PREVENTION EDUCATION

Empowering youth in our community

CAASE delivers thoughtful, innovative workshops that empower students in grades 9-12 to become active allies in ending sexual harm.

Our prevention workshops give students space to practice thinking critically about gender, rape culture, and the ways their own day-to-day decisions impact the world around them. They also help participants recognize the realities of the commercial sex trade and sex trafficking.

We serve students in small groups, classrooms, or larger assemblies. We also offer programming remotely via whichever teleconference platform works best for you. If you’re interested in bringing our workshops to your school or organization, please see the information below and click “Request Workshop.”

Workshops

Our curriculum aligns with many Common Core State Standards, Illinois Social/Emotional Learning Standards, and National Sexuality Education Standards.

We’re pleased to be able to offer workshops at no cost to public schools in Chicago. Tuition-based schools or organizations outside of the public school system are offered workshops at a fee. Sessions are tailored for a 50-minute class period or a 90-minute block. We’ve designed our workshops with classroom-sized groups in mind, but many can be modified for larger assemblies of students. Most workshops require only a projector.

Empowering Youth to End Sexual Exploitation

This five-session program equips students with the knowledge and skills to eliminate sexual harm and exploitation from their communities. Throughout the workshop series, we create a judgment-free space in which participants discuss the pressures of gender inequality, the root causes of rape culture, and the role they each play in shaping the world around them. By the program’s conclusion, students will be able to provide support for survivors of sexual harm, explain how to practice consent, and use their own power and privilege to prevent harm from happening.

Beyond the Screen: Media Literacy and Sexual Harm

This three-part workshop series equips students with skills to think critically about several sensitive subjects directly impacting their daily lives—including sexting, digital harassment, pornography, social media, and general misinformation online. Students will gain and understanding of how technology plays a role in perpetuating sexual harm, and how their own individual actions can help put an end to it. Through open dialogue that meets students where they are, this series empowers young people to practice harm reduction where sex and technology meet.

Consent

This workshop explores what consent means, why it’s required, and how students can practice it in their personal lives. Without blame, shame, or judgment, we work to help students feel more comfortable in defining and expressing boundaries, respecting the boundaries of others, and clearly communicating with their partners.

Sexting

Centered on a conversation about privacy, trust, and consent, this workshop equips participants with skills to be thoughtful, critical users of technology in their intimate relationships. With an emphasis on harm reduction, students will consider healthy ways of showing affection in texts or online and learn to place respect at the forefront of their communication.

Gender, Sex, & Sexuality

This session is an interactive conversation about the ways we’re put into (or excluded from) boxes based on our gender, our sex assigned at birth, and our sexuality. We encourage students to have an honest, empathetic conversation about how difficult it can be to navigate these demanding expectations—and the role popular ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality play in perpetuating harm.

Victim Blaming

This workshop explores one of the greatest barriers to survivors seeking support: victim blaming. Students work to identify and critique the most common forms of victim blaming they see, dismantle myths about sexual harm, and examine how victim blaming, classism, and white supremacy are central components of rape culture. Students leave empowered to challenge this harmful behavior, hold people who cause harm accountable, and support survivors.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Students learn to identify the issues underpinning commercial sexual exploitation, including predatory pornography production, prostitution, and sex trafficking. They also explore actions they can take in their daily lives to shift cultural attitudes about victims of sexual exploitation, entitlement to sex, and the demand for commercial sex.

Pornography

Through a frank conversation that does not rely on shame or blame, this workshop prepares students to confront the widespread impact that pornography has on our culture. Students will discuss the many reasons people may consume pornography, unpack common harmful themes, think critically about pornography’s impact on people’s understanding of sex, and evaluate how it can contribute to sexual harm.

Media Literacy

Description: This session prepares students to think critically about the media they encounter by asking questions about credibility, goals, evidence, audience, and timeliness. They will practice these skills by examining a variety of examples ranging from TikTok influencers to New York Times articles—and they will begin to see the links between consuming online content and the culture we enact every. Throughout the workshop, students will discuss how their actions online can help support survivors and prevent sexual harm.

If you’d like more information or have questions about how we can assist you, please contact Ryan Spooner, Prevention Director, at rspooner@caase.org.

Supporters

Our Prevention Education work is supported by individual donations to CAASE as well as through grants provided by:

  • Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
  • Steele Family Foundation
  • The Greer Foundation
  • Soroptimist of Chicago
  • An Anonymous Fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation

You can join them in preventing sexual harm by donating now.