aMenu
x

Strong YOUth! Strong Wyoming Project

The Strong YOUth! Strong Wyoming Project provides youth in middle/jr. high and high schools with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate the challenges of adolescence and help them build a foundation for healthy and successful lives.  The project empowers youth to make informed healthy choices to achieve optimal health and well-being, emphasizing healthy relationships, goal setting, self-regulation, effective communication and conflict resolution, strategies for overcoming peer pressure, healthy decision-making, and prevention of risk behaviors by learning about the dangers of drug and alcohol use and STIs. Additionally, youth have opportunities to build leadership skills and abilities and enhance connectivity to peers, family and community resources by engaging in community service projects, community events, or school assemblies to raise awareness on issues affecting teens.

The Strong YOUth! Strong Wyoming Project uses three evidence-based curricula selected to meet the needs of participating youth in partnership with teachers/facilitators in middle/junior high and high schools and is currently in full swing in Laramie, Sheridan, Campbell, Platte, Sweetwater, Fremont and Weston Counties.

1) Students in middle/junior high school are offered Love Notes 4.0. Middle School Adaptation by The Dibble Institute.  Love Notes builds skills and knowledge for healthy and successful relationships with partners, family, friends, and co-workers. Within the context of a positive youth development approach, Love Notes empowers students to develop relationship and life skills that will prepare them to transition into adulthood and achieve academic, employment, and personal goals. It is packed with lively activities that use real-life relationship, work, and parenting scenarios, written by diverse teens and young adults.  All lessons are age-appropriate, inclusive, evidence based and medically accurate. Each lesson includes a Trusted Adult Connection activity designed to build bonds by communicating with a caring adult or mentor on these important issues. Key topics include:

  • Self-awareness
  • Goal setting
  • Healthy decision-making
  • Emotion regulation
  • Resisting peer pressure
  • Building and maintaining healthy partner, family & friend relationships
  • Personal boundary setting
  • Effective communication and conflict management 
  • Recognizing unhealthy relationships to prevent intimate partner violence
  • Pacing relationships and consent
  • Success Sequencing
  • Navigate technology in relationships

2) REAL Essentials Advance from The Center for Relationship Education is offered to youth grades 9th-12th.  It is specifically designed to equip young people with skills for combating challenges they face in adolescence. Lesson content captivates the heart and directs students toward positive decision making.  All lessons are inclusive, evidence based and medically accurate. It is evidence-based, medically accurate, culturally sensitive and age-appropriate. Included are Parent/guardian and trusted adult connection activities that offer conversation starters on developing and maintaining healthy relationships, as well as choosing partners and friends.

Key topics from REAL Essentials Advance curriculum include:

  • Self-discovery & self-awareness
  • Understanding difference in others 
  • Effective communication and conflict resolution
  • Healthy decision-making skills
  • Navigating and setting boundaries
  • Strategies for overcoming peer pressure 
  • Relationship red flags
  • Making plans for the future
  • Pacing intimate relationships
  • Financial Literacy

Get a look inside! Go to REAL Essentials Sample Lesson | The Center for Relationship Education (myrelationshipcenter.org) to download a free sample lesson!

3) Through a partnership with Wind River Family & Community Health Care, the Strong YOUth! Project delivers healthy relationship and risk avoidance education to Native American youth living in and adjacent to the Wind River Reservation. Youth participate in workshops using Respecting the Circle of Life curriculum developed by the John Hopkins Center for Indigenous Heath. It promotes holistic health and wellness among Indigenous communities by providing cross-cutting skills training in communication, decision-making, problem-solving and partner negotiation, and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education. Respecting the Circle of Life incorporates American Indian cultural teachings, values, and practices to address sexual health, healthy relationships, self-esteem, and self-identity.  A lesson is taught to youth with their parent/trusted adult during an in-home or group session at the conclusion of the program.

Key topics from Respecting the Circle of Life curriculum include:

  • Personal Values
  • Goal setting
  • Healthy relationships
  • Communication and refusal skills
  • Healthy decision-making
  • Consent
  • Reproductive Health
  • STIs
  • Avoiding risky situations

Go to ETR Respecting the Circle of Life to Preview the Program!

Acknowledgement & Disclaimer

This project was made possible by Funding Opportunity Number HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-SR-1927 or HHS-2023-ACF-ACYF-SR-0035 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Its contents are solely the responsibility of (insert name of grantee) and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.