This time of year - with shorter days, holidays, and extended time with family - impacts each of us uniquely. This season creates space for celebration and sharing: it can be a time when students learn about themselves and their communities, as well as diverse traditions beyond their own. Educators can facilitate conversations and skills practice related to bodily autonomy and consent with questions like what kind of greetings are typical in your family? and how can you assert your own and respect someone else’s boundaries around physical affection?

This also may be a hard time of year for many students, families, and educators: for those experiencing grief, isolation, or burnout. Additionally, recent violence against LGBTQ2SIA+ people may be making students and colleagues feel less safe being themselves and in public places. Educators and school staff can find resources to help make schools more supportive, safe, and affirming for students on ODE’s LGBTQ2SIA+ resources webpage.

Whatever this season means to you, we hope this newsletter reaches you with warmth and heartfelt thoughts as we anticipate this month’s school breaks and holidays.

In this newsletter, we will share with you some announcements, research, resources, and opportunities for training by ODE, as well as other offerings by statewide and national colleagues that may be of interest to you.

Header photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash, Newberg, OR

ODE Sexuality Education Updates

Funding Opportunity: Community Building Open Educational Resources for Elementary Grant: Health Education & Social Science in K-5 

The Oregon Department of Education is recruiting teams to develop high-quality instructional resources for grades K-5 that integrate Oregon’s sexuality education and ethnic studies standards. The Request for Application (RFA) for the Community Building Open Educational Resources (OER) for Elementary Grant is now open and closes January 9, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. (PST).

High-quality instructional materials effectively and efficiently yield improvements in student learning outcomes.The K-5 content area standards for sexuality education and ethnic studies are not yet addressed comprehensively in commercially available materials. This project funds  collection of standards-aligned K-5 lessons to specifically address state-adopted standards related to oppression, anti-racism, and violence prevention. Each grantee team will be funded to produce a set of lessons to contribute to the collection. At the end of the project, these lessons will be available for educators, free of charge and openly licensed, on the Oregon Open Learning Hub.

A pre-application webinar for this RFA is scheduled for December 7, 2022 at 4:00PM PST. Register for the pre-application webinar to receive the Zoom link and learn more about this opportunity. The webinar will be recorded and shared for later viewing approximately one week after the meeting.

Register here for the pre-application webinar

Access the full RFA, along with instructions on how to apply through the Oregon Buys eProcurement System, under “file attachments.”

Apply here by January 9, 2023

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette is hiring an Education & Training Coordinator to support the training and skill building of partners to effectively deliver sexual health programming. 

Healthy Teen Network is hiring an Accounts Receivable Administrative Assistant to support deliverables, provide bookkeeping and administrative support. 

Multnomah County is hiring a Community & Adolescent Health Program Supervisor to oversee day-to-day functions of Community and Adolescent Health violence prevention activities.