The Teen Outreach Reproductive CHallenge: Improving Adolescent Health Care Delivery Through Peer Education Projects

The Teen Outreach Reproductive CHallenge (TORCH) is a peer education program that provides information on various topics relevant to adolescent sexual health to a diverse audience, ranging from teens to health care providers. This information is disseminated through various projects by a group of New York City high-school students who are extensively trained to become peer educators. One TORCH project is the peer leadership and advocacy project, in which peer educators perform workshops related to issues of sexual health and rights for New York City teens. Another TORCH project is the Adolescent Health Care Communication Project, which focuses on improving communication between health care providers and adolescents. In addition, there is the Adolescent Standardized Patient Project, where selected TORCH members act as standardized patients in medical training programs. The goal of TORCH is to empower youth to educate their peers as well as health care providers about adolescent sexual health issues. [(C) 2007 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.]