PROGRAMS  |  BLACK CHURCH INITIATIVE AND LA INICIATIVA LATINA

Clearing House and Resource Center - Educators

The MultiCultural Programs Department Clearing House and Resource Center features a collection of theological books, sermons, speeches,  workshop presentations, youth and adult sexuality curriculums. The Clearing House and Resource Center serves as a resource to clergy, seminarians, health and human service educators, parents and youth. Resources are available for loan. For more information, contact bciinfo@rcrc.org or call 202-628-7700.

Books

From Jay-Z to Jesus: Reaching & Teaching Young Adults in the Black Church, Benjamin Stephens and Ralph Watkins
Acknowledging that young adulthood now encompass age 18-39, the authors offer an invaluable resource for church leaders who want to understand and embrace the so-called lost generation of the African American church.

How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and So Teens Will Talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
In this book Faber and Mazlish teach parents and adults how to listen and respon helpfully to your teenager’s concerns, express your irritation or anger without being hurtful, take action without punishing, encourage your teen to assume responsibility, work out problems together, and talk about sex and drugs without preaching or alienating.

When Children Want Children, Leon Dash

The Gift of Sexuality: Empowerment for Religious Teens, Steven Clapp
The author of this book surveyed 5,819 teens across North American to learn how their faith affects their decision making in important areas of their life such as dating, marriage, and sexuality. Unlike many religious books that simply tell you “DON’T DO IT,” this book gives you the full information you need to make responsible decisions.

Making Every Day Count: Daily Readings for Young People on Problem Solving, Pamela Espeland and Elizabeth Verdick
From January 1 through December 31, this book guides you through a whole year of problem solving, goal setting, positive thinking, practical lifeskills, and fun. Each daily reading focuses on a topic that matters to you—making choices and making plans, taking charge of your life, understanding your feelings, getting along with others, and more.  

Unmasking Sexual Con Games: A Teen Guide to Avoiding Emotional Grooming and Dating Violence (book and lesson plans), Kathleen McGee and Laura Buddenberg
Unmasking Sexual Con Games can help you figure out when “sweet talk” is nothing more than a language con—a lie. This guide includes good advice on settling healthy boundaries, learning good friendship and dating skills, and recognizing when you are the target of someone else’s game.

We Got Issues A Young Women’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life, Rha Goddess and JJ Love Calderon

Respect: A Girls Guide to Getting Respect & Dealing When Your Line is Crossed, Courtney Macavinta & Andrea Pylum

Safer Choices: Preventing HIV, Other STD and Pregnancy - A Teen Resource, ETR
Safer Choices is designed to prevent HIV, other STD and pregnancy among high school students. It uses a multiple-component approach to focus on schoolwide change and to influence the total school environment.

It's Not the Stork: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies and Bodies, Families and Friends (for children 4 and up), Robie Harris
Kindergarten-Grade 3–Harris opens by introducing two cartoon characters–a green-feathered bird clad in a purple shirt and blue high-top sneakers and his spike-haired friend, a bee. They wonder, So where DO babies come from? Their conversational commentary, given in word balloons, is a lighthearted supplement to a more focused narrative. Told in the second person, the text is straightforward, informative, and personable. Facts are presented step-by-step, starting from the similarities and differences between boys and girls bodies, moving to a baby's conception, growth in the womb, and birth, ending with an exploration of different configurations of families as well as a section on okay versus not-okay touches.

It's So Amazing: A Book About Sperm, Eggs, Birth, Babies and Families, Robie Harris
The creators of It's Perfectly Normal, targeted to middle-schoolers, here reach out to a slightly younger audience with candor and humor, neatly distilling various aspects of sex, reproduction and love. An inquisitive, loquacious bird and an embarrassed bee act as comic and straight man and serve as diverting foils to Harris's conversational narrative; kids will both identify with and chuckle at the two characters' reactions and asides. Specific topics covered include changes in boys' and girls' bodies during puberty, intercourse, birth control, chromosomes and genes, adoption and adjusting to a newborn sibling.

