On this time of uncertainty, a basic fact offers us hope that we are able to do extraordinary issues collectively. Over the previous a number of years, the world has come collectively to face up, assist each other, give again, and heal. Whether or not by nonprofit donations, celebrating important employees, or reaching out to a neighbor to assist with groceries, generosity has been serving to the world get by these difficult instances collectively.

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As we emerge from COVID-19 and return to lecture rooms throughout California, Health Connected, whose mission is to equip younger folks with info, expertise, and help to make considerate decisions about their relationships and sexual well being, stays the go-to supply for sexual well being training for our neighborhood’s younger folks. And our work, seemingly in a single day, has turn into more and more pressing as college students battle to emerge from the pandemic and regain the tutorial time misplaced. There is a want for holistic training and assist to navigate this new regular.

Health Connected is the house of Puberty Speak and Teen Speak, two intercourse teaching programs that assist younger folks make knowledgeable relationships and health-related choices. This 12 months alone, our packages instantly served greater than 13,000 college students, educated over 900 educators who served a further 28,000 college students with our curricula, and supplied 4,000-plus mother and father with our Father or mother Speak and Household Speak workshops.

Amongst college students who acquired Health Connected’s Youth Companies program: 87% of fifth and sixth graders really feel extra assured to intervene if a buddy makes unfavourable remarks about somebody’s physique or appears; 83% of seventh and eighth graders can now speak about sexual well being with their mother and father or a trusted grownup; 91% of ninth graders agree that this program made it simpler for them to follow safer intercourse now or sooner or later; and 87% of particular training college students can now speak about sexual well being with their mother and father or a trusted grownup.

Health Connected supplies sexual well being teaching programs to Bay Space college students. Courtesy Health Connected.

Having ‘the speak’ and answering questions

Health Connected’s providers are vital for our neighborhood’s younger folks to destigmatize “the speak” and construct the muse for an ongoing, open dialog. Our instruction addresses wholesome relationships, protecting behaviors, self-care, and self-acceptance. We additionally embrace the significance of respect, empathy, and advocacy for oneself and others. Listed here are some among the issues wer heard from program individuals earlier this 12 months: