Young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds often experience a range of complexities in their journey to Australia, including interrupted schooling. This, coupled with limited access to reliable, accurate and culturally appropriate respectful relationships and sexual health information, can have a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
Human Relations, a five week education program for newly-arrived young people attending Western English Language School (WELS), aims to redress these factors and provide young people with the skills, knowledge and resources to make informed decisions about relationships and sexual health. It is delivered once per week and sessions are 90 minutes in duration.
Women’s Health West, cohealth, Maribyrnong City Council Youth Services, Western English Language School and the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health (CEH) work in partnership to deliver the program, drawing on evidence-informed research and resources to educate young people about puberty, sex, reproduction, respectful relationships and diversity.
Human Relations provides a culturally appropriate, safe environment for young people to explore new concepts and information in their own language through the use of interpreters to prepare students for their transition into a mainstream schooling environment.
The manual utilised for the delivery of the program to young women is available for download. The manual used for delivery of the young men’s program is currently under review. This work may not be reproduced, reprinted or redistributed without obtaining permission from Women’s Health West. When parts of this document are utilised, Women’s Health West should be cited as the source.
