Support Sex Education and Prevent Sex Trafficking

The Project/Challenge

The Adolescent Sexual Health Education and Research (ASHER) Team at USF has developed a program that offers sexual health education for young people in underserved and marginalized communities. The ASHER project’s “Choosing Myself” curriculum weaves empowerment, mental wellness, and social support through comprehensive sexual health education to increase participants’ autonomy, boundaries, self-esteem, and confidence and to decrease their risk of sexual violence and trafficking. 

We provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information, but at its foundation, we center the participants. Rather than simply providing information, we integrate discussions, group work and art activities to fully engage with participants and help them connect with each other and create community that can support them 
throughout their lives. The ASHER program offers classes for young people (ages 13-24) who are marginalized or underserved. We consider the experiences and specific needs of young people who have experienced sexual violence or sex trafficking and/or belong to a racial or ethnic minority group or identify as questioning or LGBTQ+.

Our curriculum is trauma-informed, meaning we consider our participants’ experiences  and we facilitate the curriculum in ways that are mindful of these difficult and sensitive topics. The “Choosing Myself” curriculum not only provides education, but helps 
empower participants to build their self-esteem to make choices based on their values and life goals. 

Who We Are

ASHER is affiliated with the Women's and Gender Studies and Criminology departments at 
USF. Utilizing expertise from professors in both departments contributes to ASHER’s 
foundation as an anti-violence, anti-trafficking program that is intersectional, promotes 
equity and works to decrease gendered, racial and sexual violence.

The Impact

ASHER and the “Choosing Myself” curriculum has already begun to change participants’ lives! We offer the curriculum at a juvenile detention center and online and as participants  wrote in a weekly session evaluation: “I love the ASHER program!”, “You guys are astonishingly amazing!”, and “I love it so much–it’s so helpful!” And in response to asking what is most relevant to them, some of the participants wrote: “visible signs of violence”, “my past trauma”, “feeling positive when I leave”, “boundaries”, “my values”, and “the assertive communication”. 

We know this program has already empowered the participants to feel more comfortable with their bodies and their ability to make decisions about their reproductive health and sexual choices. Each person takes something unique from the program, which will impact them for the rest of their lives. This program can also impact students at USF and the community because we offer it to participants ages 13-24 and USF students are eligible. Given this funding support, we are always looking to partner with additional organizations! 

Finally, our program evaluation enables us to better understand the impact of comprehensive sex education on sexual risk and preventing gendered, racial and sexual violence. This information is used to continually enhance our program and inform our local and broader communities about how sex education can decrease violence and empower youth. This knowledge will contribute to anti-trafficking, gender studies, and sexuality education theory and praxis. 

What Your Gifts Will Do

Donations allow us to continue offering “Choosing Myself” to participants throughout the state of Florida. We have current partnerships and participants who want to join the program, but we need additional funding to pay program facilitators and program evaluation staff, provide participant stipends and support program materials.

We also plan to expand the program to adapt it for male participants and provide training materials for parents, guardians and people who work closely with youth. Participant stipends show participants we value the knowledge they bring to the program evaluation portion of the program and they also help to ensure participants complete the program. This program evaluation is paramount to not only program improvement, but to enable sharing the knowledge we gain with the public. 

Thank You for Your Support!

We greatly appreciate any gift you can provide! Your donation directly impacts the lives of vulnerable young people in our community by increasing their knowledge, helping them to achieve sexual and reproductive health and most importantly, contributing to their self- esteem and empowerment! Thank you for providing the support necessary to help 
decrease gendered, racial and sexual violence in our community! 

Spread the Word

Also consider making an even bigger impact by sharing your support of this campaign by clicking on the social media tools at the top of the page. And to make it easy, just insert this message: 

Be a part of #ASHERBulls by making a gift of any size to the Adolescent Sexual Health Education and Research (ASHER) Project―a program that offers sexual health education for young people in underserved and/or marginalized communities. The ASHER project weaves empowerment, mental wellness and social support through its comprehensive 
sexual health curriculum to improve participants’ autonomy, boundaries, self-esteem, and confidence and to decrease their risk of sexual violence and trafficking. 

Thank you and Go Bulls!