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Professionals

ICAH provides free professional development trainings to educators and youth service providers throughout Illinois. These sessions provide information on how to establish and implement a responsible sexual health education program in your school district.

Specializing in technical assistance on adolescent health issues, the ICAH training department sends trainers directly to school districts to instruct interested educators. Through these sessions, ICAH aims to improve best practices, skills, and implementation of sexual health education. Our cadre of professionals specializes in sexual health education, counseling, and direct service.

Trainings

We offer a number of different training modules:

• Initial Introduction. An initial meeting with school administrators to discuss possibilities for ICAH to give expert facilitation of a health program planning process for the school district. The meeting is an opportunity for the decision makers to ask questions and get a clear understanding of the steps and support necessary for the development of a sexual health education plan that intensely focuses on HIV and pregnancy prevention.

• Sexual Health Education that Works. An overview of science-based approaches and standards for sexual health education, including a basic overview of why sexual health education is important, information on state requirements, what programs and methods work, and what content should be considered in a comprehensive sex education program.

• Skill Building for Sexual Health Education. Learning strategies for teachers for planning and implementing a sexual health education program for their students. Participants have the opportunity to practice real-life scenarios teaching the content necessary to prevent HIV and pregnancy.

• Helping Parents Understand Their Adolescents. Describes how to help parents understand adolescent sexual health, explains the stages of adolescent development, and highlights ways to improve parent-child communication.

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning Issues. Instruction on how to increase understanding of the coming out process, current sexual health trends of LGBTQ youth, and how to create a safe space for LGBTQ youth.

• Healthy Relationships. Instruction on how to work with teens to describe and recognize what healthy relationships look like. Information is also included on teen dating violence and dealing with teens dating older partners.

• Building Skills to Talk about Sexual Health. Teaches providers how to create a youth-friendly environment, build a comfort zone for discussing sexuality issues, and help youth create a positive sexual health image.

• Sexual Health Messages Using Technology. Explores the use of social networking sites, text messaging, and the internet to convey sexual health messages to your target population.

• Leveraging Community Support. Explores ways to create community support around sexual health education by coordinating existing resources and efforts.

We also provide tailored training based on your needs. If you would like to take advantage of our services or would like more information, contact Training and Resources Manager Vivian Barrett or call 312.427.4460 x238.

Resources

The Adolescent Sexual Health Toolkit is a centralized resource of the latest information on sexual health issues for school health teachers, nurses, counselors, public health officials, community health workers, and other adolescent service providers. ICAH also maintains a lending library through which professionals can borrow numerous evidence-based sexual health education curricula, workbooks, and multimedia covering all grade levels for review. Learn more about the toolkit and library.

Training Team

• Vivian Barrett, the training and resources manager, oversees the provision of training and technical assistance in Illinois. She began her work on sexual health in high school as a peer educator through Stop AIDS Chicago and Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, developing an understanding of and passion for policy work. Vivian also worked as a health educator at Erie Family Teen Health Center for seven years, addressing the needs of underserved populations.

• The training department contracts with a number of experienced professional trainers throughout Illinois, enabling ICAH to effectively administer our statewide training system. This cadre is made up of trainers with expertise in sexual health education, counseling, and direct service.