News

Personhood

Lucy Schultz worked as a young volunteer with Brook London last year. Here, she gives us a flavour of sexual health issues in America from a blog that she wrote in November - we hope to bring you more of these letters from Lucy throughout the year.

Growing up in New York City and now attending Brown University, two of the most liberal places in the country, I sometimes forget just how terrifyingly conservative the United States can be.  That is until I’m reminded by a legislative act swarming the news in its latest attempt to jeopardize American women’s reproductive rights. 

Most recently, this was Mississippi’s Proposition 26, or the “Personhood Amendment”, which attempted to declare that, “the term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof”.  If passed, this amendment would grant fertilized eggs the legal rights and protections that apply to all other people, thus branding abortions (including those for victims of rape or incest), Emergency Contraception, IUDs, attempted in-vitro fertilization, and laboratory embryo testing as murder in Mississippi. 

While this ballot may now seem ridiculous and far too extreme, a few weeks ago it seemed likely to pass.  It was even endorsed by the candidates for Mississippi governor from both major parties.  The state of Mississippi has already heavily regulated abortions, so much so that there is only one abortion clinic in the entire state.  Not only that, but Mississippi requires minors to have parental or judicial consent in order to obtain an abortion, while adult women must receive counseling and wait twenty-four hours afterwards before actually having the procedure (therefore requiring two separate trips to the facility) in order to discourage women from going through with the abortion.  And who can forget the terror when Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Jackson, Mississippi, was shot to death while entering his church in 2009 (abortion is the only medical procedure in which the fatality rate is higher for the provider than the patient).  Women’s access to abortions and other contraception is already few and far between in Mississippi, and Proposition 26 would have outlawed all that remained.

Mississippi voters did in fact reject this ballot in the polls on November 8th by over fifty-five percent, thus repealing the amendment.  Unfortunately, this does not mean the end of legislation meant to encroach on women’s reproductive rights.  The group Personhood USA, which established the initiative, is determined to start up similar propositions in other states such as Florida, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, California, and Ohio.  Ohio is already currently debating the “Heartbeat Bill”, which would ban all abortions after six weeks gestation, when the fetal heartbeat is first detectable.

As a young woman in the United States, I can never feel quite at ease knowing that there is a constant threat on my friends’, my sister’s, or my own reproductive rights. Having spent the summer in London, interning at Brook, I have gotten a taste of what it is like to take reproductive rights as a given.  I’m not sure that the U.S. will ever be able to adopt these progressive, liberal, non-religious views concerning abortion and contraception that the United Kingdom has.  So, I cling to my campus feminist and sexual health activist groups in the hopes that we might make even the tiniest stride towards securing reproductive rights for American women. 

Posted 3 May 2012

Tags:  Brook, Brook London, Mississippi, Personhood Bill, Sex Positive, Sex:Positive, SexPositive, US, United States, America

 




Credit to The National Youth Agency Teambuilding activities for young people booklet, for the exercise used.

Also, who likes my awesome paint skills? Anyone? No, I’ll be quiet then!

Posted 20 Mar 2012

Tags:  sex positive, volunteers, brook, team building, exercise

Our first week

My name’s Jack. I’m one of the new volunteers on the sex:positive campaign. I volunteered to write this blog, trying to usefully participate considering how much time I normally sit around on tumblr, and have been mulling over how to make this as interesting as possible to our followers. Truth is? I struggled! I’m supposed to be talking about our first week at Brook, which although it has been very interesting for us as a group, I wouldn’t like to assume that it would be nice for any of you to be met with a wall of text about!

So, what I’ve decided to do (albeit a bit cheekily), is to briefly summarise what we got up to in our first week which I can thankfully remember due to my excellent memory (and of course has nothing to do with our diary printout) and swiftly move onto the more interesting stuff to come. Because we have a lot of exciting things to share with you all!

What did we actually do?

·         Introduction to the sex positive campaign and what we can expect from working at Brook.

·         Team building – creating our working agreement, team building exercise and a values exercise (which as much as I would like to, I cannot remember as it was 3 weeks ago now!) And for anyone interested… our team building exercise was an activity called Stranded! Our ever so kind manager engineered for us to be involved in a plane crash and left us stranded on a desert island with so many useful things to take but the ability to only take (x) amount of items. If you want to see what Josh, Jenna, Jacob and myself chose (after much debate about whether chocolate and beer are appropriate items to take!) then  look out for the following picture titled ‘Stranded!’

·         Induction at the training provider where we will be lucky enough to study for a level 2 qualification in Employability and Personal Development.

·         Personal Development (my personal favourite) – skills development, where are we now and where do we want to be? And a lot of time spent exploring our personal values around sexuality and debating them out in our team.

