The Respect Online Course

This course aims to promote sexual health and responsibility and prevent HIV infection, other sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy among LGBTQ students. The course teaches school professionals how to provide direct services and utilize school-based practices that promote sexual health and responsibility among LGBTQ students. By the end of the online course we hope participants will be able to:

• Assist LGBTQ students in coping with their distinctive challenge.
• Promote safe school environments that nurture healthy and successful students.
• Motivate all students to prevent HIV, STIs, and pregnancy.

Add the free Respect Online Course to your shopping cart. Proceed to check out (you will not be charged anything since it is free.) If you already have a myAPA account, you can login to access the course. If you do not have a myAPA account, you will be instructed to create one. You can do this without being a member and it only requires a name and email address.

Once the account is created the Respect Online Course will be added to your account and you can access all three modules in the curriculum at your own pace. Each module has a set of assessment questions and an evaluation you must complete to get credit for completing the course.

Enroll Now

Module A: Foundations

The focus of Module A: Foundations is to help participants learn how to describe the complexity and diversity of sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expression. In doing so, participants gain fluency with the concepts and strengthen their efficacy for dealing with issues related to LGBTQ students in their work.

Participant learning objectives for Module A:

• Describe the complexity and diversity of sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expression.

Module B: Helping Individual LGBTQ Students

In Module B: Helping Individual LGBTQ Students, participants learn about the harmful psychological effects of pervasive stigma; explore their professional role in helping LGBTQ students cope with their distinctive challenges; and learn about five types of direct services they can provide.

Participant learning objectives for Module B:

• Explain how pervasive stigma can lead to HIV infection and other serious health problems.

• Use data on LGBTQ youth to identify professional practice improvements.

• List five direct services that can help individual LGBTQ youth.

• Describe services that school leaders and peers expect you to provide to LGBTQ youth.

Module C: School-Wide Protective Practices

Module C: School-Wide Protective Practices examines five school-wide protective practices that help to maintain safe, nurturing and health promoting environments for LGBTQ students and have the benefit of aiding all students. 

Participant learning objectives for Module C:  

• Identify specific interventions and practices that meet the prevention needs of LGBTQ students.
• List five protective school-wide practices that will help provide safe and supportive environments for LGBTQ and all other students.
• Identify three challenges to implementing new school-wide protective practices for LGBTQ students and suggest how each of the challenges can be addressed.

Additional Resources

The following APA webpages are available to guide school professionals in the implementation of direct services and school-wide strategies to support LGBTQ students.

• Toolbox to Promote Healthy LGBTQ Youth
  This toolbox is a collection of resources and documents to supplement the Respect Workshop: Preventing Health Risks and Promoting Healthy Outcomes among LGBTQ Youth.

• LGBT Youth Resources
  This webpage provides fact sheets, best practices, and other resources for supporting LGBTQ youth. The resources are organized around the recommendations of the "Resolution on Gender and Sexual Orientation Diversity in Children and Adolescents in Schools," the joint resolution adopted by the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists. The recommendations and resources are to support implementation by education professionals and policymakers.

Questions and Follow-Up Support

If you are interested in offering the Respect Online Course to a cohort of school staff and want to provide a customized action planning webinar, in-person action planning session, or another type of follow-up support, contact the APA Safe and Supportive Schools Project for tools and resources to help you. Questions or comments about the Respect Online Course should be sent to APA Safe and Supportive Schools Project.

Acknowledgement

The Respect Online Course was supported by the Cooperative Agreement #1U87 PS004132-04 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the American Psychological Association and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.