Careers/Work in Sexual Education?

[Olivia15]

Hi!

I've been a user of Scarleteen for a long time, and I realized that sexual education is something I am really passionate about and interested in pursuing. However, I'm not really sure if there are many opportunities? Right now my major is Psychology, with intentions of going into counseling. Working for an organization like Scarleteen or Plan Parenthood, or other similar places is really interesting to me. Does anyone know what types of careers/volunteer work opportunities there are for sexual education and sexual health, and how one would go about getting involved with these?

Thanks so much!

[Heather]

Well, looking at your location, one thing I could certainly suggest is that you consider volunteering with us! While our volunteers don't have to be local, it's great when they can be, and that also opens up opportunities to do things like help with our local outreach.

One of my favorite walkthroughs for this kind of question is a great and in-depth piece Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot did here: http://www.sexualityeducation.com/sexeducator.php They do a wonderful job explaining the different ways into this work, and the different arenas one can do it in.

But given your major, something I'd suggest you look into -- assuming it's your major because it's also where your interest lies -- is sex therapy. An awful lot of therapists don't have any sexuality training, despite it so often being something people want help with in therapy. So, IME, there's a real lack of enough counselors and therapists with that education and focus.

[Olivia15]

After reading the list of career paths, the "Academic/Humanities path" about women's and LGBT studies interests me. The two main reasons I'm interested in sexual health work is:
1) The fact that LGBT don't receive education in the school system about sexual health that is applicable to them. Not only are LGBT totally erased in a lot of health classes, my gay friend told me that he was never told that condoms are important for anal sex, and I don't recall dental dams ever being mentioned as a form of protection.
2) I think women are kind of sexually sheltered, and I want to encourage women to embrace themselves and be comfortable with their bodies, including being able to say no, and how to handle abusive situations and stuff like that. I dont want women's sexuality to be taboo anymore because it keeps women from getting resources they need (like std tests, birth control, support for abuse, etc)
Anyways, should I talk to my college counselor about what a good path might be?
Also, how can I get involved volunteering at scarleteen? How much time would I have to commit? I'm very busy but I want to give my time!

[Heather]

Our volunteer application is here: http://www.scarleteen.com/scarleteen_vo ... pplication

Feel free to fill it out, send it over, and we'll be glad to answer any questions you have about it via email.

I think your college counselor is a great person to start with! It sounds like the track you perhaps might want to talk about them with per your schooling, given what you just said above, is queer/women's studies with a focus on sexuality.

[al]

Hi Olivia15!

I just wanted to second those points you made about how misinformation (or a total lack thereof) in school sex education is harmful to women and members of the LGBTQ community. There are a lot of disparities in the sex education system (if you can call it that), and their effects can be seen anywhere young people don't know what's going on with their own bodies and are made to feel bad about it. Women in particular are taught that their bodies are kind of mysterious and shameful, which makes it a lot harder for them to have open conversations with each other, much less ask for help when something is wrong.
I think that it's awesome that you're so interested in sex education and being a part of the movement to give young people access to that kind of empowering information. Another sex education-focused organization I like to keep on my radar is the Guttmacher Institute (https://www.guttmacher.org/). They do policy reviews and research about the state of sexual and reproductive health in the U.S. (especially among young people). Their peer reviewed journals and quarterly reports are always handy whenever someone comes at me trying to say that comprehensive sex education shouldn't be taught in schools. It's not as fun of a read as Scarleteen, but some of those statistics are killer (did you know that less than half of U.S. states have any sort of sex education requirement for their public schools??). That's why what you're interested in is so necessary and awesome.