HIV…Let’s Live Free!!!
“Your Choice, Your Action, Your Life”
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) has dedicated its time and energy through The Office of Prevention Programs to ensure HIV/AIDS Education is perceived as a mainstream topic to be discussed openly. BCPS educates teachers, parents and students on the positive impact of sharing this information. HIV/AIDS Education in Broward County has taken to the airwaves in an effort to raise awareness among community members and parents in hopes that the message will be embraced. The overarching goal is to normalize the importance of educating our students and to create a culture with a common prevention language to combat this epidemic.
Read More…
The Office of Prevention Programs utilizes technology in creative ways to provide HIV prevention information to students. A recent, exciting example is the creation of six (6) 30 second, Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) addressing the topic of HIV /AIDS. The PSA’s spearheaded the prevention campaign - “HIV…Lets Live Free - Your Choice, Your Action, Your Life”. The topics of the PSA’s (marrated by our students) are transmission, abstinence, prevention, psychological, facts and resources. To reach our diverse student population, PSA’s are available in English, Spanish and Creole. In addition, all PSA’s are closed-captioned and the English prevention PSA, is in American Sign Language. PSA’s are available as a resource on our website and schools will have on-demand access to ensure distribution to every middle and high school classroom across Broward County. PSA’s are also available to the greater community through BECON, the school district’s television station, as well as local television stations.
This HIV/AIDS campaign utilizes the Social Norms Approach to deliver its message. The Social Norms Approach prevents problem behavior, promotes and reinforces positive behavior. This positive strategy dispels myths about the problem being the norm among peers. It starts with gathering credible data from a population and identifying the actual norms regarding the attitudes and behavior of concern. Then a social norms intervention intensively communicates the truth through media campaigns, interactive programs, and other practical and educational venues. Evidence has shown youth responding to these initiatives with more realistic perceptions of peers, problem behavior decreasing, and the norm of positive behavior growing stronger in the population.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR VIDEO GALLERY
The tag line “Your Choice, Your Action, Your Life ” was developed by Broward County Public School students who participated in several focus groups.
Broward County Public Schools has teamed up with healthteacherand Miami Children’s Hospital to bring our educators the healthteacher curriculum. We have aligned healthteacher lessons to our HIV..Let’s Live Free PSAs. Click here to access the lessons: HEALTH TEACHER LESSONS
