Centering Youth Voice
A Liberating Practice for Youth Sexual Health Education
The field of youth sexual health education cannot move forward in an impactful or sustainable way without young people at the center. By moving forward in partnership with young people and elevating their voices and experiences, especially in spaces where young people have not been traditionally invited, Trailhead and partners across the youth sexual health field can begin to dismantle the oppression of adultism that limits youth participation and potential, while building greater understanding for what young people need and desire from their sexual health education.
Describing education as an act of liberation, Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, writes, “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity, or it becomes the practice of freedom; the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
As a participatory approach to transforming the delivery of youth sexual health education, centering youth voice intentionally engages young people through listening to understand, sharing power in decision making, elevating youth voices, building trust, and accountably taking action as accomplices to young people.
Putting This Liberating Practice into Action
Included here are examples of centering youth voice in action. These examples share how Trailhead engaged in this liberating practice in the development of this report, and identify actions that center youth voice that were included in the anti-oppressive recommendations developed by the Youth Sexual Health Program Board.
Continue to Explore this Liberating Practice in Action
These examples provided are not exhaustive. Further actions that center youth voice can be found throughout the anti-oppressive recommendations section of this report. Across all sectors, partners will find opportunities to engage in this liberating practice.
We invite you to explore these recommendations in depth for opportunities to take immediate action, engage in learning, conversation, and collaboration, and envision new ways to engage young people in sexual education.
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Under the guidance of the Youth Sexual Health Program Board, the 2023 SASH report intentionally evolved to center youth voice and non-traditional forms of data including art and storytelling.
In May 2022, Talia Cardin, Trailhead’s youth facilitator to the Youth Sexual Health Program Board, and Isa Hussein, a youth member of the board, facilitated two art workshops with students at AUL Denver and Inside Out Youth Services in Colorado Springs. The workshops invited students to produce a work of art that embodies their relationships to pleasure, sex, and their bodies using a framework that centers the voices of youth directly through art, pleasure, and joy.
Learn more about the Pleasure Artshops and explore the full collection of artworks produced during workshops.
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AUL Denver, a trauma informed charter school within Denver Public Schools, implements a peer sex educator program that affords students the opportunity to be trained as sex educators and to support their peers in navigating sexual health questions in a safe and supportive environment.
Through the peer sex educator program, students interview other students on health topics to understand the experiences of young people within their school. This model is something that could be replicated in other schools to fully support students.
Read more about peer sex educators at AUL Denver in the story, “What’s the best way to teach high schoolers about sexual health? Teach their peers to become educators and turn their understanding into art.” by Jenny Brundin for Colorado Public Radio.
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Learn more through the anti-oppressive recommendations for community-based organizations.
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Learn more about compensating young people on the lessons learned page.
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Learn more through the anti-oppressive recommendations for partners in the education system.
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Learn more through the anti-oppressive recommendations for partners in the education system.
Smearing Paint
by Nora (She/Her) from Inside Out Youth Services
“When it came to sex education, my dad had decided to take me out of health class to teach me these things himself, believing the school’s education would not be appropriate. My sex education came down to abstinence-only which took years to break out of that concept. Not only that, but being a trans woman taught me that my body was abnormal and even demonic to some, so when it comes to self-portraits I decided to embrace this in a positive way and began drawing myself as a beautiful many eyed demon. I also drew art of a character from my comic named Vivi, she is a trans woman as well and embraces her sexuality and desires, in a way she was my own version of the confidence I wished to work towards.”