Healthy Foundations

For guardians and caregivers of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.
45 minutes

“The Talk” is actually an ongoing conversation with your kids, and it is never too early—or too late—to start!

Learn how and why to keep the lines of communication open with your babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Practical activities help guardians give their kids a strong foundation to support a lifetime of:

• Healthy relationships.

• Healthy boundaries.

• Healthy body knowledge.

• Talking about essential healthcare questions with guardians and doctors.

You got this!

Consent Is Like Pizza

Workshops available for upper elementary youth through adults
30 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on age

Educator Al Vernaccio suggests ordering pizza together is a great metaphor for healthy communication in all kinds of relationships Excellent partners AND excellent friends consider what works for the other person as much as what they want.

Workshop developed by RISE: Healthy for Life, A Step Ahead Tri-Cities, and the ETSU Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic. Made possible in part by a Ballad Health Community Health Partner grant and partnership funding from the Appalachian Replication Project.

How to be an Askable Adult

For guardians of kids of all ages
1-3 hours

Do you struggle to know how to approach “the talk”? Do you wonder what is the right age to begin talking with your child about sex and sexuality? Are you worried about sharing information that is not age appropriate? We can help calm your anxiety and empower you to be your child’s primary sexuality educator.

People, Puberty, and Periods

For kids of all genders 8-12 years old
Four 1-hour sessions

Everyone has a body, and it is important to undestand our own bodies--and others’ bodies--so we can be healthy and support our families and friends for life!

• Class 1: Internal and external reproductive anatomy

• Class 2: Puberty and changes throughout the lifespan for all genders, body image

• Class 3: The menstrual cycle and characteristics of each phase

• Class 4: Taking care of ourselves emotionally, physically, & mentally; menstrual products

Whether they are interacting now with guardians, doctors, nurses, or friends—or in the future with partners or their own children—it is important that our kids understand how all bodies work. This builds compassion, reduces shame and fear, and allows them to support those they love, of any gender, throughout their lives.

Guardians are their kids’ primary sexuality educators AND most adults did not get a great education about these topics when they were kids, so we want to offer all the support we can. Guardians get help teaching kids math, history, chemistry, and English--this is just support in educating youth about bodies, puberty, and periods.

Healthy Relationships

for Life!

Workshops available for middle school through adult.
1.5 hours

Relationships come in many varieties: family, partner, coworker, classmate, teammate, faith community, roommate, etc. And any of these relationships can be more or less healthy.

This workshop helps participants:

• Consider what behaviors they find important to have (or avoid) in friendships and romantic relationships

• Recognize healthy and unhealthy behaviors even when they are subtle.

• Think about how to nurture healthy relationships and what to do about unhealthy behaviors.

• Develop more effective communication skills.

• Set healthy boundaries based on personal values and needs.

This workshop focuses on friendships and romantic relationships and can be applied to other kinds of relationships as well.

Identity Outlaw

For adults of any gender or sexuality.

Three 1-hour sessions.

Gender 101

Are you feeling a little unstable about this whole gender thing? Do you have no idea what’s going on with the pronouns, and hormones, and the “blue is for boys, pink is for girls?” These are big topics that are awkward to talk about with friends, but you can join us for a session on Identity Outlaws: Gender 101 for all of your weirdest questions and to have some fun!

Queer Sex Safety

“Don’t have sex or you will get pregnant and die!” Is a quote you might have heard in a sex education class, or maybe you haven’t had any sex education at all! If you’re curious, want to stay safe, or have no idea what is going on outside of “penis + vagina = sex” then this is the workshop for you. We’ll delve into how HRT impacts sex, safer same-sex activities, and how bottom surgery can influence experiences in Identity Outlaw: Queer Sex Safety!

Navigating Transness

When you received your transgender acceptance card in the mail, they didn’t seem to include how to actually navigate the world as a trans person. Hospitals, families, partners, work, coming out, HRT, deadnames, legal rights, health insurance, culture wars — no Transgender For Dummies was released. However, Identity Outlaws: Navigating Transness is a good place to start for all of that!

