Young People’s Experiences and Thoughts on Relationships Today: A conversation with Marline Pearson Many of us wonder about young people’s current lived experience and aspirations regarding their relationships. For instance: Do adolescents still date? Do they still hope for a long-term committed partner or spouse? How are young people thinking about their intimate relationships? How are they visualizing their current or future families? Join Love Notes author and noted thought leader, Marline Pearson, as she shares her experiences and reflections that come from teaching thousands of young people at Madison College, a two-year technical and community college as well as younger teens through STEM and Gateway programs. She will also share the different messages she gives young people from teens to late twenties about how best to approach relationships during those years. Note: This is a conversational format. Please come prepared with questions to ask Marline. Objectives: Participants will be…
Relationship Smarts Plus
The State of Youth Relationship Education Today Relationship education has moved from being an unfamiliar and unrecognized intervention to being an appreciated and effective intervention that can pull many levers in young people’s lives. We know from research that it can change sexual behaviors, reduce violence and the acceptance of violence. And, most recently, we see that relationship education can help build hope. Join Executive Director, Kay Reed, to learn about the current landscape for the field of relationship education. She will share new research outcomes, innovative funding streams and settings, along with challenges and opportunities for the field. Objectives: Participants will be able to: List outcomes that result from evidence-based relationship education. Target new state and federal funding to support relationship education programming. Share current challenges and opportunities for the field Presenter: Kay Reed, Executive Director Resources: January 2024 Webinar Slide Deck
What happens when you teach teens to navigate their romantic relationships? Is there a difference between boys and girls? Does dose or content matter? Join Drs. Alamillo and Doran of Mathematica as they share the insights of a randomized study of Georgia students who participated in two versions of the Relationship Smarts PLUS program. They will discuss the impact on students’ relationship skills, attitudes, knowledge, experiences, and the quality of their relationships one and three years later. As part of the sustained effort by the Administration for Children and Families to expand available evidence on healthy marriage and relationship education programs, Mathematic and its partner, Public Strategies, conducted the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services evaluation to help identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of HMRE programs. (MTCI), near Atlanta, Georgia. MTCI received a federal grant in 2015 to deliver Relationship Smarts PLUS Version 3.0 to youth in high…
From underperforming schools to unsafe neighborhoods, from institutional racism to other structural barriers, hindrances often stand in the way of financial success for young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. Given these challenges, many young adults lose hope, thinking they have no way of changing their life trajectories. However, there is a path that frequently leads to the “American Dream” and away from poverty. This path is called the “Success Sequence.” The sequence entails three steps: (1) getting at least a high-school degree, (2) working full-time, and (3) marrying before having children. Young adults who manage to follow the sequence – even in the face of challenges – are much more likely to forge a path to a better economic life. Join Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang as they discuss how poverty is basically nonexistent among young adults who followed all three steps according to their new analysis of data from the…
For the past 10 years, youth serving programs across the United States have been teaching healthy relationship skills to hundreds of thousands of young people using Relationship Smarts PLUS 4.0 and Love Notes 3.0. Now, The Dibble Institute is excited to announce that both of these evidence-based programs have been updated with brand new information crucial to supporting teens and young adults in today’s world! Both Relationship Smarts PLUS 5.0 and Love Notes 4.0 continue to use a strengths-based, asset building approach to help young people make wise choices about relationships, sex, and the timing of family formation plus setting a path towards achieving their goals. New and updated contents include: Navigating relationships in the digital age Sex trafficking prevention Consent and sexual assault prevention Unique approach to addressing internet porn Current research, music, videos, images Improved activities for greater engagement and easier facilitation Medical accuracy updates on contraceptive and STI information Objectives:…
