Health Information Project, Inc. (HIP)

After nearly twelve years in Miami-Dade schools, HIP knows that providing teens with evidence-based health information positively impacts them physically, emotionally, academically and economically. HIP empowers students to promote physical and emotional health among their families, friends and communities. HIP knows that many of these health issues, while perhaps more prevalent in certain communities, cross all racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and geographic groups. 

Students across the nation are dealing with serious health issues such as depression, anxiety, bullying, stress, obesity, substance abuse, eating disorders and suicide. 

HIP wants to grow to serve high school students across the country with its life-changing, life-saving program.

Through this funding, HIP would be able to enhance its existing programs, continue to expand its infrastructure and raise its visibility in order to replicate and scale its evidence-based model nationally.

In 2009, Risa Berrin, HIP’s executive director and its founder, discovered a void in the health education space.  

Risa observed that the national, traditional health education model, taught by adults, included scare tactics, boring lectures, outdated textbooks, cheesy videos, and irrelevant materials. Risa knew that the old model was archaic and that kids wanted a more practical, relevant approach. As a result, Risa felt compelled to revolutionize health education. 

After traveling around the country looking for an innovative health education program and being unable to find one, Risa felt compelled to create her own model. She wanted to ensure that all students, regardless of what school they attended or what neighborhood they were from, were privy to a comprehensive health education program that addressed critical physical and emotional health issues that teenagers were facing.

Today, in HIP's 12th year, HIP is partnering with 85 high schools, training over 2,300 student peer health educators who are teaching over 45,000 9th graders, across Miami, Broward and Mississippi.

It is not enough to just teach kids about world history, geometry, and biology. We need to teach them how to cope with anxiety, help a friend with depression and support a bullied LGBTQ+ classmate.

Students across the country are suffering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “existing mental illness among adolescents may be exacerbated by the pandemic.” Child abuse, substance use and suicidal ideation are significant concerns among adolescents, due to social isolation and lack of connection with trusted adults. 

Through HIP, high school juniors and seniors are trained to conduct interactive discussion sessions with their freshmen peers, addressing critical topics such as depression, abuse, bullying, anxiety, suicide, eating disorders, grief, stress, and obesity.

HIP also has a school-wide print and social media health campaign, which creates a culture of health on each school campus. Finally, HIP creates an individualized health resource website for each school district, which connects students to reliable, reputable resources at their schools, in their local communities and online.

Through these peer-led classroom sessions, the school-wide health campaign, and health resource portal, HIP’s mission is to empower teens to have the information necessary to live healthy lives.

The traditional health education model was always taught by adults, generally a health teacher or PE coach. HIP utilizes high school students, instead of adults, as the health teachers.

HIP was created with 3 insights in mind:

1. Adults have no credibility in the eyes of teenagers! Kids are not interested in getting their health information from parents, doctors or teachers.

2. Peer pressure is good! Instead of focusing on peer pressure as an agent for bad behavior, HIP uses it for good.

3. HIP puts the kids in charge! As a society, we always turn to adults to solve crises. But HIP decided to turn to the kids instead. 

HIP’s innovative and sustainable model relies on a school’s greatest resource - the students - to deliver the program - at their own schools. HIP empowers student health ambassadors to teach health education to their peers. By creating a network of well-informed, physically and emotionally healthy, civically engaged teenagers, HIP's program is transforming communities. 

Unlike many organizations that provide supplementary services to a subset of a school population, HIP reaches all 9th grade students across a campus. HIP also becomes embedded within a school culture, like a Key Club or National Honor Society. 

HIP knows that there is an increased need for support systems for students and faculty to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Students are dealing with tremendous stress, anxiety, and grief as a result of this crisis- food insecurity, homelessness, parents who have lost jobs, lack of access to mental health services and loved ones who have passed away from the virus.  

Since 2018, HIP has been partnering with the University of Pennsylvania’s ImpactED, a research institute that assists organizations with creation of survey instruments, data collection, and evaluation in order to enhance performance and evaluate impact.

Some highlights from the research include:

• Majority of students report that they prefer being taught health from their peers and not adults

• 9th grade students report they do not feel socially isolated, they feel safe and supported and they feel that they are not alone

• 98% report an increase in self-esteem

• 96% report an increase in their sense of empathy

• 93% are better able to manage stress

• 98% of PHEs learn to advocate for themselves and others

• 99% report feeling they are not alone

• 100% of principals recommend HIP

• 95% of teachers say HIP has improved their 9th grade students’ experience