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:
This training will walk participants through current Michigan law and policy as it relates to sex education in K-12 schools. We will review content requirements and spend time on Sex Education Advisory Boards (SEABs), the groups that set goals and objectives and review and recommend curriculum for their local school districts. We will share the most up-to-date, evidence-based information on sex education - content specifics, facilitation strategies, scope and sequence, outcome indications, and more. Finally, we will discuss best practices for SEAB establishment and functioning.
In this training, participants will:
Participants will gain knowledge and develop skills required to recognize signs that a child might be a victim of abuse or neglect. Participants will learn two ways to use mandated reporting as an intervention.
This training is designed for:
Many supportive educators and school staff are asked to be Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) advisors, but don’t know where to start. GSAs (also known as gender and sexuality alliances, queer straight alliances, and other names) are student-driven clubs for LGBTQ+ students and allies. They play a huge role in making schools more safe and supportive. This workshop, for both prospective and current advisors, covers the landscape of LGBTQIA+ youth’s experiences in and out of schools, how advisors can be allies and advocates in a youth-driven group, and practical skills to help start, facilitate, and sustain a GSA.
In this training, participants will:
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.