Youth Sexual Health Training Resources
Research shows that providing young people with medically-accurate, age-appropriate, and inclusive education taught by trained educators supports young people in feeling comfortable and safe in the classroom and equip students with the skills and information they need to plan for their futures and live healthier, happier lives.
To support this necessary component of youth development, Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program partners with school districts, youth-serving professionals, and trusted adults to create custom trainings on youth sexual health-related topics.
Youth Sexual Health Topic Areas
Using a community-led approach, each training is catered to fit the unique needs of school districts and communities across Colorado. Collectively, these training topic areas strive to ensure that adults have the knowledge and skills to support young people in becoming critical thinkers for the future, with the confidence to determine what is best for their physical and mental health. Training topics include, but are not limited to:
Participants will explore definitions of comprehensive sex education, positive health outcomes, Colorado law and policy, and what comprehensive sex education looks like in action throughout Colorado.
Participants will learn strategies to create a positive, youth-centered learning environment when teaching sexual health topics and tools to create a safe space for young people to ask questions and engage.
Participants will learn the different types of questions often asked in a sexual health class, tools and strategies to answer challenging questions, and time to put the tools into action. Adults will walk away with resources and tools to be a trusted adult in their young peoples’ lives.
Participants will learn what it means to be a values-expansive educator, reflect and explore their own values, and practice values-expansive facilitation skills.
Participants will explore strategies to create a Trauma-Informed classroom when teaching sexual health topics, and space and time to unpack their own fears, feelings and experiences with sex education that may impact their facilitation with students.
Participants will explore natural sexual health development throughout adolescents, how standards and skills support sexual health development, and strategies for talking to families and trusted adults about how comprehensive sex education information supports adolescents through various ages and stages.
Educators will explore strategies to holistically support LGTBQ+ young people in and outside of their classrooms through a peer-to-peer learning model, along with ways to stay up-to-date on language and relevant resources for young people and the adults that support them.
Participants will explore age-appropriate definitions of consent, how to create a culture of consent in classrooms and community spaces, and strategies to engage young people in conversations around consent.
Each of these topic areas are interconnected, therefore there is often cross-topic exploration within each training to acknowledge the intersectionality and nuance of sexual health education and facilitation skills. For example, when discussing how to create a positive learning environment, we must talk about practices that encourage the inclusion of youth who hold marginalized identities, specifically LGBTQ+ and BIPOC young people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Decades of public health research demonstrates that comprehensive sex education programs help youth by:
- Improving academic success.
- Preventing sexual abuse, dating violence, and bullying.
- Helping young people develop healthier relationships.
- Promoting appreciation of sexual diversity.
- Preventing child sexual abuse.
- Improving media literacy.
- Increasing young people’s ability to decide when they’re ready to have sex.
- Increasing communication between youth and their parents/guardians.
With this in mind, trainings on youth sexual health-related topics can benefit school administrators, teachers, facilitators, trusted adults, parents and caregivers, after school leaders, youth-serving community-based organizations, school board members, clinicians, nurses, healthcare workers, and legislators who can serve as important advocates with and for young people.
We ask that school districts and partners give us one month in advance to cater the training to your needs, and spend time hearing from the requestor, teachers and others who will be in attendance.
We ask that all trainings have a maximum of 25 participants. We can explore splitting groups up into different sessions or other accommodations to create a quality learning environment and effective ratio of participants to facilitator.
Each individual content area will take around 60 minutes to cover depending on how in-depth the training is. If you would like multiple content areas covered, we can discuss half-day, all-day or two-day training options.
To effectively cover each content area, we typically spend 60-minutes on each content area. If you would like multiple content areas covered, we can discuss half-day, all-day or two-day training options.
Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program utilizes a flexible pricing model known as the Green Bottle Method to ensure that all school districts and communities are able to access youth sexual health-related trainings at a price point that is accessible based on your available financial resources. Learn more in the section below.
Our Flexible Pricing Model
Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program utilizes a flexible pricing model known as the Green Bottle Method, an economic justice tool developed by Alexis J. Cunningfolk. This flexible pricing model aims to ensure that all school districts and communities are able to access youth sexual health-related trainings at a price point that is accessible and equitable based on your available financial resources.
If you or your organization are interested in partnering with Trailhead for training services, please follow the steps below:
To get started, email the the Youth Sexual Health team at YSH@trailhead.institute to request a training.
Once you’ve reached out, Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program team will provide a set of facilitation questions to gain a better understanding of your training needs, including topic(s) of interest; who the training is intended for; desired date(s) and time; location; accessibility needs; considerations for engaging young people; and additional resources.
Once you’ve completed the training questionnaire, the Youth Sexual Health Program team will provide a quote that reflects your training needs. At this stage, we will ask you to reflect on the cost of services using a flexible pricing model handout. The handout will help to determine what percentage of the quote your district or organization can afford to pay based on your available resources.
Through this model, partners determine if they are able to pay:
- 0-25% of the training costs
- 25-50% of the training costs
- 50-75% of the training costs
- 75-100% of the training costs