The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) created its Just Ask ME (JAM) program from an innovative idea to face teen pregnancy and health disparities issues for teenagers in the South Bronx. The organization developed age-appropriate lessons for third through fifth grade students in its After School Enrichment Program at PS/IS 218 Rafael Hernández Dual Language Magnet School — a program called “JAM Jr.” The JAM program expanded to two additional schools in the South Bronx this fallL the Highbridge Green School and South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School.
According to Katie Shillman, health education coordinator at WHEDco, in an interview with the AmNews, “Jam has been around for over 10 years … there’s been a lot of issues outside reproductive health that are impacting our students, so we’ve expanded the program to include … social media and internet safety. I’ve helped develop those lesson plans … for sixth to eighth grade.”
Adding more schools is expected to greatly increase program reach. “In the past years, we’ve reached about 130 to 140 students, and this ear we’re on track to reach over 700 students, so we’re expanding the program very rapidly this year which is very exciting,” said Shillman.
At the heart of JAM is its peer-led programming where high-school and college students are trained to lead workshops on topics from mental health to drug and alcohol awareness, to other topics described above.
According to Shillman, “local students who mainly have graduated from JAM themselves have gone to the middle schools that we teach at, so they’re high school students. This year, we’ve also expanded that component to include local college and grad students as well.”
Shillman works with cohorts of college and graduate students who are majoring in nursing, social work, and other health-related fields, “which has been a really amazing experience to help empower those budding professionals and student leaders in the community to help teach students in the area.”
WHEDco has a precise way of evaluating gains and outcomes of the program. According to Shillman, “we do pre- and post-testing throughout the years and there’s pretty clear progress. We have six to eight sessions with each class, covering all those different topics, and knowledge always increases each year … there’s a pretty stark contrast with what information they end up with and how much information they remember over the years.”
Shillman attributed much of “ this great progress that we see” to the repetition of knowledge, unlike in Department of Education (DOE) schools, where “typically you get it once in middle school and you get it once in high school, and that’s it,” she said. “We see that it’s so much more effective to be reintroducing that information, expanding upon that information.”
Shillman explained that not only is there increased knowledge for students, which is the program’s main goal, but also “it’s always incredible, having these conversations with the students during the workshops … you see that ability to create that community where they can talk about these more sensitive topics. We’re focusing more on healthy relationships and consent … you see the gears in their head turning and they’re able to talk about the drama and the gossip in their schools in a little bit more elevated, knowledgeable way.”
Shillman said she sees “the main impacts … are three-fold with the actual knowledge increase each year and … they’re able to get involved, becoming peer educators themselves; being able to take on leadership roles; being able to provide that knowledge and resources for younger students in their community and grow as youth advocates, which is incredible to see in these communities.”
Shillman noted that the program is also expanding “not just to our graduates of the JAM program, but any high school student, college student, in the area who is passionate about health education; who wants to get involved, get good experience teaching and working with students. That’s definitely something that we’re trying to recruit for.”
Another goal is to expand JAM “past our partner schools eventually and be able to do one-off workshops in other schools that are relevant for their communities,” Shillman said. “A lot of exciting things are happening.”
Link to full story: https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2025/03/13/whedco-expands-its-peer-led-workships-in-the-bronx/