Sex education is a controversial topic, and that controversy often means that people aren’t getting the information they need. ImMEDIAte Justice is a program that recognizes inadequacies in formal sex ed, and is committed to the idea that since most real education happens between peers, there is an opportunity to educate teenagers so that they can share accurate information through these pre-existing channels. They provide tools to young people to create and spread positive educational materials about healthy relationships, gender, and sexual health. In the summer of 2011, ImMEDIAte Justice ran a summer program for young women in Los Angeles, helping them create short films that present sex education in a way that is relevant and useful to other young people. Their students increased their knowledge about the issues they discussed in their videos and learned media literacy skills.
More recently, ImMEDIAte Justice started a media literacy program on the Quinault Reservation in Washington, and went to Uganda to train young women in sex education, animation and media production. Their Facebook page shares some of the latest reproductive justice news, as does their Twitter feed.
ChangeStream Media has also done some work with sex education; last spring we partnered with Familias Saludables in Honduras to produce a video in which puppets teach safe sex. This is obviously an important subject, and we’re excited to see other organizations such as ImMEDIAte Justice doing interesting work on it.
–Post by Anna Zola Miller