Providing Resource Parents Tools to Talk With Youth About Sexual Health

October 25, 2023

Eugene, OR — Talking to your kids about sexual health is never easy. Talking to a foster youth who is new to your family is even more challenging. Often, caregivers skip these talks, and children in care gather misinformation on sexual health or are lured into the adult world of sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, and unprotected sex. These risky behaviors can have lifelong negative effects, both mental and physical. However, it doesn't have to be that way. Supportive foster parents can make all the difference. To help foster parents talk with the youth in their care about sexual health and sexuality, FosterParentCollege.com has just released a new course, Healthy Sexual Development.

This much-needed online course takes a broad approach to sexual health, going beyond the usual topics of reproduction and pregnancy prevention. It is filled with practical strategies and conversation starters resource parents can use to help youth in care develop the skills to set safe boundaries, have healthy relationships, and develop sexual competence, including how to give and get consent.

Healthy Sexual Development was created by Ellen Friedrichs, MA, a health educator, and the staff at Foster Parent College, who specialize in creating online training specifically for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. It is presented by Theresa Reed, MEd, an experienced resource parent trainer, and includes four former foster youth talking about their experiences around sexual health while in care and the impact of those experiences on their young lives.

Ashley, one of the four former foster youth, speaks frankly in the course: “I feel like not knowing about my sexual health at a young age made me naive and easy to manipulate from older men who wanted sex from me, with promises of fake love.” She continued, “I think that if I understood my sexual health differently and actually understood my own sexual needs and what was healthy, I would have focused more on school instead of seeking out love.”

Healthy Sexual Development will help resource parents have conversations with youth that fit the youth's developmental, emotional, and cognitive levels, with the goal of helping prepare the youth for a healthy future.

Produced by Foster Parent College, Healthy Sexual Development utilizes FPC's innovative approach to adult online learning, with easy-to-understand discussions, graphics, and interactive exercises. It joins over 70 other courses (in English and Spanish) on the FosterParentCollege.com website. To see a short preview of the course, visit fosterparentcollege.com.