Eaton RESA Receives $1.8M Grant from the CDC to Implement Sex and HIV Education
Eaton Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) has been awarded a large grant from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Promoting Adolescent Health through School-Based HIV Prevention to implement sex and HIV education throughout the region.
Eaton RESA will provide support to local districts across Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties to develop sexual health strategies and programming to educate students and parents.
Implementation will be broken into two components: 1) data collection that assists districts with establishing priorities for their programming and supports the implementation of local Sex Education Advisory Boards, supported programming around Health Education and Sexual Health Services and 2) Safe and Supportive Schools for all students.
Eaton RESA will provide staff support to local districts that include:
- strengthening current sex education programs;
- strengthening implementation of skills-based health education to potentially include sex education within special education or alternative education;
- establishing and/or strengthening Sex Ed Advisory Boards;
- participating in curriculum and competency building trainings provided by Eaton RESA;
- integrating strategies to engage parents;
- increasing access to sexual health services;
- providing professional development to teachers regarding classroom management and safe and supportive environments for LGBTQ+ youth.
“Sexual health education is an extremely important element of students’ education and life-skills development. Through this grant, we will be able to provide strong support to create or expand existing programs and align programs across the region,” said Kim Thalison, Prevention Services Supervisor at Eaton RESA. “Our team worked tirelessly to apply for this funding and we are eager to begin implementation of these programs.”