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up and Sexual Health, Robie Harris
In this intelligent, amiable and carefully researched book, Harris frankly explains the physical, psychological, emotional and social changes that occur during puberty--and the implications of these changes. Taking a conversational, relaxed tone, Harris also discusses such subjects as sexual orientation, sexual reproduction, pregnancy, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual abuse.

Young Gifted and Black: Promoting High Achievement among African American Students, Theresa Perry, Claude Steele and Asa Hilliard III
Perry, Steele, and Hilliard challenge the terms of the current conversation that denies Black students’ gifts and they offer models for achieving excellence despite the burdens of racist stigma and stereotype. This important and powerful book offers a forceful antidote to the victim-blaming that pervades most policy discussions on Black Achievement.

200 Ways to Raise a Girl’s Self-Esteem, Will Glennon
Everyone in a young woman’s life—from her parents and teachers to her friends and classmates—has the ability to bolster or break down her self-esteem. And while educators and educators and parenting experts have discussed how vital to a girl’s healthy development a positive sense of self can be, straightforward guidance is in short supply. 200 Ways to Raise a Girl’s Self-Esteem provides this much-needed advice for boosting confidence and strengthening self-image.

Christian Educators’ Guide to Evaluating and Developing Curriculum, Nancy Ferguson
Christian education is identified as a top priority for most churches. Unfortunately, however, there is often a high level of frustration among those responsible for their church’s educational ministry. A major challenge is identifying curriculum materials that are consistent with the congregation’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian and how Christian faith is formed. Reproducible worksheets throughout this book, plus a list of resource providers, make this a highly practical resource for Christian education committees and teacher training workshops. 

Framing Youth: 10 Myths about the Next Generation, Mike Males
Teens must be controlled. That’s the prevailing picture of youth presented in the media and by government officials. In this whirlwind tour of common myths, Mike Males shows you what teens are really like, and what they really need.

Rewired: Youth Ministry in and Age of IM and MySpace, Peggy Kendall
Do you know where your church’s teens hang out? Chances are they’re hanging out virtual style. MySpace and IM have redefined how the typical teenager spends time with friends. And these technologies have important implications for today’s youth leader.

The Real Deal: A Spiritual Guide for Black Teen Girls, Billie Cook
Navigating life can be a challenge for any teenager, but some issues and struggles are unique to African American teens. Using language that will appeal directly to young African American girls, Cook offers comfort, counsel, advice, and hope. Teens will find in this book surprisingly helpful lessons that will last for a lifetime.

New Methods for Puberty Education, Carolyn Cooperman and Chuck Rhoades
During the past ten years, new methods for puberty education has become a classic. The lessons are unparalleled in their effectiveness in helping young people understand their changing bodies and the new sexual self that is emerging.

Discipline with Dignity, Richard L. Curwin, Allen N. Mendler, Brian D. Mendler
This book is not simply a compendium of strategies for dealing with bad behavior. It is a guide to helping students see themselves in a different way, to changing the way they interact with the world. The strategies innate to this approach help students make informed choices to behave well. When they do, they become more attuned to learning and to understanding how to use what they learn to improve their lives of others-with dignity.

Sex Ed 101 A Collection of Sex Education Lessons, Bill Taverner
Sex Ed 101 presents a broad array of lessons and exercises on issues young people need to grapple with as they make decisions about abstinence and sexual involvement. Each lesson is clearly explained and contains the handouts and information needed to teach it.

Bodies, Birth & Babies Sexuality Education in Early Childhood Programs, Peggy Brick, Nan Davis, Maxine Fischel, Trudie Lupo, Ann MacVicar and Jean Marshall
For recognizing the need to prepare early childhood staff to respond positively to the behaviors and questions of young children regarding sexuality.

Girls Games: Five Fun Cards Games for Girls ( grades 5-12), Shannon Trice Black
These five games are played similar to the traditional card games; Go Fish, Crazy Eights, War, Memory, and Old Maid. Cards include different topics with thought-provoking questions that help facilitate discussions within a group. Each card game focuses on one aspect of bullying or relational aggression. Games include:

An Asset Builder’s Guide to Training Peer Helpers, Barbara B. Varenhorst, PH.D.
When People struggle with problems, to whom do they turn for help? Most often, its their friends. In this guide, Barbara B. Varenhorst, Ph. D. one of the most respected names in peer helping, provides 15 sessions an adult leader can use to train student in the skills necessary to more effectively help their peers.

