescent pregnancy; legal rights and responsibilities of a father; and medical difficulties associated with adolescent parenting.

“The goals of the program are to provide young men with factual reproductive information, motivate young men to practice responsible behavior in sexual relationships, and to promote young men’s self-esteem and empowerment in relationships,” Peters said.

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show nearly one million teens get pregnant each year, and about 450,000 teens give birth. Three million will get syphilis, AIDS or some other sexually transmitted disease.

“Traditional sex education focuses more on teaching pregnancy prevention to girls than to boys,” Peters said. “But it takes two to tango.”

Project Alpha is a school-based education program designed to mentor boys – mostly African American – through one-on-one dialogue, small group discussions, presentations and role playing. According to Peters’ article, “Project Alpha: A Culturally Appropriate Approach to Adolescent Male Sex Education,” published in a 2000 issue of the International Journal of Venereology, community role models promoting behavioral change make a more positive impact for African Americans.

At the Project Alpha meeting, 17-year-old Keaton related to that approach.

“I know if my friends received a pamphlet (on sex), they’d throw it away, and if they saw a billboard, they’d forget about it,” Keaton said. “Project Alpha will help us in six months or five years to grow as a young man, because we will remember what Dr. Peters said.”

It wasn’t just the boys learning at the School of Public Health. Some parents came to take a bite out of the Alpha project, and many left with a good taste in their mouths. For mother Annette Williams, the strong male role models reemphasize what she always tells her son about sex. “My son needs more than just me – Mom – talking to him,” she said.

Houston is one of 500 sites across the country taking part in Project Alpha, which is sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha, an international fraternity whose members are primarily African-American men who are active in community affairs. The fraternity began collaboratively implementing Project Alpha with the March of Dimes in 1980.

“Overall, I hope the boys left from Project Alpha with the tools they need to avoid risky sexual behaviors. In addition, we hope that we gave them an understanding that violence in relationships is intolerable,” Peters said.

By Melanie Hillis, Public Affairs