Hey! Trina & Shay here from the Annex’s R.E.A.C.H. Program! Have you heard about us? What is R.E.A.C.H., anyway?
R.E.A.C.H. (Restore and Empower African American Adolescents to Create Hope) is an inter-generational approach to preventing teen pregnancy, STIs, and HIV/AIDS among African Americans living in North Minneapolis.
This initiative provides parent/adult workshops, puberty education programming, peer education training, on-site HIV and STI testing at a variety of community locations, and also facilitates the CRUSH Collaborative youth council, which works to reduce the Chlamydia rates among youth in North Minneapolis. (For more information on CRUSH, visit www.crushsti.com ) Also, tune in to KMOJ radio tonight, Wednesday, September 23rd, at 6:30 pm for an interview with CRUSH!
The R.E.A.C.H. Project addresses the stigma associated with sexual health and normalizes conversations about sexuality. “African Americans and Hispanic/Latino populations in the 55411 and 55412 zip codes have disproportionately high rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea due to a lack of resources and education about sexual health.” says Shay. We focus on engaging the community, meeting people where they are, bringing our services to them, attending cultural events, working with youth as well as adults, – anything we can do to connect with the community! For information on bringing free HIV/STI testing, puberty education, or parent programming to your school, faith community, or community location, contact Trina Pearson at Trina@annexteenclinic.org.