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Honest Sex Education

Advocates for Youth works with young people, parents, educators, policy makers, health care providers, and youth serving professionals around the country and in the Global South to ensure young people get the sex education they need.

Rights, Respect, Responsibility, a K-12 Grade Comprehensive Sexuality Education Curriculum

This K-12 comprehensive sex education curriculum is fully mapped to the National Sexuality Education Standards, covers all 16 topics deemed essential by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is LGBTQ-inclusive, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive. 

Our 3Rs curriculum has been adapted for use in 13 states and more than 500 school districts across the country, reaching millions of young people with sex education that meets the National Sexuality Education Standards.Join over 13,000 educators who have downloaded 3Rs.

Learn More & Download

Featured Campaigns

Route 2 Repro

SexEducate Us

Busybodies Club

Racial Justice in Sex Education

Advocates for Youth and SisterReach, along with other key experts and thought-leaders in the field, have created free, fully online e-learning modules to address issues of racial justice in sex education. 

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AMAZE

Advocates for Youth is the lead partner on AMAZE, a YouTube channel and educational website filled with short, animated videos and other resources designed to provide adolescents around the globe with medically accurate, age-appropriate, affirming, and honest sex education they can access directly online—regardless of where they live or what school they attend.

AMAZE has 300+ videos on topics such as contraception, menstruation, deciding when/if to have sex, building healthy relationships, mental health and anxiety, and more common topics around puberty.

Our AMAZE work strives to assist adults—parents, guardians, educators, and health care providers around the globe—to communicate effectively and honestly about sex and sexuality with the children and adolescents in their lives.

One of the best parts about AMAZE is it always has been and will continue to be free! From YouTube views, to classroom viewings, to direct downloads, we estimate more than 100 million young people have viewed AMAZE content around the world.

You can send any questions (or suggestions!) to [email protected]

Visit AMAZE

For Educators

Sex Education Teacher Training

Advocates offers a comprehensive, K-12th grade sex education curriculum, Rights, Respect, Responsibility. The curriculum is free and available for download. Its lesson plans are mapped to the National Sexuality Education Standards and it is LGBTQ inclusive, trauma-informed and culturally responsive. While we do not require training to use the 3Rs curriculum we highly encourage educators to complete our skills-based training. Training can be done in person or can be done through the assistance of a virtual classroom and student avatars.

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Rapid Response for Sex Education Controversies

We live in a time where sex educators are constantly under attack. Advocates works with school districts to provide rapid response assistance, media analysis, outreach plans, and support to school administrators and teachers to navigate attacks protect sex education in these communities.

Reach Out Here for Assistance

Racial Justice in Sex Education

Advocates works to train educators on racial justice, why it is necessary, and identifying key strategies to integrate in sex education classrooms. Trainers focus on creating responsive and affirming spaces that recognize racial inequalities and racism’s impact on the health and well-being of young people around the country.

Learn more about RJSE

Virtual PD

Virtual PD is a simulated environment (classroom, health care exam room and office) where professionals can practice with youth avatars using short scenarios and support from an instructional coach, so they can quickly learn and master the skills they need to be effective.

More Info on Virtual PD

Working to Institutionalize Sex Education (WISE)

Through the Working to Institutionalize Sex Education (WISE) Initiative, the “WISE Method,” an iterative, dynamic approach to implementing sexual health education, emerged from the experience of the organizations participating in WISE (WISE Partners). Advocates for Youth supports district specific work in Maryland and Florida in an effort to scale the reach of the WISE Initiative outside of states served directly by WISE partners.We are the national technical assistance provider of WISE supporting grantees in CA, CO, IA, MS, GA and NE, through an online learning community and annual meeting. Advocates for Youth also serves as the national technical assistance provider to the entirety of the WISE Initiative.

WISE Toolkit

Future of Sex Education

The Future of Sex Education Project (FoSE) began in July 2007 when staff from Advocates for Youth, Answer and SIECUS first met to discuss the future of sex education in the United States. These three partners have been joined by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and continue to meet monthly. In 2012 FoSE released the groundbreaking National Sexuality Education Standards.  FoSE continues to work to create a national dialogue about the future of sex education and to promote the institutionalization of comprehensive sexuality education in public schools.

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“I am the lead organizer of Advocates for Youth’s Minnesota Youth Activist Alliance, and manage Sex Educate Us, a successful multi-year campaign to update and standardize sexual health standards in Minnesota.  Young people deserve the right to be civically engaged and empower our communities.”

Yamali

Policy Priorities

Due to the patchwork of federal funding, state laws, and education standards across the U.S., as well as unprecedented attacks against schools, young people are often increasingly being denied the critical and life-saving information and services they need. 

Our policy priorities include:

  • The Real Education and Access for Healthy Youth Act (REAHYA), which authorizes federal grants for comprehensive sex education programs and youth sexual health services, and ends funding for harmful Title V abstinence-only programs.
  • We also support states and school districts enacting standards and choosing curricula that aligns with The National Sex Education Standards (NSES), which outlines the foundational knowledge and skills students need to navigate sexual development and grow into sexually healthy adults. 
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