Trainings and Workshops

This workshop provides participants with opportunities to learn about and practice basic teaching methodologies and techniques that are ideal for conducting sex education programs with young people. The full-day Foundations training covers essential skills for teaching sex education, including: climate building in the classroom, understanding state and local sex education policies, pedagogical approaches for experiential learning, values clarification, managing personal disclosure, and handling difficult questions and harassing comments. This core training is recommended to establish foundational skills prior to the following add-on modules.

This half-day session provides a framework, definitions, and activities to build fluency with and understand the importance of using a trauma-informed approach to ensure that all students can feel safe and participate fully in classroom instruction. The session focuses on classroom management approaches for creating safety and helping educators better understand how trauma can present in the classroom as disruptive behavior.

Foundations supplemental module.

The way an activity is facilitated is just as important as its content. This half-day workshop builds on the core skills covered in the Foundations: Core Skills for Sex Ed training, focusing on strategies for effective facilitation to enhance student engagement and understanding. Emphasis is placed on some of the most common activities in sex education curricula, including role plays, scenarios, and sorting.

Foundations supplemental module.

For far too long, youth with disabilities have been excluded from receiving sex ed, and the sex ed they do receive is often stigmatizing or leaves them out entirely. It's time for educators to move from “Are my teens with disabilities having sex?” to “How can I make my sex education inclusive of neurodivergent students and youth with physical and/or sensory disabilities?” This half-day session goes beyond basic myths and stereotypes to allow sex educators to explore their internalized ableism, reframe their sex ed to include a disability justice lens, and implement a Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Foundations supplemental module.

Research shows that ALL students benefit when we create classrooms that are inclusive and affirming of all identities. This half-day session builds on the core skills covered in the Foundations: Core Skills for Sex Ed training to build fluency with LGBTQ+-inclusive facilitation. Participants will review terminology, explore data, and practice responding to questions to ensure that all students feel seen, affirmed, and engaged in the classroom.

Foundations supplemental module.

Many educators are unaware of how culture can influence the way comprehensive sex education is taught by teachers and received by students. This half-day session focused on cultural humility allows educators to develop their ability to build appreciation for the diversity of cultures found inside and outside of their classrooms, which improves inclusivity. This training will address the difference between cultural proficiency/competency and cultural humility, measure one's own cultural humility using the Intercultural Development Continuum, and explore concrete definitions and activities.

Foundations supplemental module.

Efforts to restrict sex education, ban books, and remove protections for LGBTQ+ youth are occurring increasingly across the country. This workshop teaches participants strategies to minimize pushback and guide conversations by meeting people where they are in their support of these issues. Participants will learn messaging and engagement tactics that have proven successful in recent focus groups, practice using an empathy-driven method of de-escalation, explore how to use coaching sentence stems to help others clarify their values, and more!

This workshop offers a thought-provoking, interactive experience aimed at examining personal beliefs, biases, and assumptions related to abortion. Through guided discussions, self-reflection exercises, and scenario-based activities, participants will explore how their values may consciously or unconsciously impact student or patient interactions, counseling, and medical decision-making. The workshop fosters an open and judgment-free space to challenge preconceived notions, build empathy, and develop strategies for providing more inclusive, student-centered instruction or patient-centered care. By the end, participants will be better equipped to navigate complex conversations with sensitivity and professionalism, and better able to teach or care for diverse populations.

Creating and maintaining a safe classroom climate is a critical skill for sex educators, and simply being an ally to queer youth isn't enough. This workshop guides participants in how to provide affirming, inclusive sex education that is relevant to the lived experiences of all queer youth. Participants will explore updated research on the evolving language relevant to the LGBTQ+ community, how to provide even more inclusive sex ed, and how to ensure content is age-appropriate for students across all grade bands.

It’s essential that young people have trusted adults to go to when they have questions about their bodies, relationships, sexuality, and much more. Knowing how to be approachable and effectively answer important questions students ask are critical skills for all adults who have young people in their lives. This workshop provides strategies, tips, and best practices for engaging with young people about their sexual health, answering important questions, and addressing harassing or inappropriate comments students may make in class.

This workshop covers the basics of intersex issues, how visibility for the intersex community benefits everyone, and how to be intentionally inclusive in sex ed lessons for people of all ages. It’s widely unknown that intersex people often experience the most adverse health outcomes of the LGBTQ+ community, which is due, in part, to a lack of visibility in many areas, including sex education. This workshop aims to change that.

