This weekend you have a chance to do some good and support one of the most unique, least funded, and generally coolest sex education resource for young people online: Scarleteen. Since 1998, Scarleteen has been offering free inclusive, comprehensive and positive sex education, information and support to millions of youth. They've done this for eleven years on an almost entirely volunteer basis. No other site has managed to do so much and stay alive for so long.
What they talk about:
From body image to pleasure, from sex and drugs to sexual assault, from orientation to identity, Scarleteen offers information on so much, and they do it in multiple formats including message boards, blog posts, long form essays, and Q & A's. Recently they launched a text service where youth can text questions and get a real live person texting back. There are only a few organizations in the country that are offering this service, and frankly none that take the unique Scarleteen approach.
Why Scarleteen is important:
There are plenty of other online resources for youth around sexuality, so why do we need Scarleteen? In a nutshell, what they do and how they do it is smarter and better. Their approach is complicated, passionate, riled up, empathetic, never condescending, never pitying. They speak directly to youth who are most marginalized, the ones who don't see themselves represented in sex education content produced by larger national organizations.
I was lucky enough to survive being a teenager, but to be honest I just barely made it out alive, and I remember many people who didn't. Scarleteen is the kind of space where you can ask questions and get answers from people who may know a bit more than you do, but will never talk as if they know better. The belief that they don't know better, but can still help, is what sets Scarleteen apart and makes them so successful at what they do. Lots of us (whether because we're young or queer or disabled or poor or imprisoned or, I could go on) have the experience of being surrounded by people with power over us telling us that they know better. That if we only follow their rules and do as they say, we'll be fine.
When we have questions a lot of the time we just need someone to listen, to respond without freaking out, to offer some context and some information, and then help us get there on our own. We don't need a perfectly packaged 3 step plan to sexual health, we need to figure it out on our own.
Scarleteen has managed to do this for eleven years for millions of youth. You can help them continue to do this work, and if you help them now you can make double the difference.
How you can help:
From Friday December 11th to Sunday December 13th, I'm taking part in a matching donation campaign. For every dollar donated during this weekend a few other donors and I will match your donation (up to $2500). So give now and you double the impact of your generosity.
I hope you'll consider checking out their site and learning more about what they do. I hope that if you have any youth in your life, you'll send them the link. And finally I hope that whatever you can donate, you will.
Help Lift Sex Ed to a Higher Plane: Support Scarleteen!
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