Researchers: Juan Fernando Larranaga, Nkandu Beltz (Save the Children); Richard Chenhall, Kate Senior (Menzies School of Health Research)

Funding: Department of Health – WA

Project summary: The proposed action research project will inform development of a program of activities for young people throughout the Shire of Wyndham, East Kimberley (SWEK) aimed at reducing harms arising from risky sexual activity. The program will be managed by the Department of Child Protection, and contracted to the recently developed Kununurra Youth Service. Save the Children already operates youth projects in both Wyndham and Kununurra, and have established solid relationships with a range of young people and their families in each area. Save the Children works closely with relevant stakeholders engaged in the delivery of sexual health services in the region. The current project will build on these established youth networks, and related community networks as a basis for further program design and development. Young people, stakeholders and other community members will be involved from early stages in determining and delivering relevant research strategies, which we anticipate will follow a peer-education model. The proposed project will link in with, and add value to, an existing youth led sexual health project being run by Save the Children in collaboration with the YBMAD youth group in Kununurra. It will also inform development of a large scale sexual health research project due to commence in 2010 which will employ similar participatory processes throughout three states of Australia.

Progress: Completed in 2010