Birds and Bees

During our work with young people, we have realised how unprepared and unequipped we are to address sexuality. Our sexual education was inadequate and mostly about the body changes and disease and...

Our project aimed: 1. To provide a comprehensive study and theoretical framework on sexual education for young people in Europe. 2. To assess the needs of young people that will be used as a basis for our project and all future projects upgrades. 3. To create a website with resources and materials for learning on sexual education for youth workers in a European context. 4. To support youth workers in becoming more aware of their own sexual education paths. 5. To equip youth workers with competences in supporting sexual education of young people and their parents/caregivers. 6. To introduce sexual education in youth work to a wider youth work audience. 7. To contribute to the wellbeing of young people and youth workers by addressing sexuality and all topics that complement it. We are satisfied to say that we have reached all our aims.

To reach and achieve all our aims, we met on a staff meeting, where the groundwork was set, values were aligned, and work was divided. We continued with conducting research among young people and youth workers to learn more about their needs regarding sexual education. This research highlighted seven bigger topics to address which were values and culture, emotions, social diversity, human development, how to in sex, safety, and skills for youth workers. All these topics were also aligned with the UNESCOs sexual and reproductive rights. When topics were selected, we have divided these topics among the partners and wrote seven comprehensive chapters based on science and knowledge. Each chapter is supported by many external resources and references for further reading. Along with writing chapters, we were collecting and moulding an extensive library of good references and good practices may they be done as a book, as a video, podcast, manuals etc. These resources were then structured in Padlet and are available on our website. Next step was to compile different methods (either by developing them ourselves, using some others or adjusting the methods to fit better to our topic). We then planned two training courses with youth workers. One training course happened in Slovenia, the other in Germany. Our methods and methods proposed and presented by participants were tested so we could select the best ones for the manual. We have selected three methods to fit under each chapter and support the theory with the practical value. Parallel to this, we started to develop educational cards that would also complement each chapter with simple statement, tasks, situations etc that either ignite debate or move the learner out of the comfort zone. We dedicated a lot of time to test the cards with youth workers and young people to ensure quality material. At this time, website was being built to become a home for all our products as well as an online TC on the platform City Of Learning. At the very end, the last products such as challenges, tips, reflection questions, and poster were created, and multiplier events were complete. During the project, we managed to meet on two additional occasions to evaluate and modify our work and products.

We have created a website www.birds-bees.eu, where all our products are published. There are all seven chapters in an online reading version published as the main content of the page. All chapters are also prepared in a pdf format to enable download. There are three additional sections on the website: (1) Activity Deck – educational cards, where one can find all 54 cards (front and back) to be downloadable and instructions on how to use the cards. (2) Training Essentials, where one can find a link to our Padlet Library with over 40 resources linked and structured. This section also contains Reflection questions for youth workers, clustered in three divisions: (a) How I experienced sexual education? (b) What competences do I already have in the field of sexual education? (c) How can I improve myself in this field? Last resource in this section is a link to our Manual, where one can find 20 methods, corresponding to all seven previously mentioned chapters. The last section is (3) Field experiences, where you can find a short infographic about Challenges youth workers face when addressing sexual education, Tips on how to handle this topic, and a Poster one can download and stick it to the wall of the youth centre.