Friends For Hope's Programs

Peer Educators Acting for Change and Equality
(Formerly Students Taking Action For Respect)

In 2001, Friends For Hope staff saw a great need for a support group for its teenage clients. In response to this, the agency collaborated with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault to implement the STAR program in Big Lake. STAR's has expanded into an educational program open to all middle school and high school students. The students are youth leaders who train and practice and present awareness, positive youth development, and early awareness programming on sexual harassment, date rape, drugs and alcohol abuse to their peers in schools, churches and community groups. Students Taking Action for Respect has been nationally recognized for its student-developed design, involving students in informing their peers, rather than hiring a spokesperson to talk about sexual violence issues. Locally, the Big Lake STAR Program has presented to the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Conference, the Texas Social Work Conference, and the 2005 STAR Conference. This team was also recognized by TAASA as the 2004 STAR Team of the Year, and our Executive Director was recognized as the 2005 STAR Sponsor of the Year. Finally, the Big Lake STAR team was recognized by the local Chamber of Commerce in 2005 as an Outstanding Youth Organization.
In the beginning of 2010, the STAR program became known as Texas PEACE (Peer Educators Acting for Change and Equality) project. Along with the name change, there is a change in the direction of the program. The program has changed from being awareness-raising to primary prevention. In addition to the educating of our youth about dating violence, sexual violence, sexual harassment, drug facilitated sexual assault and date rape, the PEACE project is designed to provide detailed training on the correlation between various forms of oppression and sexual violence. The hope is that with this change students will realize that they are part of the bigger picture to end sexual violence and that their participation in the PEACE project is helping to make a difference in the lives of all Texans.

HEROES Great and Small

As with the PEACE program, Friends For Hope staff implemented a support group for children who were victims of domestic violence, harassment, and assault in 2000. Since its implementation, HEROES has expanded to include all elementary-aged children who are interested. This group meets every Monday at 4:00 p.m. at the Friends For Hope office located at 1001 2nd Street, Big Lake, Texas. HEROES was designed to help children learn valuable life skills while participating in fun activities. Some of the topics covered are self-esteem, personal safety, the exploration of feelings, anger management, and character development. Call the Friends For Hope office for more information.