OWLs Education at First UU Springfield, Missouri

Our Whole Lives is a series of sexuality education curricula for five age groups: grades K-1, grades 4-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12, and adults.

Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives provides not only facts about anatomy and human development, but helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality.

Our Whole Lives uses approaches that work. The curricula are based on the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education produced by the National Guidelines Task Force, a group of leading health, education, and sexuality professionals assembled by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).

Our Whole Lives covers topics and skills that both parents and students want to have available but schools are less likely to cover.

The Our Whole Lives Values:

Self Worth
Sexual Health
Responsibility
Justice and Inclusivity

Each level of Our Whole Lives offers:

up-to-date information and honest, age-appropriate answers to all participants' questions
activities to help participants clarify values and improve decision-making skills
effective group-building to create a safe and supportive peer group
education about sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment
opportunities to critique media messages about gender and sexuality
acceptance of diversity
encouragement to act for justice
a well designed, teacher-friendly leaders' guide
parent orientation programs that affirm parents as the primary sexuality educators of their children
Sexuality and Our Faith, an optional religious component for Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ settings

Our Whole Lives is appropriate for use in a variety of congregational, school, and community settings, including classrooms, after-school programs, and youth groups. Although developed by two religious organizations, Our Whole Lives contains no religious references or doctrine. Religious references are contained in a Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ companion publication, Sexuality and Our Faith.

from the Owls page on the UUA web site.

Links of Interest

Mark Comes - http://markcoomes.com/miscurls.html - From the Denton Texas UU Fellowship he has put together a list of useful OWL's links from his teaching of OWL's.

What Should I Tell My Kids? Planned Parenthood of America - Planned Parenthood - One of the most common questions parents ask is "What should my kids know about sexuality, and at what ages should they know it?" Parents are often concerned that telling their children too much too soon will hurt them in some way, or will encourage their kids to become sexually active. Information and education do not encourage young people to be sexually active. In fact, kids make better decisions about sex when they have all the information they need and when there are no taboos on what they can talk about at home. And they're better at protecting themselves against pregnancy and disease once they do decide to have sex.

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) - http://www.siecus.org/ - A national, nonprofit organization which affirms that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living. Incorporated in 1964, SIECUS develops, collects, and disseminates information, promotes comprehensive education about sexuality, and advocates the right of individuals to make responsible sexual choices.

Marty Klein, Ph.D. - Sexual Intelligence - http://www.sexualintelligence.org/ - A monthly electronic newsletter that delivers news, media critiques, social commentary, and political insight--all focused on sexuality. The style is brief, witty, and authoritative--exactly what you'd expect from its publisher: respected sex therapist, author, and award-winning sexologist Marty Klein, Ph.D.

PFLAG - http://www.pflag.org/ romotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.

CDC - HIV and Its Transmission - http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm - A fact sheet on HIV and how it is transmitted from one person to the next. Prevention as well as statistics.

It’s Elementary - http://www.womedia.org/itselementary.htm - A film to address anti-gay prejudice by providing adults with practical lessons on how to talk with kids about gay people. Hailed as “a model of intelligent directing,” It’s Elementary shows that children are eager and able to wrestle with stereotypes and absorb new facts about what it means to be gay or lesbian.

OWLs (Our Whole Lives) Sexual Health and Education Classes

OWLs (Our Whole Lives)
Sexual Health and Education Classes