Sexuality Education Training Initiative

Answer has been helping educators create meaningful classroom experiences about sexuality for more than 25 years through our Sexuality Education Training Initiative. Each year, this program provides more than 2,700 educators and other professionals with the tools they need to openly and honestly discuss information about sexuality with young people and effectively respond to their questions. These resources include:

• Open-Enrollment Workshops. We offer more than 30 open-enrollment workshops a year for K–12 educators and other professionals. Topics include puberty, love and relationships, oral sex, sexual orientation, self-esteem, sexual violence, abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases and information about sexuality targeted to a variety of grade levels. Sample titles include “Baby Steps: Teaching About Family Life in Grades K-2” and “Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Teaching about Puberty in Grades 5-6.” Our trainers also make presentations on adolescent sexual health issues at numerous national and regional conferences.
   
• In-Service Trainings. Our trainers travel to school districts and agencies across the country to facilitate these workshops, which are tailored to appropriate grade levels and specific needs. Our trainers also make presentations on adolescent sexual health issues at numerous national and regional conferences.
   
• Training Institute for Sexual Health Education (TISHE). At this annual intensive residential summer institute, staff and participants live together for five days—creating an immediate and concentrated learning community—to address the depth and breadth of sexuality education. Answer trainers use both whole (plenary) and small-group workshops to ensure that participants understand the content and to rehearse the skills they need to deliver that content. Attended by educators from across the United States, the intensive training experience combines informative programming and skills-building activities.
   
• Online Professional Development. Answer's Online Professional Development (OPD) courses provide educators and other professionals with the opportunity to participate in an active learning community online. Research consistently shows that OPD can provide an educational experience comparable to—or better than—learning in the classroom. Our first OPD course, “Sexuality ABCs: Abstinence, Birth Control and Condoms," launched in January 2008.  It uses podcasts, videos, threaded discussions and animation to help professionals who teach middle and high school students learn the latest on adolescent sexual behavior and contraception.

For more information about any of these programs, please contact Todd Slawsky, M.Ed., Answer’s training coordinator, at 732-445-7929, ext. 237, or tslawsky@rci.rutgers.edu.