The Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia has embarked on a two-year Youth Peer Education (YPE) Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and Blood Borne Virus (BBV) research project, funded by the Department of Health, Western Australia.
 
This exciting and challenging initiative aims to establish an ongoing presence of STI and BBV information and education in the WA youth sector through the development and implementation of effective and sustainable youth peer education programs.
 
The project involves trialling various peer education models with six WA youth sector agencies to explore effective ways of educating marginalised young people about sexual health and blood borne virus issues.
 
The project will be guided by best-practice youth peer education literature and principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR), and thus will see the young people as key informants and active participants in the process of developing peer education programs relevant to them and their peers. The trial agencies will take various approaches and employ varied peer education models depending on their target group, context and program goals; however central to all programs will be the empowerment of young people to make informed decisions about their health, and to support their peers to do the same.