Newcomer and street-involved youth provided their perspective on the design and
content of a sexual education workshop. Following the workshop, focus group
discussions were held with 80 youth from four youth-serving agencies. Youth
expressed increased levels of confidence and empowerment, consistent with recent
criticism that a focus on specific behaviors as intervention outcome measures may
miss important psychosocial changes in participants. Some youth views on cultural
adaptation of workshops were not consistent with current views expressed by some
adult educators, highlighting the need to ensure a youth perspective is captured
during intervention development. Finally, the dichotomous views that youth
expressed regarding workshop activities emphasizes a research gap related to how
best to adapt interventions to different cognitive capacities, literacy levels,
and learning styles. Information of this kind is relevant in terms of knowledge
translation from youth to program planners and educators.