SAYIT: Survivor-aware, youth-informed tools for teaching sexual health education

Practical tools to help educators deliver sexual health and relationship education that is trauma-informed, survivor-aware and responsive to young people’s needs.

Supporting safer learning

Sexual health and relationship education can be particularly challenging for young people who have experienced child sexual abuse, violence or trauma.

SAYIT focuses not just on what is taught, but how it is delivered. The free digital learning course supports educators and facilitators to create safer, more supportive learning experiences that recognise and respond to young people’s different needs and experiences.

Co-designed with young people, SAYIT brings together young survivors’ lived expertise and research evidence to strengthen the way sexual health and relationship education is delivered.

Who is it for?

SAYIT is designed for educators and facilitators delivering sexual health and relationship education to young people, including those working in schools, sexual health and family planning services, and youth services.

Whether you are preparing to deliver a program or reflecting on your existing practice, the course offers guidance and downloadable tools to support a survivor-aware approach.

Each module includes downloadable practice tools, such as checklists, reflection tools, planning templates, support and referral tools, and resources to use in your own practice.

Developed in partnership

Funded by the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, SAYIT grew out of research led by Professor Tim Moore at Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Child Protection Studies.

Australian Catholic University has worked in partnership with the project’s youth co-designers, Queensland University of Technology, Marina Dickson Practice Connections and NAPCAN to explore what young people who have experienced maltreatment need and want from sexual health and relationship education. Young people’s voices have been central to shaping the principles, practices and tools developed to support educators.