Supporting Comprehensive Sex Education for Young People - HYD-PRC Teams Up with the National Sex Education Collaborative
The Healthy Youth Development – Prevention Research Center (HYD-PRC) aims to ensure that young people and those who work with them have access to comprehensive, high-quality sex education curricula and training opportunities. Thus, when the national Sex Education Collaborative released their call for membership, the HYD-PRC recognized an important opportunity for partnership.
Comprised of national, regional, and state-based organizations, the Sex Education Collaborative (SEC) has extensive experience training educators to deliver sex education. The diverse SEC membership (22 member organizations from around the country) includes sex educators, curriculum designers, policy experts and organizers, with experience successfully advancing sex education at local and national levels.
The SEC envisions and works to support a world in which all young people’s right to comprehensive, high-quality sex education is recognized and fulfilled. Through the SEC, members establish the national agenda, advocate, and strengthen the infrastructure for educator training on comprehensive, high-quality sex education that is grounded in equity and social justice and is culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, inclusive, medically accurate, sex positive, and trauma-informed.
The HYD-PRC’s Director of Adolescent Sexual Health Training and Education, Jill Farris, was the perfect liaison between HYD-PRC and the SEC. Farris serves on the SEC Education Committee, which is tasked with developing materials, providing professional development for SEC members, and promoting education and advocacy efforts for school partners. The Education workgroup publishes quarterly listicles, with tips and strategies for sex education professionals. Farris recently recorded a video listicle titled, “Comprehensive Means Intersectional: Moving Sex Education Forward” which can be viewed here, along with 4 Tips to Help Educators Provide Intersectional Sex Education. Other recent listicles include:
Let’s Talk Month: 3 Tips to Help Families
Are You Ready to ROCK?
5 Tips for Teaching Sex Ed Remotely
SEC members also created the Training Hub to bring together, in one convenient, central place, access to trusted national, regional, and state-based sex education training, technical assistance, and policy support. Visit www.SexEducationCollaborative.org to find the SEC Training Hub as well as an overview of each state’s current sex education laws, policies, and guidelines.
In addition to her daily work with the PRC, Farris is excited to be serving as a liaison to the SEC. “I am so honored to be part of this brilliant learning community. It’s been invaluable to have partnerships and collaborations with these leaders in the field of adolescent sexual health. Partnering with the SEC has not only allowed me to take an active role in advocating for comprehensive sex education but has challenged me to dismantle barriers to social and racial justice through sex education. Young people deserve nothing less than high quality education that affirms their identities and autonomy.”
Renee Sieving, HYD-PRC Director, agrees, “Being a member organization of the SEC, with Jill as our representative is a win-win. Jill’s knowledge, experience, advanced skills in sex education training will amplify and enrich the content the SEC is sharing. In addition, this partnership helps our HYD-PRC fulfill its goal of disseminating evidence-based and evidence-informed products that advance adolescent health practice.”