Online Workshop Series

This online workshop will cover the knowledge and skills needed to achieve this goal. We will explore the latest statistics regarding abuse and learn useful tips and tools for helping people become sexual self-advocates. We will discuss topics to include when working with self-advocates, such as: body parts and body autonomy, skills for saying no, and the difference between a healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships.

Read More Online Workshop: Preventing Abuse: Helping Self-Advocates Become Sexual Self-Advocates

“Going Upstream” is a public health term used to describe what’s causing the issues that we see in our schools and our communities. When we look upstream we find a surprising lack of state mandated requirements or laws for people with disabilities to receive sexuality education. No wonder we see high rates of sexual abuse, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, charged with a sex crime, losing ones job, and loneliness in this population. This group of people are experiencing these results in part because they lack basic sexuality education knowledge and skills.

Read More Going Upstream: How to Get Legislation Passed in Support of Sexuality Education for Individuals with I/DD

Many of us provide workshops, resources, and materials to families about how to discuss sexuality with their young and grown children with I/DD, but what about Hispanic/Latino/Latinx families who need the information just like other families? How do we provide access to this information and understand the impact on a person’s cultural beliefs, challenges, and barriers to having these conversations with professionals and with their own children with disabilities.

Our panel has lived experience in being Hispanic/Latino/Latinx or experience of working with these families as a professional. They will discuss the reality of being Hispanic/Latino/Latinx in the US and how this impacts families ability to have these sensitive conversations. They will share their personal stories of becoming “more open,” what they want from professionals, as well as many tips and tools for reaching these families.

Read More Online Workshop: Making Sexuality Education Accessible for Hispanic, Latino, Latinx Families

Discussions of consent are a vital part of sexuality education, and this is no different for people with disabilities. Protection from exploitation must be balanced against the right to sexual expression, with an emphasis on building a person’s capacity to give informed consent. This online workshop will examine several models for determining sexual consent. Participants will apply consent criteria to several case studies and discuss strategies for improving a person’s consent abilities.

Read More Online Workshop: Building Capacity to Consent: Balancing Safety with Sexual Rights

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are more likely to be arrested, convicted, sentenced to prison and then, victimized in prison. Once in the criminal justice system, these individuals are less likely to receive probation or parole and tend to serve longer sentences due to an inability to understand or adapt to prison rules.

Although we don’t have specific data on the numbers of sexual crimes, you may know of cases or stories where someone with I/DD texts a sexual photo to someone, exposes themselves, downloads child pornography, follows someone around the mall, or does not get consent for sexual activity.

As sexuality educators we understand our role in preventing abuse, but what topics and strategies need to be used for preventing offending behaviors? In this workshop we will hear a personal story from a young man with a disability and his father. Through this personal story we will hear about prevention efforts that may have helped with this situation. We will also review statistics and examine what topics and strategies are important to use in your classes or one-on-one conversation.

Read More Online Workshop: Preventing People with I/DD from Becoming Offenders, Suspects, and Inmates

Over the last few months, we have all been trying to adjust to the new normal of teaching online. Many people have reached out for ideas on how to lead workshops and, more specifically, how to teach the Sexuality Education Curriculum for People with Developmental Disabilities online. During this 90-minute workshop, we’ll share ways to adapt lessons and increase accessibility and engagement. We will review the Zoom platform, explore how people with disabilities learn best online and introduce our new set of PowerPoints for online learning.

Read More Online Workshop: Getting Buy-In for Sexuality Education for People With I/DD, Even in Conservative Communities

You didn’t stop caring about sexuality education when the world moved online — you started asking how to keep doing it. This page answers that question. Whether you’re adapting an Elevatus Training curriculum, using your own materials, or just trying to figure out Zoom, what follows is practical guidance from educators who did it first.

Read More Online Workshop: Teaching Sexuality When the World Has Gone Online

We know the rates of sexual assault among people with I/DD is staggeringly high. We also know that sexuality education is so important for all people whether they have a history of abuse or not. This tells us there is a very high chance you will have people in your class, or that you work with, with a history of abuse. How do you create a sexuality education class that is trauma informed and provides a safe place to learn and reduces the risk of triggers? This 60-minute, online workshop will explore this topic and give you tips and tools for making it safe for all participants.

Read More Online Workshop: Trauma-Informed Sexuality Education

Parents and caregivers of people with developmental disabilities are their child’s primary educator, just like any parent. The difference with this group of parents is that they are often very concerned about their child being taken advantage of; or an unplanned pregnancy, and, some parents even find it hard to think of their child as a sexual being. All of these concerns are legitimate and can make parents worried about how to communicate with their own child or having their child attend sexuality education classes.

This workshop will explore how to:

• Work with parents to dispel any myths they have,
• Help parents communicate about healthy relationships,
• Answer their child’s questions,
• Provide guidelines for direct support professionals

Read More Online Workshop: Let’s Start the Conversation: Sexuality and Developmental Disability: How to Partner with Parents to Support Their Children

Beginning with an assumption that sexuality in service delivery is primarily a rights issue, with health and legal rules to address, this online workshop will present a definition of informed consent, explore the roles of a guardian in this area of a person’s life (in Massachusetts, this person is adjudicated ‘incapacitated’ in probate court) and discuss options for agency policy to help providers be less inclined to ‘toss the hot potato’ of sexuality or be concerned about ‘getting burned.’

Read More Online Workshop: Don’t Toss the Hot Potato! Instead, Tackle Consent, Guardianship, and Create Effective Policies

All people, including those with limited means of expressive communication, deserve access to accurate information about relationships and sexuality. This webinar will outline methods of providing communication support and multi-modal access when teaching with the Sexuality Education for People with Developmental Disabilities curriculum, or any other teaching tools you use. Open to all, including self-advocates, support people, families, and community members.

Read More Online Workshop: Adaptations for People With Little or No Reliable Speech