By NICOLE FOSTER
Staff Writer
A unique organization is about to make a home in Pine Hills. Real Talk is a program run by at-risk teenagers who want to teach their peers about safe sex and HIV prevention. Now six years old, Real Talk has already proven significant positive behavior changes concerning the use of condoms. With weekly meetings at area Boys and Girls Clubs and the Arbor Hill library, Real Talk plans to expand to the LaSalle School on Washington Avenue.
“Our youth are the experts,” said TJ Smith, program manager for Real Talk. “Because we target highest risk teens, they’re the expert on high-risk teens.”
The program’s parent, Albany’s Alliance for Positive Health, obtained a federal grant in 2010 to create a program that focused on youth HIV prevention. Already dedicated to providing support services to people affected by HIV and AIDS, a teen-specific version wasn’t too much of a stretch.
When designing the program, Smith knew that input from Capital Region teens would be invaluable; she needed them to teach adults how to talk to teenagers. Smith and her team created a community advisory board made of youths and concerned adults. The teenagers have guided Smith in ways to communicate effectively with high-risk urban adolescents.
Smith explained the various classifications of what “at-risk” means. Factors include: early onset of sexual activity, unprotected sex, substance abuse, disengaged from school and unstable home life, which involves a parent who is in jail, who is unemployed or who abuses drugs and/or alcohol.
Teens’ communities also contribute to at-risk behavior. Smith said specific zip codes may have one or more of the following impacts young lives: high crime rate, low employment rate, high rates of STDs, including HIV, low high school graduation rates and high rates of drug and/or alcohol use.
Real Talk’s curriculum is straightforward: eight weeks of two distinct programs, which are open to all interested teenagers. “A-Tech” is a discussion group where nothing is off limits. Think “The Breakfast Club” meets Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex.”
AIDS, HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI), birth control, goal-setting and relationship issues are everyday topics in A-Tech. The youth advocates stress there is absolutely no judgment and participation is based on each individual’s comfort level.
The second half of Real Talk’s curriculum, Promise, works toward making positive changes within each teen’s community. Students create media- and art-based projects meant to impact other teens and are inspired by personal experiences. The projects can be any medium including videography, photography and music. Area professionals within the selected form teach the skills needed to complete each story.
In 2014 the students wanted to create a mural. To figure out how, a muralist was hired and the students painted a 16-by-70 foot wall next to Alliance for Positive Health’s office at 927 Broadway. They have also built an online game and produced short films. The meetings for Promise and A-Tech are at Boys and Girls Club locations throughout Albany, Troy and Schenectady and Albany Public Library’s Arbor Hill branch. A detailed schedule is on Real Talk’s website.
“This is something that gets them into college. It gets them a job,” Smith said about the Promise project training. “If you really want to make a change in a community, you have to get them invested in it.”
Teens who complete both A-Tech and Promise are eligible to join Real Talk’s Tech Group. They are responsible for keeping the organization’s website and all social media accounts current and active. The site includes information about HIV and STI testing, teen pregnancy and even advice for finding a job. All the content is created by Tech Group teens and provides open forums to ask questions. The group’s members are paid $12.50 an hour but Smith is certain they would show up without the monetary incentive.
“They deserve compensation,” said Smith. “Those are the youth that have been with us for a while, demonstrated dedication and a desire to learn new skills. We would not turn away anyone with that desire.”
Alaya, 17, is part of Tech Group. [To respect requests from Real Talk and Alliance for Positive Health administration, teens’ last names have been omitted.] Before joining, she took a computer class at school but was confused by the content. She lost interest in learning computer skills. That outlook changed after her participation with Tech Group. While sitting in front of a laptop at a recent meeting, Alaya explained her favorite task: analyzing social media statistics. Every time Real Talk engages a teen online, she feels as though they’ve reached a goal.
“We’re getting there, step by step,” she said about educating other students.
Alaya feels a responsibility to make sure teens in the community have safe sex and she’s confident in her ability to instruct them. She was enrolled in Albany High School her freshman year and later transferred to the Alternative Learning Center on Lark Street to focus on her grades. While at the high school, Alaya always had a stash of condoms for other students, which she got from Real Talk meetings.
“Before I was transferred to ALC, I was the one person who would be like, ‘If you need condoms, come to me,’” she said. “I was ‘the plug’ in school. Mad people asked me for condoms.”
Now a junior, Alaya has improved her grades and was given the option to return to the public high school. She declined.
“There’s a lot of people in the high doing stuff to do it because they think they’re grown,” Alaya said. “They do stuff without thinking of the consequences.”
Real Talk yields results and its value is apparent to Alaya when people in her neighborhood and social group are diagnosed with STIs.
“Being here, I know what I need to know in order for me to not be in that predicament,” she said.