September 9, 2020 @ 1:00 pm Pacific Developmentally, one of the ways adolescents explore who they are is through romantic relationships. How adolescents approach these relationships is influenced by the relationships modeled around them. While some youth may have witnessed and learned about positive couple interactions from good models, many may have witnessed only poor models of couple relationships. Educational programs on healthy relationships can help youth develop skills to make smart relationship choices and avoid risky behaviors. Since 2008, the University of Georgia along with Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Extension agents, in partnership with schools and community agencies across 76 counties, have delivered Relationship Smarts PLUS to nearly 15,000 youth. Overall, participating youth have reported increases in knowledge, confidence that they can use the skills learned, likeliness to use these skills, and positive feelings about themselves. Join Dr. Ted Futris and Cindy Sheram as they share their…
Join the staff from Project Rise as they share with you how they are successfully engaging the Latino community including youth and their parents in healthy relationship skills programming. Project Rise is utilizing Relationship Smarts PLUS (Sexual Risk Avoidance Adaptation) to prevent teen pregnancy, reduce associated risk behaviors, and promote healthy adolescent development among Latino teens aged 12-18. They are working in four neighborhoods of Los Angeles County where measures of sexual risk are significantly higher than the national average. In focus groups the young people reported learning: Communication and relationships skills including ways to speak with family and friends as well as controlling their anger How to be self-reflective including understanding infatuation vs true love and effective decision making skills Ways to talk with their parents or a trusted adult about sex and healthy relationships. Presenters: John Lewis, Southern California Director, Urban Strategies Guillermo Pichardo, Youth Advocate, Catalyst SGV Who Should Attend:…
When educating youth, one must be aware of their uniqueness as it relates to a variety of demographics, including the community where they are living. If youth cannot take the information you are providing and use it in their daily lives and in their community, then all of the education is for nothing. The evidence-based Love Notes Sexual Risk Avoidance Education(SRAE) curriculum is being used successfully in two SRAE programs that serve high-risk youth in very different communities – one in rural West Virginia and the other in New York City. In this webinar, we will discuss how, while these youth may seem like they are worlds apart, we have found that their response to this curriculum and relationship experiences are not all that different. Presenters: Torri Childs, MA, Field Research Associate who has worked with AMTC and Associates since 2008. Crystal Agnew, Deputy Director of Trinity Church, Peacmeakers Family Center Melissa…
Marline Pearson, author of Love Notes and Relationship Smarts PLUS, will make the case why a 4thR is needed for increasing student success. Learn why relationship education must be a central tool to help young people reach their school, work, and family goals by increasing their agency over their love lives. She will cover recent research and share evidence-based solutions to the pressing problems that face today’s youth. Attendees will: Identify at least 2 key reasons why relationship education is key to helping students succeed. Describe current trends that could be reversed by teaching relationship education. Identify 2 evidence based strategies that could be implemented to help students succeed. Presenter: Marline E. Pearson, M.A., Author, Love Notes and Relationship Smarts PLUS. Resources: February 2019 Webinar PPT
For the past five years, programs across the United States have been teaching healthy relationship skills to thousands of young people through Relationship Smarts PLUS 3.0 and Love Notes 2.1. Now, The Dibble Institute is excited to announce that both of these evidence-based programs have been updatedwith brand new information crucial to supporting teens and young adults in today’s world! They respond to changing conversations and conditions spurred on by #metoo, #timesup, smart phones, and social media. Relationship Smarts Plus 4.0 and Love Notes 3.0 both feature brand-new, age-appropriate content on: Sexual consent Online pornography Sexting Sexual assault Drugs and alcohol – and their impact on relationships Cyberbullying Relationship Smarts PLUS 4.0 is ideal for younger teens, and Love Notes 3.0 is ideal for older teens and young adults who are at risk of seeing their personal goals derailed by troubled relationships, unplanned pregnancy, and single parenting. Presenter: Marline E. Pearson. M.A., Author, Love Notes and…
