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OWL Facilitator Training
Saturday, September 3 - Monday, September 5
OWL has three levels of curricula and facilitators are required to take the training before teaching. You can sign up now for one of the levels: Elementary, Secondary, and Adult.
The curriculum offers guidance on leading discussions, games, and activities, and training helps assure that facilitators lead them well. Our Whole Lives (OWL) facilitator trainings enhance:
- knowledge of an age group and its developmental needs,
- knowledge about human sexuality,
- facilitation skills,
- classroom management skills,
- understanding of the curriculum’s activities (through participation and peer-teaching)
- understanding of appropriate boundaries
- understanding of OWL values and philosophy.
Training helps prepare facilitators by developing the comfort, knowledge, and teaching skills necessary for leading a given level of Our Whole Lives (OWL). Training is required for the following reasons:
- It offers the opportunity to see Our Whole Lives activities modeled by trainers as they were intended to be conducted.
- It gives facilitators a supportive environment to practice teaching actual Our Whole Lives sessions and receive constructive feedback.
- It gives facilitators important information about the developmental stage of the age group they will be teaching.
- It allows facilitators to network with other Our Whole Lives facilitators and share ideas about what will and won’t work with their groups.
- It provides an opportunity for facilitators to examine their own feelings, opinions, and experiences regarding sexuality and spirituality before facilitating.
- It helps participants better understand how to prepare to teach or to support OWL as advocates.
After their training experiences, program facilitators typically feel enthusiastic, prepared, and confident about the program. They are invited to subscribe to an email network with other Our Whole Lives facilitators to share experiences, resources, and good ideas.
Trainings also offer an evaluation process by which Our Whole Lives trainers, who are experienced sexuality educators, can give feedback to a potential facilitator and to congregational leaders if there are concerns about whether or not that potential facilitator is ready to facilitate an Our Whole Lives program.
Trainings are designed for adults who plan to facilitate or advocate for the curriculum in their congregation or organization.
More Information
Criteria for being an Our Whole Lives Facilitator
The most important criteria for leading Our Whole Lives programs are characteristics such as maturity, knowledge, character, skills, and commitment. These qualities and experiences tend to increase with age, so the UUA sets age 25 as the minimum for Unitarian Universalist Our Whole Lives facilitators at the Elementary and Secondary grade levels of the curriculum.
Childcare may be available upon request.
Congregants not signing up for the training are invited to host a meal at the church or to host a participant from the program with a home stay.
Event Details
Transportation & Parking
We have several parking lots. Our upper lot, off SE 32nd Street, is closest to our Sanctuary, it has handicap and stroller parking. There is a roundabout for drop-offs. Our lower, main parking lot is also off SE 32nd Street. There are stairs that will lead you up to the Sanctuary. If that lot is full, there is also street parking on 32nd Street.
