Albany Teens Join Columbia County Peers at GYT House Party

ALBANY, NY (04/15/2010)(readMedia)-- On Monday, April 19, twenty teens from the Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood (UHPP) S.T.A.R.S. (Seriously Talking About Responsible Sex) peer education program will meet together at a "house party" to watch and discuss a special GYT episode of the MTV program "Dean's List." The episode was produced as a part of the national Get Yourself Talking; Get Yourself Tested campaign. The event will take place at the Teen Connection in the UHPP Hudson Health Center located at 190 Fairview Avenue at 4:30pm.

"Dean's List is an MTVU (University) music video program that each week features a young person in their day to day life and the music videos that represent them. In this GYT edition, it will feature Planned Parenthood of Southern New England peer educator turned intern, Kayla, on her campus at University at Hartford, Connecticut. She will be talking about the importance of getting tested, her work with Planned Parenthood, and will actually get tested on screen. Songs featured during the segment will also have a GYT theme. MTV is providing DVD's of this program, including GYT shorts and public service announcements, to Planned Parenthood youth programs.

April is National STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) Awareness Month and for the second year, Planned Parenthood Federation of American has teamed up with MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation to launch a national GYT campaign to encourage America's sexually active youth to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. The long term mission of the GYT Campaign is "to spark a youthful, empowering social movement around getting tested." It encourages young people to "take control of our lives" by "talking openly about getting tested and getting it done. Campaign PSAs and printed materials encourage health providers to talk more with their young patients; parents to talk with their sons and daughters; and young men and women to talk to each other about STD prevention and testing.

S.T.A.R.S. stands for "Seriously Talking about Responsible Sex." The program is funded through a New York State Health Department Community Based Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention grant administered by UHPP. High school teens are recruited from schools in each county and trained to reach out to and inform other teenagers about sexual health and responsibility. The S.T.A.R.S. mission is to provide youth with age-appropriate comprehensive sex education and access to reproductive health services.

For this event, the peers from Albany will be traveling to Hudson to participate in the house party. "This will be a great opportunity for the two peer groups to get together and share perspectives, experiences and knowledge," stated UHPP Education Director Meaghan Carroll. "The discussion guide for the DVD will also provide important factual information and ideas about how our teens can take this information out to their peers."

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Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood (UHPP) is a community-based non-profit organization providing advocacy, education and medical services for reproductive health care since 1934. In 2009, over 14,000 patients made 24,975 visits to UHPP health centers located in Albany, Hudson and Troy. UHPP health educators present over 300 education programs reaching over 5,000 youth and young adults. UHPP services are delivered with special concern for the underserved.