WISE Lessons Learned

The landscape of sexuality education policy in North Carolina has changed, requiring the public health best practice of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in health classes for the first time since 1996. The 2009 Healthy Youth Act (HYA) law was an unfunded mandate, and NC schools faced a new approach in sexuality education with little to no support at the local level. The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of NC (APPCNC) led the charge to advocate for and subsequently support the HYA, learning lessons along the way about how to institutionalize sexuality education. Since then, APPCNC has joined forces with the Working to Institutionalize Sexuality Education (WISE) initiative, a national initiative underway in 8 states. WISE capitalizes on lessons learned from 2009-2011 about how to work with schools—and it's not just about training teachers—to create a culture where CSE is valued, expected, and normalized. This session will explore the lessons, tools, and approaches North Carolina school health advocates have taken and are taking to the school districts that APPCNC is working with. We will discuss the role of planning, policy, and community engagement as crucial steps to accompany implementation of CSE in schools. We will provide an overview of the process we have taken in working directly with school systems to determine what their specific needs would be, and we will discuss the importance of identifying and cultivating relationships both in the schools and in the surrounding community.