HEALTHY RESPECT LAUNCHES DVD: Abstinence Education: A Fresh Approach
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A professionally produced DVD brings you behind the scenes at Healthy Respect, and highlights the assessments and opinions of students and educators who benefit from the abstinence education curriculum. The DVD is being launched today on the program's website.
The 9-minute documentary-style production tells the story of Healthy Respect from the perspective of the most important persons in the program: the middle school and high school students who take the 23-session classroom-based curriculum. Also featured are school administrators and principals who invited Healthy Respect into their classrooms because they recognize the benefits of abstinence education for their students as well as the professional standards of the Healthy Respect program.
Adding words of commendation for Healthy Respect are Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone, and Yonkers Schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio who have encouraged public schools in the city to welcome the program.
Also appearing in interviews on the DVD are John P. Margand, Esq., Chief Executive Officer of Healthy Respect; Dr. Nanci Coppola, Director of Curriculum, and Healthy Respect classroom instructors.
"With the release of this DVD we want to tell the Healthy Respect story from all angles while focusing on the classroom environment and the students, where the high-quality curriculum is put to the test," Mr. Margand said. "The interviews with the students and educators clearly show that Healthy Respect is reaching teens where they live and changing attitudes about teen sexuality, while helping them live better, healthier, more productive lives."
The DVD begins by laying out the problems associated with teen sexuality, highlighting the crisis of sexually transmitted infections and the negative factors of teen pregnancy, and then shows how Healthy Respect was developed to address these problems and offer healthy alternatives. It presents on-site views of classroom sessions, in which students ask questions and voice opinions about sexuality, and also shows high school students preparing to be teen mentors to younger students, and educators and experts at a medical training workshop.
The most dramatic sections include personal testimonies by students who have taken the message to heart.
"We really were touched by the very personal message these students gave because they are the ones who ultimately will judge the success of our program," said Dr. Nanci Coppola, Director of Curriculum. "Healthy Respect is about the lives and futures of these students, so it is appropriate that they tell us how the program affects them."
Along with the full-length production, a micro-site includes in-depth interviews with the students, educators and administrators featured in the documentary. These featured pieces provide the viewer with a further, detailed look into the Healthy Respect program and are organized, like the Healthy Respect curriculum, into topical units. "Opening Doors to a Better Future", "The Skills That Set Us Apart" and "A Fresh Approach", explain how and why the Healthy Respect program is reaching students within and beyond the class room. "Bringing the Community Together" highlights Healthy Respect's relationship with the Yonkers Public School System and its connection to the ongoing renaissance of New York State's fourth largest city. In "Evaluation", Dr. Coppola explains how the results of the Healthy Respect curriculum are measured.
The DVD was funded in part by a grant from the Alfred E. Smith Foundation and produced by On Slot Creative, a video production company in Manhattan.