Program encourages sexual health

PJ Heath Coming up this February, Trojan Outreach’s latest project, Bedside Bags, is set to promote sexual health and hygiene among Troy students. This project brings light to the e issue ofsexual health while also giving students the opportunity to obtain items for safer intercourse and personal hygiene that otherwise might not be available to them. The items in these bags include, but are not limited to, condoms, lubricant, tampons, pads and other contraceptives. Joel Miller, a sophomore human resource management major from Eufaula, Alabama, is a peer educator with Trojan Outreach. Miller said he is “passionate about this project because it allows students to safely have sex, and the discrete nature of this project makes the topic of safe sex more approachable.” Miller says his favorite part of the project is “it will be completely free, and who doesn’t love free stuff? “Especially because it can be difficult to get those items on a regular basis.” Trojan Outreach is currently trying to create the bags in the most cost-effective way, and they plan to begin distributing them in mid-February. Jace Mitcham, a senior psychology major from Jefferson City, Tennessee, is glad that Bedside Bags is being done because it will fill a need that many students on campus have. “It is important to note that this, at the time being, is theoretical,” said Mitcham. “The supplies cost a great deal of money and their hope is that students will be interested enough to where Trojan Outreach can take it to administration to show that there is a need for Bedside Bags.” Morgan Williams, a second semester graduate student from Mobile, Alabama, studying clinical mental counseling, is the grad assistant and adviser for Trojan Outreach. Williams is excited and hopeful about this project because it promotes safety and health. “Because students are sexually active, we want to provide students with products to protect themselves from STIs and STDs,” Williams said. To get a Bedside Bag, a student must go to the Trojan Outreach Facebook page and fill out the Google Docs interest form. The form is completely anonymous, and the information will be used for future preferences when the project is launched.