Hopefully, that wasn’t too bad! But I promise you (much) more interesting things will be to come. We have a lot of ideas floating around, so stick around and I hope to be bringing them to you all soon.

Posted 20 Mar 2012

Tags:  sex positive, brook, volunteering, volunteers, sex education, personal development, blogging, campaigns, team building, work skills

Congratulations Natalie G!

Congratulations to Natalie G, Campaign Volunteer, for winning regional vInspired award for the North West Best New Volunteer and being shortlisted for the finals! http://vinspired.com/rewards/northwestwinners

Posted 3 Feb 2012

We need campaign volunteers!

You will get experience in

• Working on Brook’s Sex:Positive campaign
• Working in sexual health
• Getting young people’s voices heard
• Working with your local community.

You will get training in

• Team work, IT, admin, campaigning,  sexual health, outreach work.

Plus

• Expenses will be covered
• An accredited qualification
• A grant opportunity
• At the end of the project you can apply for a grant of £250

Here is what previous volunteers have said about they experience:
“… I’ve also fallen in love with Brook as an entity with such attuned morals and values that seems so difficult to find with other charities. I’m going to miss this stage of knowing Brook but I also welcome whatever the future may bring to us. Brook is like a Henry Hoover – it’ll suck you in entirely, and it’ll have a smile on its face while it’s doing it.”

“It has been challenging, rewarding and awesome – the first two of which I hoped for, and the last being a truly great bonus. I am exceptionally proud of the successes of the Sex:Positive campaign that I achieved as an individual and as part of a team.”

To find out more and apply to be a Campaign Volunteer visit:

London: http://www.brook.org.uk/index.php?option=com_brookjob&view=article&id=177&Itemid=119
Liverpool: http://www.brook.org.uk/index.php?option=com_brookjob&view=article&id=178&Itemid=119
Oldham: http://www.brook.org.uk/index.php?option=com_brookjob&view=article&id=179&Itemid=119

Application deadline:
16 January 2012
Interviews:
18 January 2012

Posted 6 Jan 2012

Great news from deepest darkest Cornwall where young fathers are standing up to be counted!

Hi, my name is Ed Hart, Boys and Young Men’s Worker for Brook Cornwall. I have had the extreme privilege to work over the last couple of years with a fantastic group of young men who really put the ‘father’ in ‘young fathers’! This support group for young dads formed about 18 months ago and have been working together since, along with a local film maker – James Hutchings, to produce a fantastic film! The film features interviews with 5 members of the group; Kev, Callum, Dave, Ryan and Matt who along with some of the other members portray their experiences of finding out they were going to be fathers and how fatherhood has affected them.

The film was launched a couple of weeks ago at The Keay Theatre in St Austell. The group and I, along with our other workers and volunteers, were joined by an enthusiastic crowd of family, friends, professionals and local dignitaries, all of whom fed back some wonderful warm praise at the end of the night.

The film will be used as an educational resource along with a lesson plan to look at the realities of fatherhood as well as being shown to professionals who work with young families to raise awareness. It is also a good snapshot of the work we do and young men have been showing to their friends to try and get them along to the group. It has also proved to be a catalyst to this work appearing on the agendas of local decision makers and we are extremely positive that the service has every chance of going from strength to strength.

Young fathers work is challenging to get running and it has taken us a lot of work but the results are there to see. We hope the film and the project will help to dispel some of the negative stereotypes that exist around young fathers and encourage young men who find out they are going to be a dad to be the best fathers they can possibly be.

Please have a look at the film via one of the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAlKY6YIGLA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://vimeo.com/32958702

Or see the coverage of the event at:
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Young-dads-aim-right-message/story-13997300-detail/story.html

Posted 21 Dec 2011

Everyone is equal and deserves to be treated the same

Hi guys Natalie here again! This month I have been busy with the shop, we had a fantastic time and people were really interested in our campaign and wanted to help support it, we got 32 photos and 49 pledges so that’s brilliant. It’s my last month so I am going to very sad but while am still here for a month I am going to push for more support than ever!

I have chosen to write about sexual bulling because it is a really big issue in our society today, and people need to know about it. Everyone is equal and deserves to be treated the same.

Sexual Bullying is many things and can happen at any time to anyone. There are many different ways sexual bullying can happen- it is any bullying behaviour, whether physical or non-physical, that is based on a person’s sexuality or gender. It is when sexuality or gender is used as a weapon by boys or by girls. It can be carried out to a person’s face, behind their back. You don’t have to be having sex or be in a relationship with someone for it to happen to you.

Being sexually bullied can affect how you feel. People may be unsure of what to do about it, especially if those around them accept it as normal behavior! The good news is you can do something and there are places to help for example Brook , Ask Brook 0808-802-1234 and Beatbullying’s: cybermentors.org.uk

A lot of young people are bullied for being in a same sex relationship, this is totally wrong, people can like and love whoever they want as long as they are happy and aren’t hurting anybody. People should let people be free to be who they want to be.

