Thank you to our staff  and volunteers who helped run a wonderful OWL in April-May 2018 for grades 5 & 6.

Stay tuned for dates for future OWL’s for this age group!

Information about OWL
Our Whole Lives (OWL) helps children make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. With a holistic approach, Our Whole Lives provides accurate, developmentally appropriate information about a range of topics, including relationships, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual health, and cultural influences on sexuality. The program models and teaches caring, compassion, respect, and justice.
Though offered through the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough, the OWL program is completely secular and contains no religious doctrine or reference.
Why is sexuality education important for 10-12 year olds?
For any age, child or adult, honest and accurate age appropriate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.
The power of the OWL program is:
1. The information taught to the children is honest and accurate, but it is also grounded in the values of: self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, justice and inclusivity. These values are not just included in the information taught to the children, they are also inherent in the way the facilitators teach and in the interactive activities used to explore the information.

2. The program allows a lot of space for the children and facilitators to discuss and reflect on the topics. Children are given lots of opportunities to voice their questions and concerns and hear a variety of voices. The activities and language used throughout the program have been carefully chosen to be as inclusive and respectful as possible so that the children have an opportunity to voice questions/concerns without feeling judged.

3. The series of 10 sessions are delivered through interactive and playful activities so that the children are having lots of fun and not just sitting at a desk listening to an adult speak.

4. The program affirms parents as their children’s primary sexuality educators and it engages parents in the program through a parent orientation, take home family activities and providing ample resources to families.

5. Our Whole Lives recognizes and respects the diversity of participants with respect to biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and disability status. The activities and language used throughout the program have been carefully chosen to be as inclusive as possible of this human diversity.

To learn more about the OWL program and the curriculum for the different ages, click here.

For more information please contact Kate Huband, our Director of Religious Exploration, at rec.peterborough@gmail.com