Looking for new ways to fund your relationship education work? Take a look at the new Teen Pregnancy Prevention funding opportunities with Aaron Larson, Dibble’s Director of Programs and former staff at the Department of Health and Human Services. He will go over the basics of applying for federal funding plus he will also take a look at the Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) and Sexual Risk Reduction (SRR) adaptations of Love Notes (found to be one of the most effective teen pregnancy prevention programs) and Relationship Smarts PLUS. Both programs are currently being successfully used for teen pregnancy prevention in federally funded Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grants. Presenter: Aaron Larson, Director of Programs, The Dibble Institute
WEBINAR: Working Together: Developing & Implementing a Sustainable Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program
In October 2016, Dr. Michelle Toews and her colleagues at Kansas State University received a grant to develop, implement, and evaluate the #RELATIONSHIPGOALS program, a sexual risk avoidance education intervention with seventh- and ninth-grade students from a local school district. The goal of program is to empower youth to make healthy decisions by teaching them the benefits associated with self-regulation, healthy relationships and goal setting, while also teaching them how to resist sexual coercion, dating violence and other risky behaviors. The curriculum used in the intervention is Relationship Smarts PLUS, Sexual Risk Avoidance Adaptation. Preliminary results suggest the program is reaching its goal. Specifically, students report that they love the program and share that one of the most important things they learn is how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships. They also say the program teaches them skills they need to develop healthy relationships, particularly effective communication skills, which they…
Significant numbers of teens and young adults use social media as their main source of communicating with friends both those they have met in person and online. Today’s technology allows adolescents instant but distant access to each other yet at what price? We wonder – “How will social media affect young people’s ability to build healthy, ongoing relationships? How will the new technologies affect their social skills? What can we do to help teens and young adults navigate this new terrain safely while building essential interpersonal skills?” Join Jennifer Myers and Aaron Larson as they: Share how social media impacts the relationships and interactions of teens and young adults. Introduce a just-released supplementary lesson from Relationship Smarts PLUS on Technology and Social Media, using the new Dibble Digital platform. Presenters: Jennifer Myers, M.A., L.P.A., University of North Carolina, Carolina Counseling Center, and Aaron Larson, Digital Coordinator, The Dibble Institute Originally recorded…
This webinar will introduce our new online platform – Dibble Digital. Our most popular curricula, activity books, and lessons are now available digitally. The advantages are tremendous! Lesson plans can be quickly searched for specific content You’ll have unlimited access to materials you choose with your subscriptions Free, ongoing upgrades with refreshed content are also included – and more. Learn the many benefits to you and your students of accessing Dibble teaching tools online. Get a virtual tour of the new digital platform. See exactly what the digital products look like and find ways to best use them. Presenters: Kay Reed, Executive Director, The Dibble Institute and Aaron Larson, Dibble Digital Coordinator
Teen parenting, poor refusal skills, early sexual involvement, and family complexity characterize the experiences of many youthful offenders. When teens and young adults are incarcerated, they often return to society still lacking healthy relationship skills necessary for successful family reunification and job retention. Relationship Smarts Plus and Love Notes curricula are about the building of the developmental assets missing in this population. Attendees will hear how a youth detention program is tackling this issue and a re-entry program experienced successful outcomes by addressing relationship skills first and job skills second. Presenters: Marcia White, IMPACT Community Action, Columbus, OH; Re-Entry Program, Relationship Education/Workforce Readiness and Laura Waggle, Perry County Detention Center, OH; Relationship Education in Juvenile Corrections; sponsored thru Forever Dads and the Ohio Office of Jobs and Families Resources: August 2014 Webinar PPT
Many of us remember our first crush. Our feet barely touched the ground and we couldn’t get that special someone out of our minds. The feelings of romantic attraction are incredible! Thanks to modern science we now know that most of our “in love” sensations are due to various chemicals naturally coursing through our brains. Join Marlene Pearson, author of Love Notes and Relationship Smarts PLUS, to learn about the brain chemistry behind falling in love and how it affects us. She’ll also explore how to help youth understand what they are feeling, appreciate the positives of the early stages of attraction, and make good relationship and sexual decisions. Presenter: Marline Pearson, Author of Love Notes, v.2.0 and Relationships Smarts PLUS v.3.0. Resources: February 2014 Webinar PPT