Summary of a 2-year peer education pilot with young parents in Lambeth, south London, to test an intensive intervention to help teenage parents move into employment

1. Youth Truth
A peer education project with young parents in Lambeth
2013-2014

2. Youth Truth - a peer
education pilot
an intensive intervention to
help young and teenage
parents to
• find a career
• move towards financial
stability

3. Why trial peer ed with young parents?
• parenthood often means a surge in ambition and drive in young
people who have not previously engaged with education, training
or employment
• chance to get to hard to reach young people, around difficult topics
of particular relevance in Lambeth
• prevent children becoming young parents, involvement in gangs,
violent & exploitative relationships

4. Project Aims & Objectives
• Reduce risk of long term social exclusion for teenage and young
parents aged 18 – 24 and their children
• Educate children and young people aged 11 – 16 to make informed
choices around various risky behaviours, including:
o teenage pregnancy and parenthood
o violence and control in relationships
o gang grooming processes
• Test how a peer education model might support young and teenage
parents to find a career and move towards financial stability for
themselves and their families

5. Recruitment & Retention
• 62 young parents recruited
• 26 began peer education training
• 21 completed accredited peer ed training
Free crèche facilities and child care were critical.

6. Peer Ed training programme
• 5 x peer facilitation (London Youth)
• 1 x session planning and delivery practice (St Michael’s)
• 1 x preparation for work (St Michael’s)
• 1 x interview skills (Dress for Success)
• 1 x sexual health training (Brook London)
• 1 x Child Exploitation & Online Protection CEOPs (Met Police)
• 1 x domestic violence (St Michael’s)
• 1 x gang grooming (St Michael’s)

7. Developing work readiness
• 21 peer educators
gained 3 AQA certificates
• 9 gained a further 2 AQA
certificates

8. Developing work readiness
• Pre peer ed training, 22
were NEET
• Post peer ed training, 5
were NEET

9. Those remaining NEET
“I was enjoying being a peer educator but then found I was expecting a
second baby. However, I went ahead to set up an online young parent’s
blog.
As a result, I was invited to be the feature parent and spokesperson for a
young mums support network and Baby Bump, a pregnancy app for
mobile phones, which I’m now promoting on YouTube!” Natalie

10. Delivering peer education
• peer educators delivered 16 sessions
• 130 young people aged 14 – 18
attended
• the most popular topic was gang
grooming
“ gave me a real insite (sic) on what gang
life could be like… how it starts and how
to spot it.”
“the peer educators make information
easy to understand”

11. What we learned: Youth Truth underlines …
• the importance of partnership working
• that holistic, intensive support is the only way to include the most
vulnerable young parents and to ignite their potential
• young parents’ extreme vulnerability to change, whether forced (eg
rehousing) or voluntary (eg new relationship)
• that we must greatly over-recruit, incentivise and find more
compelling ways to explain the relationship of formal educational
qualifications to better-paid employment

12. St Michael’s will continue to develop and
test new ways to support parents in
today’s society.
Download the full report
www.stmichaelsfellowship.org.uk/content/2226/Peer-Education-
Programme