What's Happening

By Lauren Ranalli, MPH | August 9, 2022
Director of Marketing and Communications, ETR

What do you remember from your own experience of going through puberty? For many of us, it was a time of confusion, excitement, embarrassment, anxiety, anticipation, and a mix of other emotions. Here are 5 messages we as trusted adults can use to help our students, patients, or program participants get through this challenging time.

By Kristin Kennedy, Li Lock, and Adrian Neil Jr. | July 20, 2022
HIV & Sexual Reproductive Health at ETR

In July of 2012, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved Truvada® for PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis. While this advancement was a huge breakthrough in HIV prevention, many health equity barriers still exist for clients/patients that prevent PrEP from becoming an accessible and engaging aspect of their sexual health. As public health and health education professionals, we still have a lot of work to do and we can’t do it alone. We’re excited to share this resource with you to help your teams.

By Rebecca Erenrich, MPH and Kristin Kennedy, MS, MPH, CPH | May 27, 2022

The United States is experiencing rising rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, fueled by the nation’s growing opioid crisis. This issue is particularly acute in Appalachia, where the increase in injection drug use led to a more than three-fold rise in new cases of hepatitis among young people between 2006 and 2012. As we close out Hepatitis Awareness Month, recognized each year in May, ETR remains committed to raising awareness, reducing stigma, and combatting the spread of HCV. As part of our fight for health equity, ETR offers science- and evidence-based resources on sexual health and safer drug use and works and maintains a portfolio of community-driven projects rooted in harm reduction, including HepConnect.

By The ETR Team | May 5, 2022 (Updated June 24, 2022)

Access to safe, legal abortion is at critical risk. In the next few months, 26 states could vote to ban abortion, putting in place insurmountable barriers to abortion services for over 36 million women and people who can become pregnant, which can have a profound lasting impact. We’re in this fight and are prepared to be an active, engaged partner in creating a culture that mirrors our mission, vision, and values.

By ETR and Roots Community Health Center | February 24, 2022

In this conversation, ETR’s Black Family Wellness team is joined by the Roots Community Health Center (RCHC) team to discuss the need for utilizing a holistic community-led approach to address systemic racism in health care and support the holistic health of Black women who are pregnant.

By Sarah Han, MPH | November 19, 2021
Youth Centered Health Designer, ETR

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of teens and young adults in countless ways. However, as public health researchers, practitioners, and advocates, we still don’t know much about how the pandemic has affected the romantic and sexual relationships of teens and young adults. Last month, a study examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s relationships was published in BMC Public Health, shining a light on this important, yet understudied, issue.

By Amy Peterson, PhD | September 2, 2021
Senior Research Associate, ETR

Our 2021 Kirby Summit explored the relationship between sexually explicit media (SEM), like pornography, and young people's sexual health outcomes (including attitudes and behaviors). Here is what we learned in our research, including listening sessions and literature review.

By Eddie Givens | June 22, 2021
Guest Writer, Community Member and Activist

Eddie Givens shares his reflections on the history of HIV Testing Day and the AIDS epidemic, highlighting the importance of HIV education, health equity, and ensuring accessible testing in every community.

By Melissa Perri, Sarah Flicker, Adrian Guta, and Marilou Gagnon | May 10, 2021
Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto

Internationally, comprehensive sex-ed programs have garnered promising results. Ontario, Canada’s largest province, recently implemented a new, responsive and controversial provincial sex-ed curriculum. An interdisciplinary team of public health, sociology and education scholars collaborated to learn more about the implementation challenges faced by health and physical education teachers. We sought to gain feedback on how recent curricular changes have altered the ease and effectiveness of delivery and get educators’ opinions on recommendations for improving future sex-ed curricula changes. 

By Laura Perkins, MLS, and Suzanne Schrag, BA | April 14, 2021
Health Literacy Editor and Product Manager/Editor, ETR

For years, there’s been a debate in the public health community over whether to use the term "STD" or "STI" in patient education materials. Some leading authoritative organizations continue to use STD, but many organizations have switched to using STI, or to using both terms. We explore various perspectives on this topic from different sexual health educators around the country.

By Lauren Ranalli, MPH | March 22, 2021
Director of Marketing and Communications, ETR

Educators play a critical role in providing young people with accurate, inclusive information on sexually transmitted infections, or sexually transmitted diseases (STIs/STDs). In addition to educating teens and adolescents on the signs and symptoms of STIs/STDs, here are 5 points to make sure you cover in your health lessons. And read on for resources that can support your sexual health program! 

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | December 1, 2020
Chief Executive Officer, ETR

December 1st marks Worlds AIDS Day and this year’s theme is Resilience and Impact. In ETR’s nearly 40-year history addressing HIV/AIDS, we have been committed partners in the fight to end the epidemic. We have witnessed the resilience of people living with HIV as well as the impact of the work to end HIV — particularly the work that centers the voices of communities most impacted.

By Mia Barrett, MEd | November 11, 2020
Project Coordinator, ETR

Talking about birth control options is the bread and butter for many sex educators—handing out charts that list each method, pointing out failure rates, busting myths.  Whether you are new to the field or have been at this for a while, your "Birth Control 101” lesson might need a fresh spark.  Here are three ways to help young people get the most out of your class.  

By Gillian Silver, MPH, CHES | January 8, 2020
Research Dissemination Specialist, ETR

My very first day working at ETR fell on our organization’s All Staff Retreat. It was an energizing day that allowed our growing staff to share priorities and interests, and to embrace a growth mindset in how we approach our work. An idea explored by Carol S. Dweck, adopting a growth mindset helps us move through challenges by identifying the opportunity within them. Inspired by my introduction to the organization, I wondered how the field of sexuality education can apply a #growthmindset to the topic of adolescent romantic relationships.

By Mia Barrett, MEd | December 19, 2019
Research Associate, ETR

Cheers erupted from the audience at the 24^th Congress of the World Association of Sexual Health (WAS) in Mexico City when Anne Philpott of The Pleasure Project urged sexuality educators to “Stop preaching and start having fun!  Learn to say YES to good, safe sex!” Later, WAS released an official Pleasure Declaration, stating that sexual pleasure is a fundamental human right. In a world where public health is so often focused on preventing negative outcomes and managing ill-health, this declaration and the conference’s focus on pleasure was revolutionary.

By John Shields, PhD, MSW | December 13, 2019
Senior Research Scientist, ETR

The US Department of Education’s proposed regulations on Title IX recently took an important step forward in the adoption process and the regulations may become official policy in the next few weeks. From our perspective as consultants and researchers in the K-12 space, our analysis of the regulations yields several significant implications on Title IX infrastructure, practices, and compliance.

By Emma Schlamm | December 9, 2019
Program Coordinator, YTH Initiative at ETR

First published on the blog of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative

The YTH Initiative of ETR, in partnership with the Public Health Institute (PHI) and GoJoven Honduras, is implementing and evaluating ZonaSegura. ZonaSegura is a multi-faceted tech-based intervention that uses a website, native mobile app, and a WhatsApp messaging campaign to prevent teen dating violence among Honduran youth. The evaluation has demonstrated that the power of partnership and human effort is an essential and irreplaceable component of a digital solution’s success.

By Vignetta Charles, PhD | December 2, 2019
Chief Executive Officer, ETR

Sunday, December 1, 2019, marked the 31^st observance of World AIDS Day. The theme for 2019 is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Community by Community.” This feels especially appropriate since we have been developing community-driven responses from the beginning. While reflecting on the nearly four decades of the HIV pandemic, ETR started looking back at our response since the earliest reported cases. Check out this retrospective of ETR’s history developing some of the nation's leading HIV education, training and research.