Connections Matter is a training designed to engage community members in building caring connections to:
- Improve resiliency,
- Prevent childhood trauma, and
- Understand how our interactions with others can support those who have experienced trauma.
The Sex Education Collaborative Training Hub lists trainings for sex educators, facilitators, and other professionals on best practices for sharing important information with clients and the public. From teaching anatomy inclusively to effectively addressing bias in the classroom to addressing racial justice and equity in sex education, the Training Hub includes trainings, technical assistance, and policy support from state, regional, and national leaders in the field of sex education.
Please note: The Training Hub includes both in-person and online professional trainings. If you see a training you are interested in and it isn’t listed as virtual, please reach out directly to any of our members to find out what's possible!
Connections Matter is a training designed to engage community members in building caring connections to:
Although expectant and parenting youth (EPY) express a need for sex education (contraception, healthy relationships, etc.), many programs are not adequately inclusive of EPY. This interactive training will help educators and service providers recognize the need for EPY inclusivity and support in pregnancy prevention programming and provide concrete strategies for implementation. We will discuss our experiences working with EPY from across the state and how their feedback helped us to develop a toolkit of strategies for adults working with EPY to ensure they’re being effective and affirming. We will also identify and demonstrate ways to alter our language choices related to young parents and interrupt common myths and stigma about teen parenthood, allowing EPY to better engage with the content in sex education programs. Finally, we will have a hands-on component where participants will analyze sample sex education curriculum and work in small groups to tailor the content to be more EPY-inclusive.
In this training, participants will:
Even within justice-oriented spaces, fatphobia, a system of oppression, is frequently normalized and ignored. Due to diet culture and body surveillance under the guise of public health, we are not often given the space to discuss liberation from fatphobia. This workshop allows the audience to reflect on how fatphobia is normalized and shows up in their lives, discuss how fatphobia is explicitly tied to every other system of oppression, and tie fat liberation to queer and trans liberation as we advocate for ourselves and our communities in the fight against fatphobia.
In this training, participants will:
Many LGBTQIA+ youth thrive in school, relationships, and their communities, but it is important to recognize that LGBTQIA+ youth are also at high risk for experiencing violence and bullying and have disproportionately high rates of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, depression, and substance abuse. Comprehensive and inclusive sex education can help improve these outcomes for all youth. This training will provide an overview of the unique challenges and needs of LGBTQIA+ youth and allow participants to discuss and practice strategies to promote more inclusive classrooms and curriculum.
In this training, participants will:
Trauma-Responsive Practices in Sex Education will provide participants with information about the prevalence and impact of trauma on the brain and behavior, including the limitations of how trauma is assessed. Utilizing a trauma-responsive approach means that a program, organization, or system “realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others involved with the system; and responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization” (SAMHSA). This training will lead sex educators through content knowledge and applicable best-practices for taking a trauma-responsive approach within their classrooms and organizations, including the role trusted adults play in creating an environment conducive to resilience and healing. This training is intended for anyone implementing sexual health education with young people and the supervisors that support them.
Participants will gain an understand of normal patterns of development during adolescent and discuss strategies for being empathetic toward youth in their lives.
This training is designed for: