Peer Health Educator

Position Title:  Peer Health Educator

Organization:  Division of Student Affairs

Department:  Health and Wellness Promotion

Hourly Wage:  $11.00

Average Hours/Week:  5-10 hours/week

Supervisor:  Health and Wellness Specialist

Questions: hwpindy@iu.edu 

Unit Description:

Health and Wellness Promotion (HWP) is an education and outreach office within the Division of Student Affairs that facilitates educational presentations, wellness events, and healthy behavior campaigns for topics like stress, nutrition, sexual health, sleep, physical activity, and alcohol. 

General Purpose:

A Peer Health Educator works to promote a healthy, safe, and inclusive campus environment. They serve as a bridge between the student body and the university's health services, delivering accurate health information and encouraging positive lifestyle choices through peer-to-peer connection.

Essential Duties:

Peer Health Educators facilitate educational classroom presentations, host outreach and awareness events, run marketing and info tables, create social media content, assist with administrative office tasks including front desk coverage, Safer Sex Supplies orders, restocking Naloxone boxes, and distributing copies of Stall Talk across campus. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Facilitate Workshops & Presentations: Lead interactive sessions for classrooms, Greek life, and student organizations on topics such as stress management, sexual health, alcohol/drug safety, and nutrition.
• Event Planning & Outreach: Organize and staff campus-wide awareness events (e.g., Stress Busters Week, Know Your Status, Safe Spring Break tabling).
• Resource Referral: Serve as a knowledgeable resource, guiding fellow students to appropriate professional services when needed. 
• Content Creation: Assist in designing social media campaigns, flyers, and digital content to disseminate health tips and promote upcoming events.
• Role Modeling: Demonstrate healthy behaviors and inclusive language to set a positive example for the student body.
• Administrative Tasks: Attend weekly training meetings, track outreach statistics, and maintain inventory of health supplies (condoms, brochures, etc.).

Minimum Qualifications:

• Knowledge of and commitment to a holistic approach to wellness and health, including: alcohol and other drug use, sexual wellness, stress management, mental health, nutrition/fitness, etc. 
• Ability to work independently in deadline-sensitive environment and consult when appropriate.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Skills in multi-tasking, organization, and prioritization of project tasks.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Gained in this Role:

Get hands on experience in public health and health promotion. As a result of employment, the team member will be able to demonstrate each of the Learning Profiles. Below are example learning outcomes students should expect to develop during the course of employment with Health and Wellness Promotion.

Profile 1: Communicator

The student conveys ideas effectively and ethically in oral, written, and visual forms across public, private, interpersonal, and team settings, using face- to-face and mediated channels. Communicators are mindful of themselves and others, listen, observe, and read thoughtfully, ask questions, evaluate information critically, create messages that demonstrate awareness of diverse audiences, and collaborate with others and across cultures to build relationships. The communicator:

• Demonstrates active listening skills when working with co-corkers and meeting with students
• Complete self-reflections and organize thoughts and feedback for staff meetings
• Engage others respectfully and present information clearly in classroom presentations and at resource tables

Profile 2: Problem Solver

The student works individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems. The problem solver:

• Draws on understanding of health promotion to develop creative and engaging program ideas
• Modifies program elements based on evaluation responses and makes recommendations to staff members
• Collaborate on group projects with Peer Health Educators and Program Assistants
• Identifies connection between health interventions and broader public health priorities

Profile 3: Innovator

The student builds on experiences and disciplinary expertise to approach new situations and circumstances in original ways, is willing to take risks with ideas, and pose solutions. Innovators are original in their thoughts and ask others to view a situation or practice in a new way. Innovators are good decision makers, can create a plan to achieve their goals, and can carry out that plan to its completion. Innovators use their knowledge and skills to address complex problems in order to make a difference in the civic life of communities, and to address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues. The innovator:

• Creates benchmarking reports after investigating best practices in health promotion 
• Identifies underlying factors for broader health behaviors, and uses knowledge to inform program decisions
• Identifies connection between health interventions and broader public health priorities

Profile 4: Community Contributor

The student is an active and valued contributor on the campus and in communities locally and globally. They are personally responsible, self-aware, civically engaged and they look outward to understand the needs of the society and their environment. They are socially responsible, ethically oriented, and actively engaged in the work of building strong and inclusive communities, both local and global. The community contributor:

• Leads grassroots awareness campaigns, recruits volunteers, plans strategies, and leads vocally
• Hosts community resource tables with sign-up sheets, awareness pledges, and stigma reduction campaigns