4.1 What do peer educators do?

4.1

What do peer educators do?

This chapter outlines the way peer-to-peer education can be used as a model of youth participation. Peer-to-peer education enables young people to take active leadership roles within youth information services. It involves peer educators who provide quality first-hand information to other young people and refer their peers to youth information services. They also work with the youth information services to prepare, develop, and disseminate the information content.

Peer educators are young people who voluntarily carry out informal or organised youth information activities with their peers. They do this at youth information centres, youth centres and clubs, places of education, youth associations, leisure and recreation venues and other youth spaces.

Peer education can be as simple as talking informally with a friend about a particular issue of concern. It can also be based around peer educators running structured peer education activities to other groups of young people, to deliver information on specific topics.

By delivering youth information activities, young people gain direct influence over the youth information that is shared with other young people. Peer educators develop their skills and potential throughout the project. They can learn from their experiences and work collaboratively with the youth information service to improve the quality and outreach of the youth information activities they deliver. Peer educators allow for a decentralising of youth information and the possibility to establish a direct connection with young people through a model of horizontal communication between equals.

Peer educators act as transmitters of information in a double sense by collecting the concerns and needs of young people they are working with. They share these concerns with the youth information service, and can provide feedback on the current quality of youth information. The service can then use this information to develop new youth information and outreach tools.

support to peer educators

“Those who already work as peer educators should be listened to - they know best what each of them needs. Those who could potentially be peer educators should be trained and it would really help them to have some useful tools. All of the youth should be acknowledged, that they can be peer educators and have a big influence on their peers.”

“To encourage young people to spread information close to their hearts, it is necessary to point out the reasons that can cause it to grow into something much bigger. Also, offer them appropriate conditions and specific cooperation. Young people often learn about the programs from their friends and choose to do so because they hear vivid stories that convince them. It is therefore important to reach out to young people and meet them in their communities. Social media also plays an important role, but it’s critical that young people with experience also appear in those media.”

Maria Bajorek Eurodesk young journalist

recruit and support peer educators

Anna, Poland Eurodesk young journalist