OWL About It!

Spring 2022

Wherever you are when you are reading this, we hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well cared for. Here are our spring highlights:

The UCC and UUA appreciate that Our Whole Lives users are eager to plan programming. We look forward to supporting your regular programming and training schedules; however, please remember that different people, congregations, organizations and geographical areas have differing mandates, different comfort levels, and different protocols about in-person gatherings.

The July webinar was about Framing Conversations About Restarting OWL Programs. If you are considering offering an in-person Our Whole Lives program next program year, we highly recommend you watch this webinar, which includes lots of thoughtful information about what to consider and how to structure your re-entry time. The entire webinar playlist is here. Registration is open for the July 6th webinar with Dr Rachael Gibson with Amaze here.

New is 2022:

  • Regular Online OWL Jr/Sr High Training Opportunities for UUA and UCC members. Trainings will be held every other month and you can find application windows and links at www.uua.org/re/owl  and Our Whole Lives Training Schedule – United Church of Christ (ucc.org) . These trainings are more intensive in number of hours than an in-person training. They are spread out over 3 weeks (two 2.5-hour Zoom sessions per week, as well as some asynchronous work in between sessions, and a Saturday class to end with). Asynchronous work is front-loaded for before the training begins and the first week of the training.
  •  NOTE: Spaces are limited, and spots fill quickly. We are full for all sessions in July. Training application are open until June 27 for the August Elementary trainings and July 25-August 8 for the September Jr-Sr High Trainings. If you are an experienced OWL facilitator and are willing to serve as a mentor to new facilitators starting new OWL programs in their churches, please contact Amy Johnson at JohnsonA@ucc.org or Melanie Davis at MJDavis@uua.org.
  • NOW AVAILABLE! “Under Your Wing” video series for parents of young children, hosted by Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot, authors of the 2nd edition of K-1 OWL. Under Your Wing: Our Whole Lives Sexuality – United Church of Christ (ucc.org) and https://www.uua.org/re/owl/videos-k-1 Resource list here
  • NOW AVAILABLE! UCC version of Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators is available by going to www.ucc.org, scrolling down and clicking on Facilitator Resources.

IN THIS NEWSLETTER: The “When You Can’t Do OWL-Do This” has information about running an OWL-based program for 4th-6th graders online.

The UCC and UUA honor church and congregation polity while also recommending that before in-person Our Whole Lives programs and trainings resume, programs and trainings be scheduled in accordance with expert guidance from the CDC and your state and local health department recommendations.

A growing number of in-person trainings have resumed, and you can find information about them here and here. 

Returning to some semblance of “normal” regarding Our Whole Lives still may not happen until months from now. To assist you in the meantime, we invite you to use resources linked on the UCC and UUA Our Whole Lives pages. These include resources for at-home learning, a free Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators curriculum you can offer online, monthly educational webinars for facilitators and program coordinators, and tips for adapting the Grades 7-9 curriculum for online use.  You can find these resources at  www.uua.org/re/owl/facilitators and also at https://www.ucc.org/owl 

Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators free download can be found here: https://www.uua.org/families/sexuality-educators This has potential to provide education for adults in your congregation and build support for your upcoming OWL programs. A UCC adaptation is completed and will be uploaded soon. You may email Amy Johnson at owl@ucc.org for a working draft if you need it before then.  You may watch the webinar about this Parents and Caregivers program here.

We continue our work to incorporate a more intentional anti-racism lens into Our Whole Lives curricula and training. This work is in process. In the meantime, please see our Anti-Racism resource section for families, and check out this video about how comprehensive sexuality education impacts anti-racism work.

COMING SOON! 

Cory Silverberg, author of What Makes A Baby?, Sex is a Funny Word, and the newly released You Know, Sex will be joining us for our September OWL Taking Flight webinar! Stay tuned!

If you have questions, please contact Amy Johnson, UCC Minister for Sexuality Education and Justice, at JohnsonA@ucc.org or Melanie Davis, UUA Our Whole Lives Program Manager, at mjdavis@uua.org. We remain in service and in solidarity with you!