KINDLING COMMUNICATION
SELF-KNOWLEDGE × VALUES × DECISION-MAKING
Ruthie Kolb has a background in reproductive health and education across the lifespan. They have been a high school math teacher, a postpartum coach, a curriculum evaluation project manager, a trainer for teachers, and a sex educator.
They combine their experiences in all these fields to lead non-judgmental, medically-accurate, and holistic conversations with youth about relationships, sexuality, identity, values, and goals so that young adults learn to make healthy decisions for themselves.
With adults, they blend the theories of adult learning and behavioral health to prepare them to have more skillful and informed conversations with young people about values-laden and challenging topics.
Ruthie's framework for sex education
evidence-based
medically-accurate
culturally-inclusive
values-neutral
sex positive
Using researched-based best practices in sexual health education, Ruthie facilitates strengths-based, interactive, age-appropriate, and inclusive conversations about sexuality that are adaptable to diverse settings: from schools to church groups and community organizations. You can mix and match topics and lessons to create a sexual health curriculum that is optimized for your students' needs.
Ruthie is trained to facilitate the following evidence-based curriculum
ANATOMY
PREGNANCY
BIRTH CONTROL
STIS AND HIV
DECISION-MAKING
SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER IDENTITY
BOUNDARIES
HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS & CONSENT
COMMUNICATION & REFUSAL SKILLS
VALUES FORMATION
SEXTING & MEDIA USAGE
AND MANY MORE!
“The presentation was the best one I have ever seen. It actually has relevance to things that I and my friends are hearing about or experiencing every day. The really cool thing is that it was honest.
Here are some of the trainings Ruthie offers to help adults have more confident and skilled conversations about relationships, decision-making, and sexuality. If you are looking for something slightly different from what is listed here, contact us to see if we can help you out!
Depending on the needs and skills of the facilitators, this can be a 1 or 2-day training, focused on providing educators with the content knowledge and unique skills needed to teach medically-accurate, inclusive, values-neutral, and research-based sexual health education.
Ruthie is a trained trainer in the following programs: Wyman's Teen Outreach Program; Family Life and Sexual Health (FLASH); Draw the Line, Respect the Line; Positive Prevention Plus; Rights, Respect, Responsibility (3R's); Street Smart; and Cardea's Core Skill's Training.
This is a 1.5 - 2 hour workshop in which Ruthie uses a positive youth development lens to help adults have more strengths-based and proactive conversations with young people about sexting and media usage.
Research shows that young people are looking to the trusted adults in their lives to talk with them about sexual health and sexuality, and yet often adults feel awkward and unprepared to have these conversations. This is a 2-hour workshop intended to help parents, mentors, coaches, teachers, religious leaders, and other trusted adults start and sustain comfortable and confident conversations with teens.
Whether a person is teaching sexual health education or mathematics, it is important that they understand the effects of adverse childhood experiences on students so that young people's needs are adequately met. This is a 2-hour workshop, outlining what trauma is, how it affects a person, and how to be trauma-informed in interactions with students.
LGBTQIA+ students have historically been overlooked by reproduction-focused sexual health education. This 2-hour workshop discusses how to teach about sexuality, anatomy, reproduction, and healthy relationships in a way that is respectful of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
Many people find that the religious teachings they received about sexuality as youth and young adults were unhealthy. But in what ways are sexuality and spirituality linked? How do you know what is a healthy framework for you? How we create a better sexual ethic beyond purity culture? These unique workshops were designed to give adults to opportunity to critically explore the messaging they have received from religious communities about sexuality and create new and healthy connections between their understanding of their spiritual beliefs and sexuality. The conversations are useful for people coming from conservative and liberal backgrounds alike.
Ruthie works with college dormitories to provide young adults the opportunity to reflect on their values, self-knowledge, and identity as they transition into their adult sexuality. They give students information about their sexual health and opportunities to ask open and honest questions.
The training was informative, participatory, practical, and useful. The best part was learning the skills to answer difficult and sensitive questions.
Sandbox Collective Podcast (Airdate TBD)
CU Denver - Sex, Human Development, and Family Systems Course Lecture - Feb 14
Aurora Public Schools - Training of Educators - Feb 26
University of Denver - Workshop with Health Living Learning Community - April 10
Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA)
Aurora Public Schools
Canon City Public Schools
Montessori Children's House of Denver
National Sex Education Center Conference
Colorado Children's Hospital BC4U Clinic
Boys and Girls Club of Colorado
Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne
Healthy Teen Network
Holy Love Lutheran Church
University of Denver
Children's Hospital Colorado
House for All Sinners and Saints
Mathematica Policy Research
Rocky Mountain Synod ELCA
Trailhead Institute
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland
Let us know a little bit about your sex education needs. We look forward to hearing from you!