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For adults to hand over responsibility for educating young people about romantic love—and sex—to popular culture is a dumbfounding abdication of responsibility.
— "The Talk," A Making Caring Common Project, from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education

WHAT WE DO

The Health Connected team is a passionate group of educators, public health, and non-profit specialists dedicated to promoting adolescent sexual health. Supported by a Board of Directors with unparalleled expertise and dedication, we have served more than a quarter million youth over the past two decades. In the 2016-17 school year our staff directly implemented its programs in 50 Bay Area schools and our curricula is currently being used in 60 communities throughout California. In the next 10 years we aim to reach 500,000 more youth through our innovative, inclusive sexual health courses and programs.

Health Connected was born out of a teen pregnancy prevention effort in the early 1990s, spearheaded by two school outreach specialists determined to support a young teen facing an unplanned pregnancy in Redwood City, CA. As the realization set in that this was not an isolated issue facing adolescents, the pair rallied the community to expand into a county-wide pregnancy prevention coalition. With the needs of the diverse Bay Area community ever present, the grassroots organization eventually evolved into the comprehensive sexual health education provider it is today--Health Connected. We’re proud of the curricula we've designed in collaboration with our community partners, that has fundamentally changed the landscape of sexual health education throughout the Bay Area and California.

Our success has come as a result of our deep engagement with the communities we serve. This collaborative philosophy drives our work.

 

Leading the way. 

California has the most comprehensive sexual health education standards in the country thanks to the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) passed in late 2015. We are proud to be one of the curriculum developers fully compliant with this trailblazing legislation. But we strive for even more: to equip young people with all they need to break barriers, cultivate empathy, and build respect within their communities so they can thrive!

We are engaging.

No student, classroom, or community is the same--each has unique needs all its own. With this in mind, Health Connected has crafted adaptable curricula that include visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic lessons and activities that cater to students' diverse learning styles and promote maximum learning outcomes. The most effective learning is interactive and fun!

We are collaborative.

We know integrating a variety of perspectives in our work only strengthens our programs. We incorporate input from students, teachers, health experts, community partners, and parents each year and use it to inform our approach. This has been instrumental in creating programs relevant to youth.

We are inclusive.

All young people, despite their values, identity, background, or ability, have the right to understand their bodies and have positive relationships. Period. When we acknowledge and respect all youth's perspectives and life experiences, we provide students with a place to learn in which they feel validated and seen, which increases learning and cultivates kindness among all students.