Esteem Resource Network Conference 2012

The conference is a great opportunity to be inspired, encouraged and equipped, and to network with other relationships and sexual health educators.

We are holding the conference in two locations:

The Midlands conference is on Wednesday 3rd October, 10:00am - 3:30pm at The Bridge, Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands B90 3AG

The London conference is on Thursday 11th October, 10:00am - 3:30pm at Oasis College, 75 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7HS

The conference will include the following sessions:

Let’s talk about porn

Gareth Cheesman is a Sex and Relationships Educator in Chester. He has been teaching SRE for five years and coordinates a team of workers and volunteers delivering SRE in local secondary schools. They cover a wide range of topics including sexting and pornography.

Gareth will be talking about his experiences of addressing pornography within PSHE lessons and sharing some of the activities he has created as well as the feedback he has received from staff and students. Gareth's blog on SRE can be found at www.SREstuff.com.

Rape Jokes, Rihanna and the Choice to Abuse

Natalie Collins speaks and trains on understanding and ending domestic abuse nationally and internationally.  She is the Creator of DAY (www.dayprogramme.org), an innovative youth domestic abuse education programme and she works with Restored (www.restoredrelationships.org), an international Christian alliance working to end violence against women and transform relationships. 

This session will explore youth culture, youth icons and popular music as tools in preventing domestic abuse in young people’s intimate relationships.

Don’t be a lemon when it all goes pear-shaped (Midlands only)

Chris Spriggs is the Director of Lifespace Trust, having founded the charity’s award-winning mentoring and education work in 2004. Now drawing on over 15 years of teaching, mentoring and leadership experience across different sectors, he is a certified Master Coach, writer, educator and speaker. 

Managing a class of teenagers often comes with surprises and challenges, even more so when the subject is sex. What about when other things go wrong too? This session will open up some additional ideas to keep calm, keep the class on your side and make the most of whatever worse-case scenario you are met with.

Keeping HIV on the agenda (London only)

Hannah Musa is a former youth and schools worker from Colchester, who lived and worked in Kenya for four years. She currently spends her time with her four year old son, volunteering for the Terrence Higgins Trust and cleaning her church!

Hannah is passionate about keeping HIV on the church's agenda and finding ways of reaching out to people in the UK who feel stigmatised, unloved and hopeless because of their status. She`ll be sharing some of her own personal story and highlighting why the church and schools have a vital role to play and why we mustn't stop talking about HIV.

Lunch is included in the ticket price of £45 for members, £55 for non-members. If you have any dietary requirements or questions about the conference please contact Sarah Smith by email sarah@esteemresourcenetwork.org

For more information about us please visit www.esteemresourcenetwork.org and follow us on Twitter @EsteemRN