The Chattanooga Mayor’s Council for Women’s Healthy Sexuality Education Working Group is partnering with the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth to present a workshop on healthy sexuality. Targeted towards parents, relative caregivers, and guardians of children, the workshop will include presentations from: Elizabeth Condrey, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department; Elizabeth Thomas, State of Tennessee Department of Health; Cary Rayson, Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee; and Susan Vandergriff, A Step Ahead Chattanooga.
The workshop takes place on Saturday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Tennessee Room of the UTC University Center. While there is no fee to attend, registration is required by 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 24. Lunch will be provided. Further details and complimentary registration may be found at bit.ly/HealthyHabits2018.
The workshop is being organized as part of MCW’s Healthy Sexuality Education Working Group’s response to the findings from a community-wide survey about healthy sexuality which they conducted last year.
“The Mayor’s Council for Women has focused for several years on advocating, educating, and empowering women in our community about issues that matter to them most, including domestic violence,workplace bias, and healthy sexuality” says Bea Lurie, an MWC member who co-chairs the Council’s Healthy Sexuality Education Working Group with Tracie Durham. “We are thrilled that 600 survey respondents provided quantitative and qualitative data about the need for healthy sexuality education in our community for adults and their children."
The speakers were chosen because of their expertise on areas of greatest interest to survey respondents. The workshop will cover the following: Puberty Talk and Self-Image, Healthy Examination Education, Gateway/Erin Laws, Birth Control: Know All the Options, and Boundaries and Healthy Relationships. The outcomes of the workshop will lead to policy recommendations that meet the needs of the greater Chattanooga community, said officials.
As part of their research on healthy sexuality education, MCW also generated a white paper which contains a series of detailed policy and program proposals for the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County School system to consider implementing. The white paper is “Filling the Healthy Sexuality Education Gap: A Collaborative Approach." Highlights of the white paper were presented to the Chattanooga City Council in August.