Catching up!

Cindi Huss, Sarah White, and Ann Livengood present a workshop for ETSU medical residents: Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen, espeically Drs. Abbey Mann and Jodi Jones of ETSU.

Cindi Huss, Sarah White, and Ann Livengood present a workshop for ETSU medical residents: Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen, espeically Drs. Abbey Mann and Jodi Jones of ETSU.

It’s been a fantastic summer here at RISE.

We offered workshops.

  • A 4-hour workshop for medical residents at ETSU’s Johnson City Clinic. We presented the state of sex ed in Tennessee and how to intentionally affirm all patients, why that’s important, and what systemic barriers might inhibit this.

  • Trauma-informed Care training for community members.

We worked on grants.

  • Submitted Trauma-informed Sexuality Education, which would bring a trauma-informed approach to sex ed in local public schools—and research the effects on knowledge gain, trust between students and teachers, and expected behavioral influence Keep your fingers crossed!

  • Currently writing Developing Inclusive Sexuality Education Literature. We have found that just about all resources have a white, binary, cis, stereotypical bias and we are seeking to change that.

Part of letter of support from David Wood, MD, MPH; Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University

Part of letter of support from David Wood, MD, MPH; Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University

We scheduled new comprehensive sexuality education classes.

  • Adult-level Our Whole Lives facilitator training Oct. 4-6, 2019.

  • Adult Our Whole Lives—Fall 2019—information and registration coming soon.

  • K-2 Our Whole Lives—Spring 2020—information and registration coming soon.

Literature Aug2019.jpg

We began printing our own literature!

  • Period Poverty

  • Sex Ed. For Real.

  • How to be an Askable Adult

We worked on events.

  • Next fundraiser: Trivia: What You Should Have Learned in Sex Ed at Cranberries in Johnson City (thanks Ruth Taylor Reed. More details will follow.)

  • International Pronouns Day activities at ETSU and Main Street Theater in Johnson City. More info coming soon

But wait…there’s more!

We began developing an experimental initiative to provide menstrual cups and usage support for menstruating folx experiencing homelessness thanks to a friend of RISE. We participated in the Sexual Assault Response Team meeting in Johnson City and attended the Addressing ACEs: A Call to Action conference. And we tabled at Blue Plum and ETSU’s Early Childhood Conference and will be tabling at TriPride (Kingsport) and Umoja (Johnson City) in September.

Good times at Blue Plum 2019. Thanks to Main Street Theater for letting us set up (and draw on) their sidewalk!#BodiesAreBeautiful #BluePlum2019 #KnowledgeIsPower #NoShame #LoveWins #JudgeNot

Good times at Blue Plum 2019. Thanks to Main Street Theater for letting us set up (and draw on) their sidewalk!

#BodiesAreBeautiful #BluePlum2019 #KnowledgeIsPower #NoShame #LoveWins #JudgeNot

We do a lot with a little, but we can’t do anything with nothing. It costs about $20,000 to maintain what we’re currently doing. And that’s with a LOT of volunteer help.

But we want to do more than simply maintain.

Some of our dreams include:

  • Starting peer educator programs for high-school-age youth in one or more of the Tri-Cities.

  • Partnering with local agencies to offer healthy relationship and sexual health programming for some of our most vulnerable neighbors for free.

  • Holding Healthy for Life camp for 4-6 graders that includes developmentally appropriate sex ed as well as other life skills such as cooking, stress management, and budgeting—and we’d like to be able to subsidize tuition as necessary so it is equally accessible to all youth in our area.

  • Offering more community-based sex ed classes—and we’d like to subsidize tuition for these as well to make them accessible to all folks in our area.

  • Developing a research department because the research on sexuality education is sparse and the need for it is huge.

  • Paying our staff and facilitators fairly for skilled work.

We can write grants for many of these things, but grants usually don’t cover administrative costs and expenses such as rent and utilities—and they’re not guaranteed.

We need you!

So if you like what we’ve been doing, see the value in our dreams, and can support our work, please donate today. Just click on this big green button! $20,000 is a lot of money, but we are great at stretching it for all its worth! We have both one-time and continuing donation options and we welcome any amount. With enthusiasm!

Cind HussComment