Adolescents and adults don’t always speak the same language when it comes to sexual and reproductive health issues. Sharing sexual and reproductive health problems and questions with adult health care providers can be difficult and embarrassing. In this workshop, we will try to close the communication gap between adolescents and health care providers, educate teens on their healthcare rights, and empower teens to become pro-active, educated health care consumers.

 

 

Many adolescents do not have the knowledge about their sexuality that they need in order to make healthy sexual decisions. Before they start learning how to be sexually responsible, it is important for adolescents to understand what they believe and how they arrived at those beliefs. This workshop provides a forum for the discussion of sexual beliefs, decision making and values clarification. We will also discuss various myths that adolescents may have about sexuality.

 

 

This workshop is designed for adolescents who already have a basic understanding of sexuality and wish to learn more detailed information about the male and female anatomy and sexually transmitted infections – what they are, how they are transmitted, where to get tested and treated for them, and how to protect oneself from contracting them.

 

 

This workshop provides a thorough and comprehensive list of all effective contraceptive methods, how to use them, and the pros and cons of each method. Less effective methods are discussed as well in order to clarify misconceptions. This workshop will also introduce adolescents to the concept of emergency contraception and aims to dispel myths and answer questions about how emergency contraception works, when it can be used, and how it can be obtained.

More than one in eight adolescents are involved in a violent relationship, while countless others are abused verbally and mentally by their partners. This workshop begins with a discussion of the various signs of harmful relationships, from emotional and mental abuse to physical and sexual violence. TORCH peer educators will also discuss what makes a relationship healthy, emphasizing communication and the identification and application of personal values.

Popular culture, via the media, peers, or adults, places unobtainable standards of beauty on adolescents every day. In this workshop we will discuss what self-esteem and body image are, the effects of self-esteem and body image on the everyday life of adolescents, and why adolescents feel embarrassed or ashamed about themselves. Finally, we will discuss ways to fight negative images that adolescents face every day.

 

Very few teenagers have access to accurate, practical information about abortion. What is an abortion? How is it done? Who can have one? Why would someone want one? We will provide straightforward answers to these and other very serious questions, questions that many adolescents have, but are afraid to ask. We hope to create a safe forum for learning and discussion, free from judgment regardless of opinion or experience.

 

Reproductive Rights Movement**

The right to bear children, or not to, is a basic human right. The right to adequate health care, including reproductive health care, is a basic human right too! This workshop will provide youth with an overview of the reproductive rights movement in the United States, an understanding of adolescents’ legal rights to reproductive health care in New York City, the importance of reproductive rights and factors that limit and protect them. These factors include economic status, racial and gender identity, geographic location, immigration status and cultural background. This workshop encourages participants to examine how these factors can overlap and also determine their role in the current reproductive rights movement.

 

Is there something in your community that you want to change? Are schools crumbling? Are textbooks out-of-date? Are parks dirty and dangerous? Everyone has an issue that she/he feels strongly about, but very few adolescents know that they can organize to better their world. In this workshop, we will outline concrete steps teens can take to become involved in politics as a way to effect change in their communities and their lives. “There ain’t no power like the power of the people, ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!”

 

 

Did you know that your religion can affect the strength of your bones? That women of certain races are far less likely to receive early testing for cervical cancer? That teens’ sexual orientation can predict how likely they are to smoke cigarettes? That genetic diseases disproportionately endanger certain ethnic communities, and yet are rarely tested for among even those adolescents most directly impacted? In this workshop, we explore the unique ways in which different cultures and communities experience health and health care, and we specifically examine the effects of discrimination on health – in the type of nutrition, air quality, or reproductive health care, for example, made available to certain communities.

 

 

Every teen has the right to access the information and develop the skills necessary to make safe and responsible choices about his or her sexual health. Unfortunately, the majority of teens do not receive medically accurate sex education in their schools in New York State. This workshop begins with a discussion about the differences between comprehensive sex education and abstinence-only-until-marriage education. We will then go on to provide teens with how to advocate effectively for medically accurate, age-appropriate comprehensive sex education in their school and/or community.

 

 

Did you know that HPV is the most common STI in the United States? Most infections occur in people between 15 and 24 years of age. Would you know how to reduce your risk of contracting HPV? Would you know what to do if you or your partner contracted HPV? With a vaccine available to women to protect from HPV it is important to know why and how this affects you! Learn the risk factors that can lead to HPV and preventative steps teens can take to protect their sexual health.

 

Exploring Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation**

 

The workshop will explore various forms of sexuality; lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender, queer and intersex orientations. Symbolism and terminology will be defined and various gender identities will be discussed. The workshop challenges the misconceptions around sexuality by framing it as something that is fluid and always changing because there are so many possibilities. The workshop will engage the audience in a discussion about forms of discrimination and the reasons to respect and celebrate the spectrums of gender and sexual orientation.

 

 

TORCH peer educators and staff have recently revised two workshops, Exploring Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation and Reproductive Rights Movement.

 

TORCH peer educators and staff are developing curriculum for a new workshop which explores adolescent male sexuality:

 

 

This workshop explores the rarely discussed topic of male sexuality. Participants will be asked to label and define male reproductive and sexual anatomy, challenge misconceptions about male sexuality, discuss expectations placed on men and boys by society and the ways in which men can negotiate safer sex methods. At the end of this workshop, participants will have a better understanding of male sexuality and men’s responsibilities as sexual partners. The male sexuality workshop is recommended for adolescent males and females.