Let’s Talk About Sex: Healthy Conversations with Your Partner

18+, for people of any gender, orientation, relationship configuration
2 hours

Good communication is important for good relationships, especially intimate ones. So why is it so hard to talk about sex? 

We’ll explore that and develop skills for honest, respectful communication that help folks negotiate what they do and don’t want, practice safer sex, and improve their relationships, both sexual and nonsexual.

Understanding Your Trauma Response

For survivors of trauma from high school through adult.
1-3 hours

This workshop helps trauma survivors understand the science of trauma response so they understand and develop compassion for themselves around their trauma-based behavior while building resilience.

Gender and Orientation:
Reframing the Narrative

For professionals and upcoming professionals
1-3 hours

Have you been struggling to navigate this new world of changing pronouns, new gender identities, and orientation? Or have you struggled to explain these things to family and friends? We’ve got you!!! In this workshop we will:

• Talk about sex assigned at birth and gender identity.

• Discuss how and why these might seem different from what we learned in school.

• Learn about attraction and orientation, from who we are friends with to who we might choose as intimate partners.

• Discuss stereotypes and labels and how they can cause harm.

• Explore how what we say can hurt—or uplift—others

• Learn tools to engage our compassion and encourage others to do the same.

RISE facilitators focus on whole people and the amazing complexity and diversity of humans. We encourage participants to lean in to their discomfort and be curious and we seek to provide a safe space to be vulnerable for these conversations.

Please note that the “Gender” and “Orientation” sections can be presented separately.

Removing Barriers to Care for Trauma Survivors of All Genders

For medical and mental health professionals and support staff.
1 hour

Cindi Huss and Audrey Besch developed this workshop as part of the Sexual Assault Awareness Month Trauma Informed Care Series hosted by the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center.

Removing Barriers gives providers the tools they need to approach patients and their care with curiosity. When providers learn to recognize and regulate their biases and judgments, patients can experience improved health outcomes. We explore how this approach benefits both patients and providers.

After this presentation, participants will be able to discuss:

• What trauma is and how prevalent it is.

• How trauma can affect patients seeking/continuing care of all kinds.

• The benefits to patients and practitioners of empowering, patient-centered care.

• Various barriers trauma survivors face when advocating for themselves.

• Strategies that practitioners can use to help patients overcome barriers to care.

Trauma-informed Practices

For any business or community organization
2-3 hours

Trauma-informed approaches empower people with histories of trauma, recognize trauma symptoms, and acknowledge the role trauma has played in their lives. All people in an organization, from volunteers and front-line staff through board members and executives, contribute to a trauma-informed environment, so it is important, if an organization truly wishes to develop trauma-informed practices, to train and get buy in from every level.

Helping Survivors Navigate Their Own Trauma Response

For mental health professionals
1 hour

We often think about trauma-informed care in the context of how we serve trauma survivors—our facilities, our attitudes, our biases, our self-care, and our compassion. This workshop discusses the potential benefits of teaching survivors about their own trauma reactions and responses—their space, their attitudes, their biases, their self-care, and their compassion for themselves.

Trauma-informed Approaches for Faith Communities

For clergy and church leadership
3-4 hours

Participants will begin to understand:

• What trauma is.

• How it affects the brain and body.

• How that affects perception and behavior.

They also will examine some ways to approach creating a trauma-informed faith community, why that is important, and what questions they need to ask to continue this work. Every person in a faith community has a part to play, and every person will benefit from this intentional approach.

How (and why) do we do diversity and inclusion—and why is it never done?

For community organizations, clubs, and businesses
1-3 hours

Organizations often struggle with diversity and inclusion: What is it? We already have diversity—isn’t that enough? Does it really affect how well we do our work?

This workshop addresses the struggle to understand AND helps your organization begin developing practical ways to thread diversity and inclusion practices through every aspect of its work, creating a more robust, just workplace.