Seven Tips for Youth-Supporting Professionals for Talking with Youth About Sexual and Reproductive Health

This factsheet was created by Activate: The Collective to Bring Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Research to Youth-Supporting Professionals.

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS FACTSHEET:

Youth-supporting professionals can play a critical role in educating youth about sexual health. For example, professionals can support young people in developing the skills they need to safely negotiate sexual encounters.1 When professionals approach conversations with youth about sexual and reproductive health openly and honestly, they can build and maintain a rapport with young people.

This tip sheet provides youth-supporting professionals with seven tangible recommendations to promote effective and open conversations about sexual and reproductive health with young people, especially youth who are in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems or who are experiencing homelessness or disconnection from work and school (also referred to as opportunity youth).

These tips were developed through a series of discussion sessions with five youth who have been involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems or who have experienced homelessness or disconnection, and four youth-supporting professionals. Activate researchers identified relevant literature to support the themes that emerged from those discussions. Whenever possible, that research focused on youth in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, youth experiencing homelessness, or opportunity youth.

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