Her friend, Eric, started to question his life decisions after joining Real Talk. He now stops to consider if actions are safe and even teaches others how easily STIs and HIV can be transmitted.
Eric’s favorite part of the program is the open discussions teenagers have about their communities.
“Real Talk shows you that, you know, certain parts of your area can be dangerous,” said the 16-year-old about some neighborhoods. “But we talk about how we can improve it.”
A student at Green Tech High Charter School, Eric also appreciates the candidness of Real Talk’s sex education. He said “it was cool to learn about HIV and safe sex because that’s the stuff they don’t teach about in school.”
At Albany High School, students are required to take a half-year health class which they must pass to graduate. AHS health teacher Elizabeth Lopatniuk explained the extent of the sex education component.
“During the course, we have a 10-day session with Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood in which they administer their federally approved, and Board of [Education] approved, sex education curriculum,” she said. “The curriculum consists of STDs, including HIV and AIDS, education, as well as learning skills to advocate for themselves.”
Lopatniuk said AHS faculty are not permitted to pass out condoms to students. Instead, teens are informed of Planned Parenthood’s weekly teen clinic, located at 855 Central Ave., where they can walk in and receive free contraceptives. In the seven years Lopatniuk has taught at the high school, she has seen the number of STIs rise within the student population. She believes the best way to combat sexually transmitted infections is continued education and encouragement of condom usage, as well as teaching students the confidence to communicate wants and needs to their partners.
A skeptic of high school sex-ed is Mary Ellen Adams, a registered nurse and Albany Medical Center’s HIV coordinator at the Specialized Care Center for Adolescents and Young Adults. She confirmed STIs are at an all-time high. Adams isn’t convinced high school students are getting the best sex education and that there is room for improvement. She spoke of the fear teens may have about a diagnosis and the embarrassment if someone sees them getting tested.
Her colleague, Dr. Debra Tristram is the chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Albany Medical Center. Tristram said Albany County leads the region in HIV and STI diagnoses. She acknowledged the complexity for teenagers who are worried about STIs, which creates “a whole other layer of issues that teens deal with.” She said youths diagnosed with HIV know they can give it to someone else and disclosing that information to a sexual partner could result in a loss of that person’s affections.
“Having sex is a constant reminder of something going wrong,” said Tristram. “It’s very stressful.”
Adams wants the stigma of HIV and STIs erased. She said people who are diagnosed with cancer are “smothered with kindness,” but those diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease have a very different reality.
Both women are advocates for a medication called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). It’s a pill that can help prevent contracting HIV. If someone is exposed to the disease, PrEP may stop the virus. People who have been sexually assaulted, have had high-risk unprotected sex, had a condom break or who use non-prescription injectable drugs are potential candidates for the medication. PrEP must be taken within 36 hours of sexual contact or needle injection.
“PrEP is prevention,” Adams said. “We don’t think youth really know about it. It’s all very time sensitive. Think of it like birth control: it works if you take it.”
To avoid the need for PrEP, Tristram summed-up what teens may want to consider before they decide to engage in sexual behavior.
“When you have sex with somebody, you’re having sex with everybody they’ve had sex with. It’s a disturbing thought, but it’s true.”
Adams and Tristram want teens to understand medical fees and confidentiality should never stop them from getting tested. Their departments work with a case manager at Albany Med who can navigate the system and explore various payment options and assistance programs.
“We should be looking at ways to use social media and encourage testing,” Adams said. “Minors don’t need consent from their parents to get tested. If a person wants to get tested, there are primary care doctors, Urgent Care, college campuses and community-based organizations.”
Community-based organizations like Real Talk.
Real Talk exceeded the goals agreed upon to receive its first five-year grant. The program was expected to serve 800 youths through the various Real Talk components. A review found that after five years, 969 teens received services. Another requirement was to reach 1,500 youths in-person through speaking engagements and events. Real Talk reached 1,868 teens in-person. They engaged 29,481 teens online through their YouTube channel and website; the grant requirement was 7,500. An area Real Talk fell short was with testing. The goals were to administer 375 HIV tests and 500 STD tests. The actual accomplishments were 329 and 328 tests, respectively.
Smith said there has been a significant decline in daily substance use among teens involved with Real Talk. There has also been a substantial increase in teens who report using condoms. With the grant renewed for another five years, Smith wants to reach 200 youths each year.
“Every time they show up, we have one more opportunity to work with them,” she said.
At the Tech Group meeting, Alaya has a notebook next to her. The cover says, “Today is a story worth telling.” She has her sights set on college and wants to become a writer. Since she joined Real Talk, Alaya has noticed a difference in her life. “I just stopped hanging out with a lot of people and a lot of things have changed since then.” After a pause, she smiled and said, “I’m not stressed out. I’m happy.”
