Our Whole Lives
Selecting & Training Facilitators
The leadership of any sexuality education program plays a major role in its
success. It is very important to choose Our Whole Lives facilitators
carefully and to provide them with the training they need to do their work well.
Facilitator Qualifications
Our Whole Lives is intended to be facilitated by two co-leaders of
different genders. Such a team will provide the group with two adult voices,
two gender perspectives, and an opportunity to see collaborative, mutually
respectful leadership. Co-facilitation also allows the leaders to share preparation,
problem solving, and the ongoing challenges and joys associated with program
implementation. We strongly recommend that you enlist a compatible team to
lead your Our Whole Lives group.
When choosing individuals to facilitate Our Whole Lives, keep in mind
that the ideal leader will have:
- a commitment to values-based, comprehensive sexuality education;
- a willingness to affirm the Our Whole Lives program goals, values,
and philosophy;
- an understanding and appreciation of the Unitarian Universalist faith
tradition and how this relates to offering sexuality education programs
in our congregations;
- an ability to create a safe, engaging learning environment;
- experience as a teacher;
- a background in sexuality education or a related field;
- a moral and ethical understanding of her or his own positions and of
the development of others' viewpoints;
- an understanding of human development;
- a demonstrated ability to appreciate and work with people of diverse
races, cultures, ages, abilities, and sexual and gender orientations.
Our Whole Lives facilitators need not be members of your congregation,
but the relationship between the facilitators and the congregation should
be one of trust. Therefore, individuals recruited to become Our Whole Lives
leaders should be known to the community. The UUA also strongly recommends
obtaining references for potential facilitators and ensuring that they do
not have criminal records. Contact your local law enforcement agency to learn
how to initiate a background check.
A final qualification for Our Whole Lives facilitators is comfort
in their leadership roles. Occasionally, personal issues or philosophical
differences can preclude this comfort. If a facilitator has second thoughts
about facilitating the curriculum at any point, it is important to give him
or her the option not to teach it.
Facilitator Training
Potential facilitators must attend a training workshop to prepare for the
experience of leading Our Whole Lives. Training is required for the
following reasons:
- It offers the opportunity to see Our Whole Lives activities modeled
by trainers as they were intended to be conducted.
- It gives facilitators a supportive environment to practice skills and
receive constructive feedback.
- It allows facilitators to network with other Our Whole Lives leaders
and to share ideas about what will and won't work with their groups.
- It provides an opportunity for facilitators to get in touch with their
own feelings, opinions, and experiences regarding sexuality.
Without training, facilitators often flounder when faced with a new curriculum
to implement. After their training experiences, however, program leaders typically
feel more equipped to deliver the curriculum as intended, as well as to adapt
the materials to the needs of the particular groups they will serve.
Individuals trained as facilitators of About Your Sexuality (AYS),
the UUA's previous sexuality education curriculum, must still undergo Our
Whole Lives training, because Our Whole Lives and AYS have
several significant differences. First, Our Whole Lives covers many
topics that were not addressed in AYS. Second, while AYS was
written for adolescents, Our Whole Lives has levels for several different
age groups with different skills and needs. Third, Our Whole Lives
has a companion religious program that incorporates worship and Unitarian
Universalist principles into the teaching of the curriculum. Fourth, Our
Whole Lives has supplementary visual components--slides for Grades 7-9,
a video for Grades 10-12--which can only be used by leaders who have been
trained.
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Curricula
