Reaching Young People Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Communication Projects (1986-1995)

Published by The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), this working paper (#2) is one of several that describe JHU/CCP's views about a given theme or topic and illustrate, via descriptions of various projects in many countries, how the lessons of experience led to such a view. The publication contains an extensive bibliography for further reference.

From the Preface:
For more than a decade, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided major support to the Johns Hopkins Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS), a component of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), to support more than 30 communication programs around the world to help young people protect their health. Programs inAfrica, Asia, Latin America, the Near East, and the New Independent States seek to inform young people about safe sexual behavior and to help them obtain high-qualityreproductive health services. Mass communication programs reach young people through the media they enjoy - movies, videos, popular songs, and plays. Interpersonal communication programs reach young people by improving their communication with parents and health care providers. Community-wide programs mobilize young people to participate in community activities and mobilizecommunities to help their young people.

This publication reviews these projects and presents the lessons that JHU/CCP has learned from its experience in communicating with young people about their reproductive health. The lessons apply to designing programs, gaining widespread support for programs, and evaluating program effects. This experience can be useful to program planners seeking to communicate with young people...