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 sex, 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.

Parental Involvement

This program recognizes parents and other trusted caregivers as the primary sexuality educators of their children. Through take-home family assignments and resource materials, parents will explore their own values about sex and sexuality, learn developmentally appropriate facts and information and develop the skills necessary to have ongoing and comfortable conversations with their children about this important topic. Positive communication between parents and children helps establish family and individual values, enabling young people to make healthier, safer, and better-informed decisions related to sexuality.

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 three years teaching in the field. We will be teaching the curriculum with PPLM educators at up to 15 pilot sites across Massachusetts in order to conduct both process and outcome-based evaluation on the curriculum.

Teacher Training and Ongoing Support

Our Get Real Teacher Trainings debuted in the winter of 2007 in the Boston area and a second session was held in the summer of 2008. Additional workshops will be offered in September and October 2008 to accommodate teachers who want to implement Get Real during the 2008-2009 academic year. Teachers partipating in Get Real training will earn Continuing Education Credits.

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
• Family Activities

For more information about the Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education that Works program, please contact the Education Product Manager at 617-616-1663 or educationontheweb@pplm.org.