Education

PPLM is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of youth, parents, families, and caregivers through inclusive, innovative education and training.   

GRTC Keeps Up the Pace  

Hardworking members of PPLM’s Get Real Teen Council (GRTC) provided timely, medically accurate information about sexual and reproductive health to local community members in Worcester and Greater Boston. In addition to workshops, events, and virtual and hybrid sessions, GRTC members engaged in hundreds of meaningful one-to-one conversations with peers that arose spontaneously in informal settings. Anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, GRTC members built new content into their presentations, emphasizing the practical as well as the social and political aspects of abortion in the post-Roe world. Also part of GRTC outreach was a renewed focus on IN·clued, a curriculum about LGBTQIA+ sexual and reproductive health care needs, written by LGBTQIA+ community members to reduce stigma and open pathways to quality, inclusive health care. In May, the GRTC presented IN·clued to 19 health care staff at PPLM’s Worcester health center.  

Professional Training Widens Scope 

PPLM’s popular professional training programs drew 627 teachers, health practitioners, social workers, community members, and others seeking to offer medically accurate, inclusive, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive sex education to their students, patients, and clients. Destigmatizing and explaining abortion care was an important focus, as PPLM encouraged professionals to integrate accurate abortion-related information into ongoing curricula and programs. Professionals participated in training that aimed to create inclusive spaces for people of all sexual identities and genders by covering vocabulary, using gender-neutral language, answering tough questions, and skill building. The appointment of a new PPLM bilingual professional trainer addressed the need to expand our training offerings to the many educators working in bilingual classrooms with Spanish-speaking students and their families across the country.  

SHAP Meets New Challenges  

In Worcester, PPLM’s Sexual Health Ambassador Program (SHAP) brought together Latino/a/x and/or Hispanic leaders, caregivers, and community members in Worcester who collectively raise awareness and improve health equity, decreasing stigma of sex education and sexual and reproductive health in communities where they live, work, play, and pray. In anticipation of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, SHAP’s ambassadors developed social media campaigns and other resources to reassure patients about the continuing availability of legal abortion in Massachusetts. SHAP also intensified efforts to counter persistent abortion stigma, both locally and through involvement with national coalitions such as Bans Off Our Bodies.