OWL About It! (June 2024)

Spring 2024

CURRICULUM UPDATES!

Thank you for your patience while we are updating several manuals at once!

COMING SOON:

OWL for K-1, 2^nd Edition – UCC Version with Sexuality and Our Faith included in the manuscript and OWL for K-1, 2^nd Edition—UUA Version with Sexuality and Our Faith included in the manuscript. The Secular version will be back soon, too!
OWL for Grades 7-9, 2^nd edition REPRINT with updates!
OWL for Grades 10-12, 2^nd edition

NEWS!

2024 Online OWL Trainings are well under way! There have been 16 trainings so far this year, with more than 20 already on the calendars for the rest of 2024. Check out www.uua.org/re/owl and Our Whole Lives Training Schedule. As we receive info on in-person hosted trainings, we update the pages. The online trainings for the rest of the year are already up. You can see the registration windows on the page. The next window begins June 17 for August Jr Sr High trainings online. 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.

The UCC and UUA honor church and congregation autonomy while also recommending that when offering in-person Our Whole Lives trainings and programs, please make every effort to accommodate the safety of all participants over the comfort of some.

FREE RESOURCES!

“Under Your Wing” video series for parents of young children, hosted by Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot, authors of the 2^nd edition of K-1 OWL. Under Your Wing: Our Whole Lives Sexuality and https://www.uua.org/re/owl/videos-k-1 Resource list is here.

UCC version of Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators is available here. UUA version is here. Watch the webinar about this Parents and Caregivers program here.

OWL Taking Flight webinars are taking a summer break! These will resume on the 1^st Wednesday of the month from 12-1 ET on September 4^th, with Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller sharing about their new Learning About Bodies book series for young children.

Register at www.ucc.org/owl or www.uua.org/re/owl. All are recorded. A playlist of past webinars is here. To see resources shared in each webinar:

Click on the webinar you’d like to see on the playlist.
Under the screen where the webinar plays, where is shows the number of views, you will see a Show More link.
Click on that and you will see any resources shared in that webinar.

Extra Webinar!

The UCC and UUA partnered with SIECUS to offer two webinars in May for Sex Ed for All Month. One was our regular Taking Flight webinar, and SIECUS also hosted a webinar about Integrating Sex Education in Faith Communities with Rev. Amy Johnson and Dr. Melanie Davis. You can watch that here: SIECUS Online Presents: Integrating Sex Education in Faith Communities.

FAQ: New Format for Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education and Sexuality and Our Faith

Why are some OWL curricula now sold as loose-leaf pages instead of bound books?
Not binding the books means that we can provide you with replacement pages as soon as we learn that corrections, updates, or additions are needed rather than waiting for inventory to be depleted and new books to be printed. This allows us to provide you the most up-to-date and accurate content possible as well as to make changes quickly based on feedback around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

How will I know when replacement pages are issued for my loose-leaf copy of OWL?
Replacement pages will be published online at www.uua.org/re/owl/facilitators and Facilitator Resources. We encourage you to check online for replacement pages in real time as you are planning your workshops. To update your copy of OWL, print out the replacement pages and swap them for the old pages. The curriculum is paginated per workshop to allow new pages to be added without renumbering the pages for the whole publication.

In the UUA InSpirit Bookstore and UCC Resources, I see the OWL curriculum I want but not Sexuality and Our Faith. What should I do if I want the UU or UCC content?
Typically, the secular edition is published first. If you want the religious content, you should wait and order the UU or UCC edition when it becomes available.

I already purchased OWL for Grades K-1, 2nd ed. in loose-leaf format. How do I acquire the UU or UCC Sexuality and Our Faith content when it becomes available, and what will it cost?
OWL K-1 is the first OWL product in the new format. We expect to make the UU and UCC editions available later 2024 for a cost of $58. If you have already bought OWL K-1 without realizing that Sexuality and Our Faith is no longer a separate companion book, please send your receipt to owl@uua.org or owl@ucc.org and request a free PDF of the UU or UCC edition.

Why are some OWL levels in the new format while others are not?
As manuscripts for new editions are completed, they will be rolled out in the new format. Eventually, every OWL level will be published in a loose-leaf format for secular, UU, and UCC editions.

Will there still be entire new editions periodically?
Yes. Every level of OWL will be periodically reviewed and updated for content, but being able to issue replacement pages means that you don’t have to worry that the edition you’re using is terribly out of date.

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.

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!