"Just say no" has long been a repackaged cornerstone of prevention education broadly but often fails to produce the desired outcomes. While personal responsibility is part of consent, it's not always a powerful influence on behavior, especially when the behavior is meeting other needs. In navigating consent grey areas, a reality-based, harm reduction-informed approach may better address the complexities of youth decision-making and garner better results.
This is part of Cardea’s Let’s Talk About Sex…Education 2025 series. Cardea is a trusted resource and is a national organization focused on health and equity.
Other upcoming programs in this FREE series include:
June 13—Queering Consent: Conversations for Connection: Focusing on consent beyond traditional frameworks, this workshop explores how to talk about queering consent with young people. Participants will learn how to navigate conversations that honor diverse identities and experiences, encouraging open dialogue about boundaries, autonomy, and respect. Drawing from queer theory and intersectional perspectives, this session will provide practical approaches to help foster healthy, inclusive relationships.
July 11—What Now? Sexuality After Sexual Trauma: Consent education in popular curricula often implicitly seems to assume that youth are arriving to sex ed as blank slates. However, nearly all consent education classes will include youth who have experienced some sort of sexual trauma. How can we adjust our consent education to be survivor-informed, but not trauma-focused? How do we create room for a diversity of desires and experiences? This workshop will grapple with these realities and provide tangible tools for reclaiming sexuality after sexual trauma.
Aug 8—Modeling Consent for Disabled + Nonspeaking Youth: Instruction of consent skills often relies heavily on verbal check-ins and confirmation of understanding...but what does consent look like for those who are nonspeaking or have cognitive impairments? This workshop explores best practices to maximize agency for all young people, including the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in a sex ed context, modeling consent when giving care to nonambulatory and nonspeaking youth.
Sept 12—Receiving a ‘No’: Rejection Literacy in Sex Ed: Despite widespread understanding of “no means no,” misogyny and violent responses to rejection remain common, proving the critical need for rejection skills. This workshop will explore the importance of how we receive a ‘no’ and best practices for teaching rejection literacy in sex ed. Topics will cover different kinds of communication and navigating power dynamics in conversations of consent, to support us all in respecting the desires of others.
Oct 10—Exploring Consent: Strategies for Caregivers: When talking with young people about consent, it can be tempting to rely on binary models of consent that emphasize a “yes” or “no” approach to situations that in reality are much more complex and require a more nuanced approach. This session will explore some conversation starters and communication strategies that any adult can utilize with the young people in their life. As decades of research show, having guidance and support from trusted adults makes a significant impact on young people as they make choices about their sexual health and safety. We hope this session will support you in talking with young people about the complexities and challenges of navigating consent in relationships. If you are an educator working with parents and caregivers, and/or a caregiver of a young person yourself, please join us for this important session!
Nov 14—Unsensational: The Reality of Reporting: In cases of sexual or interpersonal violence, educators often guide youth toward the criminal legal system as a primary response. However, reporting can be a difficult and disheartening experience, often yielding disappointing results. Additionally, how the law defines a "crime" may differ significantly from how a victim perceives their own experience. If we are encouraging minors to report or are mandated to ourselves, we should understand what the process entails and take steps to prepare young people and help manage expectations.
Dec 12—‘We Contain Multitudes’: Consent & Non-monogamy: Non-monogamy, an umbrella term for relationship structures involving more than two people, is rising in popularity among adolescents. Young people in non-monogamous relationships must navigate distinct forms of consent, often in the face of increased stigma, yet lack relevant sexuality education. This session will provide an overview of what non-monogamy is and is not, foundational questions of consent in a non-monogamous context, and a deeper dive into stigma, power, privilege, and the possibility of coerced consent.