Relationships and self-esteem were the two main thrusts of a "Walk the Talk" presentation at Battleford's Indian Métis Friendship Center July 27.
Each week presenters from the Battleford Family Health Center employ interactive and entertaining methods to deliver messages on a variety of topics. The Wednesday session touched on peer pressure, body image and self-esteem. This was the first presentation of "Walk the Talk" which continues every Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m.
To initiate discussion on healthy relationship, Samantha and Jordan showed clips from TV shows, while asking questions about whether the relationship portrayed in one clip is healthier than the other. Neither was perfect, but they were good examples of different ways people act in relationship arguments.
They pointed out relationships need communication, trust and honesty and in order to nurture those things there must be trust, communication, sharing and respect. Jordan and Samantha also acted out a scenario depicting a sibling relationships and talked to the kids about it.
Peer pressure was described as being forced into doing something you don't necessarily want to do. They used games to illustrate their point. A bag of marbles was passed around and, as a group, the participants had to decide how many marbles had red, blue and white in them.
The participants learned body image and self-esteem are closely related. Both concepts are based on how you see yourself in the mirror. Through videos the group was shown how images of models in magazines and on billboards have been electronically altered. The models' images also rely on tons of makeup. In other words, the presenters said, little people should not want to look like them because they are fake.
Self-esteem can be improved by focusing on the positive and erasing the negative, the participants were told.
The presentation concluded with a pizza party for the kids attending.
