Programs:

The PEERsuaders are a group of high school-aged students, ages 14-19 who reside across Metro Atlanta counties in Georgia. They are trained as peer educators by MTCI’s Peer Manager to facilitate interactive, marriage appreciation, health and wellness educational presentations among student groups and throughout communities that we serve, as well as youth across Georgia in accordance with the Healthy Marriage Initiative Demonstration Grant 93.086. PEERsuaders will help teens internalize the values presented ~ not just hear the information, not just intellectually process the information ~ but take ownership of the material and put it into practice in their own lives. Peer educators drive all community events and reinforce the lessons taught in the classroom.

Mature Plus II: Marriage Appreciation Training Uplifting Relationship Education

Our 15 week interactive curriculum for healthy relationships skills building in multiple key areas.

• Foundations of healthy relationships

• Effective Communication

• Conflict Management

• Dating/Domestic Violence Prevention

• Financial Literacy

The MATURE Plus III Project (MPIII) Serves 1,200 students in school and community sites including 300 higher risk and pregnant/parenting teens (PLUS) each year. MPIII integrates educational strategies that support positive youth development, focuses on life-skills information such as dating violence prevention, domestic violence prevention and budgeting; employs adolescents who share the message of the importance of healthy relationships with their peers; and engages the community in youth appreciation activities.

MPIII continues the high quality marriage appreciation and relationship skills training that MTCI has offered to high school students and targeted high-risk youths for the past nine years. Additionally, MPIII includes a rigorous research design that will provide for evidence of the program’s impact.

Our approach is an educational strategy designed to promote positive youth development through marriage appreciation education with high-school students in Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia: DeKalb, S. Cobb, Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties.

Healthy Options for Personal Empowerment Plus II

The HOPE Plus II Project serves 2,000 students ages 14-19 in the area of sexual risk avoidance education and other services and instruction including as needed case management services. The HP II Project serves to reduce teen pregnancy, birth and STD rates, dating violence, underage drinking and illicit drug use by providing in-school and summer instruction and activities, that will teach the benefits of self-regulation, poverty prevention, healthy relationships, goal setting, resisting sexual coercion, dating violence, etc., utilizing REAL Essentials Advance (REAL) in the metro Atlanta area. 

HP II provides resources and addresses those factors that contribute to their risk-taking behavior, while promoting the success sequence (education, employment, marriage, then children).  Social media will also be utilized to further reinforce healthy behaviors. 

Peer Project:

This project serves a minimum of 300 Rockdale County high school students and community youth, both male and female, aged 14-19 over the life of the grant (300 participants annually). The PEER project targets those students that are most at risk for involvement in risky behavior, including those from the most impoverished communities such as students with histories of academic failure, skipping school, disciplinary issues and students residing in group homes and foster care systems.

The foundational services will be the implementation of WAIT Training, a promising program, as identified by the HHS Abstinence Evaluation Conference. This curriculum has also been reviewed and approved by the local sexual education committee and parents for use within the Rockdale County public school system and will provide the basis for the lessons taught as part of the PEER project. WAIT training is a dynamic, interactive curriculum that provides essential information for students to make healthy choices in their relationships. This practical and affirming program addresses sexual pressures currently confronting young people and is the ideal complement to the Georgia Department of Education performance standards .

The Voice PC

The Voice Peer Club Vision is a student organization that encourages & empowers teens in making healthy lifestyle choices thru the broadcasting of Risk Avoidance Messages. Mission
To advocate for healthy lifestyle choices among teens inside the schools of Metro Atlanta. Vision Be a “Voice” to encourage and empower teens in making healthy lifestyle choices through the broadcasting of Risk Avoidance Messaging.