Blog post 3

Everyone in the group was present in our group meeting, we discussed that we wanted to find out the demographics of STI and pregnancy rates among teens in the different school districts and counties. Alexandra and myself (Roxane) are going to contact the Health Department about these statistics, and use these findings to contact the high and low areas about the sex education curriculum, and compare the differences.

Amanda contacted Cindy Taylor, who is a 6th grade maturation class expert through the rape recovery center, and we are currently waiting to hear back from her about what her particular curriculum is. Amanda also this past week met with Kristin Hodson, the Executive Director of The Healing Group to discuss with her how we can best find out what sex education local parents want for themselves and their youth.

Sarah is the liaison between us and planned parenthood, and what they have done already on the matter. She is currently getting a copy of the curriculum.

Janet and Debra are trying to locate Anna, who has familiarity with alternative sex education with adolescents. They are trying to get information on what curriculum she is using, and her success rates with her modality.

BLOG POST 2

Since our last post:

We connected with the Education and Research Director of The Healing Group, Erin Gibson, LCSW, to discuss approaches to the project overall. Erin suggested that we contact Heather Stringfellow of Planned Parenthood regarding policy questions and Cindy Taylor of the Rape Recovery Center regarding any questions about the sixth grade maturation class. She has been working with that program for many years. 

In a second meeting, we chatted with the Executive Director of The Healing Group, Kristin Hodson, LCSW. Kristin got “fired up” about our project and offered us several resources that might be useful as we collect information on our topic. Here they are:

http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=514&parentID=477

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/15/youre_doing_sex_ed_wrong_how_teaching_kids_about_sex_is_like_teaching_toddlers_to_walk/

http://www.theculturalhallpodcast.com/2014/06/why-i-wont-be-giving-my-kids-the-talk/

http://www.sexedlibrary.org/

Kristin also suggested that if we would like to plan an education event for mothers and daughters that The Healing Group would be willing to sponsor our project by paying for a community space (such as Vitalize Studio in Sugarhouse), if the University will allow us to do so. 

One of our group members also spoke with Heather Stringfellow, who is the Policy Coordinator at Planned Parenthood. Our group member will report “live” in class on Friday, 10/3/14. The plan was to discuss what Planned Parenthood has on the agenda for the 2015 Legislative Session in relation to Sex Education, etc.

Next steps: 
- To hear from each other regarding new developments (in class on 10/3/14)
- To review resources
- To consider whether we want to make this about one event or several (or to hold the one event, but record it and use it for further training)
- Narrowing down our vision