Breaking down the taboo over open discussions
about sexual health earned seven young people from the Donhead
area of South Wiltshire a Diana Princess of Wales Memorial
Award.
Teenagers, working with the Wiltshire Youth Development service,
took part in a 2 month Sunshine Healthy Living Arts 4 Life
project in 2004 and created a short film about sexual health
- Sex Actually - which they wrote, produced, performed and
filmed alongside video artist Lizzie Sykes of Vivid Animations.
The aim of the project was to make young people more aware
of how to avoid getting a sexually transmitted infection or
becoming pregnant before you really want it. And it was also
about breaking the taboo that sex and sexual health is something
you don't actually talk about.
'I now know more about sex. I know
condoms can be broken with oily products'
'It made me realise what it would
really be like to have my own babies'
The film has since been screened to students at Shaftesbury
School, where most of the young people who made the film now
attend, and to young people at Tisbury, Mere & Wilton
Youth Development Centres.
The project was funded by the Big Lottery Fund, Salisbury
District Council, Crimebeat and the Wiltshire Teenage Pregnancy
Fund. Further support from Shaftesbury School and North &
South West Dorset Primary Care Trust has meant that an education
pack is being produced for teachers and youth workers.
For more information about the forthcoming Sex Actually education
pack contact Rachel Efemey on 01722
434307.
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