Description coming soon!

This workshop explores how U.S. society views pleasure and why teaching age-appropriate, pleasure-inclusive sex education is critical for young people’s wellbeing. Participants will examine how pleasure is often treated as shameful or dangerous, and how this can reinforce systemic inequities, while learning about the sexual response cycle, myths about masturbation, and the orgasm gap. The workshop highlights how social and cultural factors shape experiences of pleasure and how including pleasure in school-based sex education supports communication, consent, bodily autonomy, and overall wellbeing.

Puberty comes with many physical, emotional, and social changes, and most of them are the same for EVERY body. Unfortunately, the way puberty education is often taught leaves gaps, reinforces stereotypes, and excludes young people whose experiences aren’t as standard. This session covers typical childhood sexual development, the range of changes that occur during puberty, and strategies for facilitating puberty education that is inclusive of all students.

This workshop introduces participants to reproductive justice and sex education using a public health approach. Participants will explore how social conditions and systemic inequities shape sexual and reproductive health experiences. Through historical and current examples, participants will examine how these issues have influenced access to sex education, healthcare, and bodily autonomy. Participants will learn how to apply a reproductive justice lens to sex education to better support all students.

While adolescence is often a time of fearless exploration and possibility, it brings with it risks of depression, eating disorders, peer pressure, and more. This workshop covers new ways to think and educate about body image and self-esteem without unintentionally fat-shaming students. Participants will explore the racist origins of fatphobia, social media’s impact on adolescents’ body image and self-esteem, and a new lesson plan along with other resources.

Did you know there are six bodily fluids that can transmit HIV? Did you know the birth control pill is available over-the-counter? Staying up-to-date on new research and best practices can be tough when teaching both PE and health. This workshop covers updates in the field of sexual health that you might have missed!

This workshop explores sexual identity-related discrimination and how it impacts various populations, including LGBTQ+ young people. Participants will learn about key moments in LGBTQ+ history, examine internal and external challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community, and discuss how discrimination affects mental health, access to services, and overall well-being. The session also highlights how these issues can be addressed in sex education with strategies for creating more inclusive and affirming learning environments to support all young people.

This workshop explores the intersection of sexuality and disability, debunking common myths and stereotypes about people with disabilities as sexual beings. Participants will examine the impact of historical and current issues, including institutionalization, forced sterilization, and lack of inclusive sex education, and discuss how these factors affect safety, bodily autonomy, relationships, and wellbeing. The session also covers strategies for disability-inclusive sex education that promotes empowerment, accessibility, and equitable support for all young people.

Health is a critical topic for young people to engage with, but it can be difficult to provide health education in a gymnasium. This training provides tools, resources, and lesson plans to aid educators in effectively teaching health when they don't have access to a classroom.

There is little understanding about what happens to our bodies during sexual arousal and our level of control over these changes. This can lead to confusion, low self-esteem, and even sexual assault and victim-blaming. This workshop covers each of the four phases of the sexual response cycle in depth, helps educators understand the importance of including this topic in classroom-based sex ed, and addresses common sexual response cycle-related myths.

Today's young people are navigating adolescence and the challenges of living in a technology-rich world in a way previous generations have never experienced. This workshop will leave participants with a broader appreciation and understanding of the complex role technology plays in teens’ lives, its impact on teen relationships, and what young people need to know to stay safe regarding online bullying, sexting, porn literacy, sex trafficking, and “sextortion.”

Rape culture is ubiquitous in our society, and it negatively impacts young people in both obvious and inconspicuous ways. When sexual violence is normalized through rape culture, it excuses perpetrators and silences victims/survivors. This workshop explores what rape culture really is, how it disproportionately impacts those with marginalized identities, and how to address rape culture in the classroom.

This workshop explores how young people are using AI, including benefits and risks of the increasingly popular technology. Participants will examine key concerns including misinformation, mental health impacts, AI companions, and image-based sexual abuse, while emphasizing the importance of AI literacy, critical thinking, and responsible use related to privacy, relationships, and consent. This session also considers how AI can be thoughtfully integrated into sex education.

Folklore about sex is everywhere, but what happens when those myths find their way into classroom education? This workshop explores culturally perpetuated myths about sex ed topics, what’s true, how to use folklore to grab students’ attention, and put to rest any lingering whispers in sex ed classrooms of myths that lead young people to inaccurate information.