Thank you all for your support

Love Natalie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Posted 16 Dec 2011

A Sex:Positive Message from Australia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z07IYY1hkU

“the Southern Youth Action Team from SHine SA recorded this vid after a session on sex positive and what it means to sexual health

for more info on SHine SA & the Y@s go to www.shinesa.org.au”

Posted 9 Dec 2011

Why I am Sex:Positive

Hello! As the latest person to volunteer with Brook I thought it was time to introduce myself and give you all a bit of an insight into why I’m here.

My name is Jo, and as well as being a volunteer here at Brook, I’m also a teacher. I’ve been responsible for delivering sex and relationship education to a lot of young people over the last few years, I have seen what works and what doesn’t, and as a result I am completely behind the Sex:Positive campaign.

I got in touch with Brook after a conversation with a few friends (also teachers, we really do socialise together as well!), and realised how many of them are being asked to teach SRE, and how few of them have any real guidance or training to do so. Whilst there are plenty of schools who offer their students a fantastic experience of SRE, we know that 26% of young people surveyed said that they had no SRE at all, and another 26% didn’t think the SRE they did get was taught very well. That’s just not good enough.

Whilst school shouldn’t be the only place you get your info about sex, it certainly should be somewhere that you feel comfortable asking questions, and you should be able to trust that your teachers will be able to give you honest, impartial and accurate answers.

So, back to my teacher friends… let’s call them by their subjects; Maths, Music and Geography. What have we all got in common, aside from enjoying a good natter over a cup of tea? We have all taught SRE.

They’re all fantastic and inspiring teachers – I’ve seen Maths’s classes get the hang of quadratic equations faster than I could draw the little grid we used to solve them when I was at school. Music can put on a Prom-standard concert virtually single-handedly, and Geography could tell me more about coastal features than I could ever hope to know. What they’re not so sure about is why they’ve all ended up standing in front of a bunch of year 9’s with a box of condoms and a banana.
I suppose we could say that their students are lucky to be getting any sex and relationship education at all; whilst schools have to have an SRE policy (usually a few pages stored on a hard drive or in a filing cabinet in somebody’s office), there is no rule which says they actually have to teach the subject! But if we’re honest, we know that it’s still not enough. Whereas most staff have at least a year’s training to become a ‘specialist’ teacher in their subject, that’s not available to PSHE teachers. There are courses available, and opportunities for teachers to get extra qualifications as teachers of SRE, but with the pressures of making sure young people are achieving their potential in every other area of the curriculum, schools don’t always have the time or money to do this.

I think that your teachers should be able to answer questions on any area of sex and relationships that you ask – or know where to go to find the answers if they don’t. They should be planning fun, interesting and thought-provoking lessons which are intended to deal with the issues which are important  and appropriate to you and your peer-group, rather than using the ‘one size fits all’ photocopied worksheet which I PROMISE you they wouldn’t use if they had a bit more experience of teaching SRE! They should know that whilst SRE will give you the opportunity to learn exactly what you need to know about sex, the focus of SRE really is RELATIONSHIPS – with your family and friends as well as exploring the different types of relationships that you are likely to encounter during your lifetime. 
So, for me, SEX:Positive is not just about asking for a high standard of sex and relationship education for young people, but also ensuring that people working in education have got the skills to deliver it. Until SRE becomes compulsory in all schools, it won’t get the attention that it, and you as young people deserve.

Posted 6 Dec 2011

Young people must be given the tools to make the right choices for themselves

All young people are different and that is why they need the information, guidance and support which will suit their lifestyle and situation. When the time is right for young people to have sex this information and support will help them to make informed choices which are right for them.

Some young people choose to have sex and others don’t. It is all about personal choice, and these choices should be respected,supported and not judged. Many people have an opinion on young people, relationships and sex, they think everything young people do is wrong or inappropriate. This view needs to be changed because, let’s face it, not everyone is perfect and people make mistakes. When young people make mistakes, it’s up to adults to help them to learn from them. This is why people need to help young people and not to judge them.

Young people’s choices about sex and relationships can be influenced by so many different things such as TV, films, their culture and what they are taught at school. The main thing is that the choices a young person makes are right for them and nobody else and that’s why we should all be ready to say NO when it isn’t right for us!

Hi guys Natalie here, this month we have been working on the photos for the creative project taking pledges into sessions and working on our corner of sex positive for the shop in Oldham, which am really excited about because we will get loads of photos and pledges done, anyway I will update you all next month on how it goes thanks to everyone for your support so far!

Posted 11 Nov 2011

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