This September, we’re celebrating healthy youth and whole communities through Sexual Health Awareness Month. Learn how to take charge of your sexual health this month through these resources.
Sexual Health Resources
Choose Your Method: This tool allows you to choose a contraceptive option that works for you. Users who use this tool can sort through method cards, filtering them based on what they’re looking for in a contraceptive method. Options include preventing pregnancy, preventing STDs and STIs, over-the-counter methods, and ones that can provide painful period relief. The site also has emojis to filter for those with penises and vaginas, and for anal and oral sex. The resulting method cards show options that meet the criteria of the user.
Safer Sex With ME. Kit: We here at Teen Health Mississippi want to ensure all young people have access to resources and information to make decisions for their health and lives. Part of that is giving tools to young people for having safer sex. The Safer Sex with ME. Kit includes 2 internal and external condoms, 2 packs of lube, a how-to guide, 1 dental dam, 1 finger cot, and 1 pair of SafeSox, which have a handy pocket for a condom. Youth can fill out this form and receive a kit.
Other Resources
Expectant and Parenting Youth Resource Guides: Are you an expectant or parenting young person (EPY), or do you work with EPY? Our resource guides, which are divided by Mississippi regions, have listings of youth-friendly healthcare providers and resources for EPY. The guides also provide information expectant and parenting youth need to know as they prepare for parenthood.
Find Services for Youth: A tool that allows young people and their families to find healthcare providers and other services that are youth-friendly. Users can search for pregnancy and parenting resources and health and medical services (including ones for SRH), among others.
County Stats: At Teen Health Mississippi, we believe in the power of information to change our world. Our County Stats page offers information and statistics about Mississippi’s STD and teen birth rates as a whole, but it also has an interactive that map users can click on to see what their county’s stats are. The pages also include information about the type of sex education provided in the county’s school districts and what their priority for our CHART program is.
LinkedUp: Finding healthcare after leaving high school can be a daunting task, but Teen Health Mississippi is here to help. LinkedUp is a program that helps bridge the gap between young people and their healthcare after high school. In LinkedUp, we work with school-based clinics and students in the school to provide other students with these resources. The program also includes a resource guide with information about healthcare centers around the state, including ones at colleges and universities, and information about applying for Medicaid.
CHART (Creating Healthy and Responsible Teens)/K-5 Human Growth and Development Initiative: Part of THMS’ sex ed arm, CHART and K-5 work with partnering schools to provide abstinence-plus, age-appropriate sex education to students in grades K-12. Click here to learn about updates to Mississippi’s sex ed law and the difference between abstinence-only and abstinence-plus sex ed.
Project Mind Elevation.: In this project, we work with young people to leverage the power of social media and on-the-ground marketing tactics to connect other youth to information and resources about their SRH, mental health, and healthcare.
MYVoice (Mississippi Youth Voice): Youth from Hinds, Harrison, and Coahoma Counties promote and support high-quality sex ed for all young people. Youth partners work closely with THMS staff to design a sex education model to teach their peers about SRH.
MYCouncil (Mississippi Youth Council): Members of this group work to advocate for better sex ed in schools and improvements to healthcare to make it more youth friendly.
MYInnovation (Mississippi Youth Innovation): Young people in MYInnovation develop interventions that increase access to treatment and preventative healthcare services for young people living with or at risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.