Montpelier Grades 4-8 Parents:
JOIN US FOR THIS AMAZING, FREE WORKSHOP!
Starts January 28, runs 4 weeks, 6:30-8:30 PM
We are excited to share an opportunity with you to participate in an innovative sexual violence prevention program. WholeSomeBodies is a curriculum for adults who have children and teens in their lives—such as parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors. This program has been recognized by the CDC, the Nation’s leading violence prevention authority, as a promising practice! Through the course, participants will:
• increase their knowledge of healthy sexuality and
• gain tools to increase healthy sexuality and supportive relationship development with children and teens.
What do we mean by healthy sexuality?
We use the term “sexuality” broadly to include sexual identity, intimacy, sensuality, sexualization, sexual and reproductive health. Within each of these concepts lies
• gender identity and expression,
• sexual orientation,
• body image,
• emotional communication,
• desires,
• sexual activity,
• vulnerability,
• anti-violence social norms
• and more!
How does focusing on healthy sexuality support and protect youth?
When we don’t talk about sexuality broadly with young people, we may leave them with a lack of access to age-appropriate information about the breadth of experiences that define our sexuality. We may inadvertently perpetuate a culture of silence and secrecy that can lead to individuals feeling shamed or alone in their experiences. Silence and secrecy also allows sexual violence to continue unchecked in our communities. It helps create and maintain a culture in which victims are less likely to come forward and perpetrators are less likely to be held accountable for their actions.
Through increased education, conversation, and support for healthy sexuality, we create individual and social strengths that resist and change cultural norms that allow sexual violence to occur.
Throughout the WholeSomeBodies workshop, participants will use their own experiences as a starting place to think about, discuss, and learn about approaches to supporting healthy sexuality with the children and youth in our lives. We will push out the problem of sexual violence with a solution as we will ask ourselves: What behaviors do we want to see, what skills do we want to have, and how do we cultivate those behaviors in ourselves and the people around us?
The program will be presented in a series of four 2-hour workshops. The training is free! Workbooks and resources will be provided to participants.
When: Tuesdays; January 28- February 18 / 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: Main Street Middle School
Trainers:
Bethany Pombar, MSMS parent, Prevention Specialist at the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, vtnetwork.org
Ally Manousos, School and Community Outreach Coordinator, Sexual Assault Crisis Team in Barre (SACT), sexualassaultcrisisteam.org
For more information and to register, please contact:
Bethany Pombar, 802-279-4466 or Bethany@vtnetwork.org
Sincerely;
Bethany and Ally
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