Reinventing Sex-Ed

THE CLASSROOM MODEL

During her graduate studies, Gerard identified that sex ed, reinvisioned for the 21st century, could have a meaningful impact on several seemingly intractable social problems:

• • Unintended Pregnancy & Sexually Transmitted Infections
• • Sexual & Intimate Partner Violence
• • Sexual Harassment & Childhood Sexual Abuse

Selected as the first Post-Graduate fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Social Innovation, Gerard researched every method, model, and approach that had ever had a positive impact on teen decision making.

• • She then interviewed the principal investigators of those methods as well as teens and parents from across the country to better understand what was missing.

• • Gerard then designed an alternative approach, which leveraged best practices while addressing the pitfalls and limitations of existing approaches.

• • She piloted the teen component in the summer of 2009 with 300 high school students from across the country and the parent component with 50 participants that fall.

Gerard incorporated and secured non-profit status for a new entity, Talk: The New Sex Ed to move her programming out into the community where she continued to hone her approach to working with teens and parents.

• • Demand for Talk’s programming increased steadily between 2010 and 2014, and since then, Gerard’s model has served 2,000 middle and high school students and 250 parents annually through 11 school partnerships

CAMPUSCHAT: VIRTUAL SEX ED

Demand for Talk’s model has consistently exceeded capacity to provide it to all the teens and families in need, and it is extremely resource intensive to scale. Currently, where a student goes to school dictates the quality of sex education they receive, and as long as that situation persists, outcomes will never improve.

Beginning in 2015, Gerard began work to innovate online, adapting elements of her classroom model to be delivered online, which would extend Talk’s reach exponentially.

• • In 2015, Gerard secured a $50,000 investment to begin work on the virtual platform.

• • In 2017, Gerard secured a 3-year grant from a private family foundation totaling $150,000 in support to continue adapting the model.
• • In 2019, Talk was awarded an $80,000 project through Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute to finalize the first prototype.

• • Since 2019 Talk has been developing CampusChat, a virtual platform which aims to provide incoming college freshmen with the information and skills they need to confidently navigate relationships and sex on campus.
• • We have already begun to pilot the platform and anticipate securing college partnerships in the fall of 2023.