State of Colorado
The following isms impact the policies, practices, and norms of the State of Colorado both at the institutional level and at the individual/program level: patriarchy, racism, capitalism, heterosexism, transphobia, religionism, ableism, and adultism. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.
These anti-oppressive recommendations are a starting point for partners across sectors to convene conversations to learn from one another, build awareness for anti-oppressive initiatives happening within the youth sexual health field, discuss opportunities for collaboration, and engage in action planning.
Building Awareness Across Initiatives
If you are leading an initiative or practice that is in alignment with the recommendations shared below, we want to hear about it, and would love to discuss how to elevate your work through this website and with partners.
If you would like a partner to explore and discuss these recommendations with, please contact Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program team to connect.
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The U.S. federal government does not have a direct role in sex education; however, federal agencies do influence education through their allocation of funding. From 1996 to 2010, over $1.5 billion-dollars in federal funding was spent on abstinence-only programs. Despite evidence that shows abstinence-only programs are ineffective, $50 million-dollars is still spent every year to fund abstinence-only education. Beginning in 2010, two federal funding sources were created to fund comprehensive sex education (The Personal Responsibility Education Program and The President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative). In addition to administering the above funding sources, beginning in 2019, Colorado passed legislation that created the first Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education grant program. The agendas of each of these funding sources competes for limited time across Colorado schools and creates a confusing and inconsistent message about sex education.
Like funding/philanthropy, the state holds power through its funding practices, hiring practices, and policy agendas. Colorado law around sex education is considered an “if/then” law meaning if you offer sex education, then it must be comprehensive. Therefore, you can offer nothing related to sex education and follow the law. This creates inconsistency in terms of what students can expect to learn based on where they live.
Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action
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Identify that there is a significant lack of funding to address this problem.
Acknowledge that sex education is a good band-aid to address sexual assault. (We know that sex education does not address or fix the root causes like capitalism, heteronormativity, racism, etc., and thus sex education can be used as a band aid for the root causes of sexual violence).
Increase funding and prioritization of sexual violence within state agencies and budgets.
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This may include divesting resources from criminal justice (i.e., school safety resource officers, campus resource officers) and moving them to programs that support comprehensive sex education.
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Develop a community-led process to determine which communities most need resources.
Ensure transparency in the process and diversity in perspective, centering those who have the least access to sexual health resources.
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Examine what it means to be a “trusted adult” within comprehensive sexual education and the complicated power dynamics at play.
Advocate for trusted adult trainings to be focused on building skills to have conversations about a variety of topics (mental health, drugs/alcohol, sex, etc.) rather than dictated by the outcome funding the training.
Support skill building for adults to learn how to build a positive relationship with students.
Support the social emotional development of young people.
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Create and/or identify videos that parents can watch with their children to support sex education learning.
Make these resources, like books and other educational tools, available on a public facing website.
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Pay individuals with lived experience in an equitable way to review sexual health curriculum.
Ensure curriculum is available on a public facing website.