Episode Three:
Why Do We Have To Learn This?
Episode Summary
How do you know a relationship is healthy?
Why does our body have to change?
What do you do about sadness due to a crush?
CWHC’s Outreach and Education (OE) Program has been around for over 30 years and now provides comprehensive sexual health education to over 3,500 young people across Chicago every year. In this episode, we hear from Scout, Megan, and Clare, health educators at CWHC. Listen as they share how the OE Program amplifies CWHC’s education-focused model beyond its clinic into classrooms across Chicago, and how they use of student’s anonymous questions, like these, to guide their classes and challenge traditional power dynamics of who decides what young people get to know or question.
Learn More
For more information on some of the topics discussed in this episode, we recommend the following resources:
Feminist Sex Ed Resources
Advocates for Youth: Honest Sex Education: issue area led by teen advocates and leaders
Readings & Resources on Abolition and Reproductive Justice: a list compiled by Young Womxn of Color for Reproductive Justice, A project of Advocates for Youth
Sex Ed is a vehicle for Racial Justice: an article from Sex Ed for Social Change (SEICUS), as part of their #SexEd4SocialChange campaign
Sex Ed as a Human Right: an episode of, “What Would a Feminist Do?” a podcast featuring Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman
Sexuality Education: a TEDx Talk from Al Vernacchio
Websites CWHC Health Educators Love
Scarleteen.com: a website with some of our favorite articles, definitions, and resources for youth (some of which are written by youth!). We also recommend additional publications from this website's content creators
Sex Positive Families: a website with variety of resources for adult allies
Healthy Teen Network- hub for training, resources, and youth programming
Amaze.org: videos for youth folx and their parents
CHAT.org: Chicago Healthy Adolescents and Teens website with links to resources, medically-accurate information, and videos (created by Chicago Department of Public Health)
Guttmacher Institute: research, fact sheets and data analysis regarding sexual health, access to health care, and the state of sex education
Youth Organizing Resources and Networks
Sex Ed Works Campaign (Healing to Action)*
Girl/Friends Leadership Institute (A Long Walk Home)*
* Chicago based
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Episode Credits
This episode was produced by Ari Mejia and edited by A.J. Barks, Sarah Rebecca Gaglio, and Terri Kapsalis, with additional editorial support from Lisa Schergen.
Thanks to the Outreach and Education Committee - Scout Bratt, Megan Selby, and Clare Hiyama - and to the students who shared their anonymous questions, as well as their thoughts and feelings about what is has meant to them to receive comprehensive sex education. A special thank you to Jacoba Cruz-Rodriguez, who contributes greatly to CWHC’s Outreach & Education program.
Mirror and a Flashlight is made possible by our community of support. Our special thanks to Corbett Vs Dempsey, Women Unite!, Early to Bed, Women & Children First Bookstore, Laura McAlpine Consulting for Growth, Mats Gustafsson and Catalytic Sound.