For Youth

Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education that Works

Curriculum Goal

Youth need to count on trusted adults in their lives to keep them safe and grow into healthy adulthood. The trusted adults in kids’ lives—parents, caregivers, mentors, and teachers—need the resources to provide this guidance. The Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education that Works program for middle school youth, with its goal of delaying the onset of sexual activity, is designed to promote the long-term sexual health of young people by helping their teachers and parents facilitate conversations and learning about healthy sexuality.

Self-awareness and Interpersonal, Decision-making and Negotiation Skills

Comprehensive sexuality programs like Get Real deliver factually accurate information on a range of topics from anatomy and physiology to pregnancy and STI prevention, including abstinence. Our middle school curriculum is based on principles of Social and Emotional Learning, focusing on the areas of interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and decision-making. The program builds in time for practice and assessment of these skills, thus empowering youth to make responsible decisions about sex & sexuality as well as to build and maintain healthy relationships in all aspects of their lives. We are in the process of evaluating the Get Real curriculum to ensure that it effectively accomplishes its educational and behavioral objectives.

Parent Education Workshops

Our approach recognizes parents and caregivers as the primary sexuality educators of their children.  As such, the curriculum promotes exploration of each student’s family values about sex and sexuality through specific homework assignments. PPLM’s companion parent education workshops dovetail the learning that students are doing in the classroom. During a three session series throughout the year, parents and caregivers explore their own values about sex and sexuality as they prepare to impart these values to the children in their care and learn the skills necessary to have open conversations with them about these difficult topics.

Extensive Review, Evaluation and Piloting

The design and development of Get Real began in 2005. The curriculum has a solid foundation based on an extensive literature and curricular review, focus groups with parents, surveys of school teachers and administrators, and two years teaching in the field. We will be teaching the curriculum with PPLM educators at up to 8 pilot sites across Massachusetts in order to conduct both process and outcome-based evaluation on the curriculum. In the 2007-08 academic year, our confirmed partner schools include Epiphany School, Smith Leadership Academy, and Academy of the Pacific Rim in Boston, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School and New Leadership Charter School in the Springfield area. We expect to welcome one or two public schools in Central Massachusetts and are finalizing those partnerships now.

Teacher Training and Ongoing Support

Our Get Real Teacher Trainings will debut in the winter of 2007 in the Boston area and we anticipate working with twelve schools throughout Massachusetts in the 07-08 year. As we continue to develop the program, we are using a modular approach so that the program can be modified for a variety of school settings. In the coming year, we will continue to design additional components of Get Real computer-based modules and a high school curriculum. We hope that a website component will serve as support for an on-line community of teachers and parents who share care about the health and well-being of young people.

Want to help young people get real about sexual health?  We can help you start the conversation.

The Get Real program goals are to:

• Develop adolescents' competence at building and maintaining healthy relationships in all aspects of their lives
• Empower adolescents to make healthy, responsible decisions about sex and sexuality that foster a positive self-image
• Equip teens to effectively assess and communicate their thoughts, feelings, needs and wants
• Facilitate communication between parents and teens about sex and sexuality
• Prepare site to become self-sufficient in maintaining Get Real program delivery
• Reduce teen pregnancy and HIV/STD transmission rates in Massachusetts

Program components include a designated Intensive Education specialist who will:

• 6th, 7th & 8th grade curriculum (27 sessions over three years) 
• Teacher Training
• Ongoing Teacher Support
• Parent Education Workshops

For more information about the Get Real: Real questions. Real answers. Real lives program, please contact the Education Product Manager at 617-616-1660 x1597 or educationontheweb@pplm.org.