Dare To Be Queen, Mischa P. Green,David C. Miller,M.Ed & LaMarr D. Shields, Ed
A Wholistic and Comprehensive Curriculum for Girls. Dare to Be Queen is a practical and passionate guide to help young women transform their lives. A much needed resource for anymore who believes that our children can be saved.

A Leader’s Guide to the Struggle to be Strong: How to Foster Resilience in Teens, Sybil Wolin, Ph.D, Al Desetta, M.A., & Keith Hefner
In the anthology The Struggle to be Strong: True Stories by teen about overcoming tough times, teen readers meet young people who have learned to face their problems, big or small. This Leader’s Guide gives adults the knowledge and skills they need to help teens confront their own problems and move forward with courage, confidence, and hope.

Teambuilding with Teens: Activities for Leadership, Decision Making, & Group Success, Mariam G. MacGregor, M.S.
This book gathers, in a single volume, a broad collection of experiential activities that make learning the skills and attitudes of teamwork meaningful and fun.

Advocates for Youth: Science and Success, Advocates for Youth is dedicated to creating programs and advocating for policies that help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. Advocates provides information, training, and strategic assistance to youth-serving organizations, policy makers, youth activists, and the media in the United States and low and middle income countries.

When True Love Doesn’t Wait, D. Tony Rankin, Richard Ross, LifeWay Church Resources
How do you help the teenagers in your youth group who are desperately seeking forgiveness in the area of purity? This plain-cover booklet is the perfect counseling tool for every youth leader to have within reach. You’ll be able to help a troubled teen address issues like: deciding whom to tell; getting a physical check-up; understanding guilt; experiencing forgiveness; deciding about the future of the relationship with the person with whom he or she has stumbled; responding in cases where a teen was forced to have sex; planning dates without intimacy; deciding about a fresh True Love Waits commitment (there’s a commitment card inside the booklet); choosing a mentor and guide for this fresh commitment; and helping the person with whom he or she has stumbled. No doubt, this is a tough subject, but a stack of these booklets in your desk drawer will be a good place to start
the healing.

Curricula

Wise Guys: Male Responsibility Curriculum, Family Life Council of Greater Greensboro North Carolina

Jovenes Sabios: Responsabilidad Masculina Curriculo, Family Life Council of Greater Greensboro North Carolina

Love: All That and More, Teen Curriculum and 3-part video series by Faith Trust Institute

Unmasking Sexual Con Games: A Teen Guide to Avoiding Emotional Grooming and Dating Violence, book and lesson plans

Flipping The Script: A Hip Hop Guide for the Classroom, teen curriculum, video and notebook by Just Think for Corduroy Media

Playing With Fire Creative Conflict Resolution for Young Adults, Fiona MacBeth and Nic Fine

Draw the Line, Respect the Line: Youth Sex Ed Curriculum 3 for Grades 6-8, University of California, San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention and ETR Associates

Making Smarter Choices about Sex: Youth Sexuality Curriculum, Eva Goldfarb and Elizabeth Schroeder, Not Me Not Now

Videos

Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque Documentary by Stuart TV Productions

Love: All That and More, Teen Curriculum and 3-part video series by Faith Trust Institute

Flipping The Script: A Hip Hop Guide for the Classroom, teen curriculum, video and notebook by Just Think for Corduroy Media

Oral Sex: Fair Game? Teen documentary DVD by World Educational Media

Live With It, Incendia Health Studios by HBO Films

“Jesus Camp: America is Being Born Again” Magnolia Home Entertainment
Jesus Camp is documentary about a Pentecostal/charismatic summer camp for children who spend their summers learning and practicing their "prophetic gifts" and being taught that they can "take back America for Christ." According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and tries to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community”.

“The Lost Children of Rockdale County” PBS Home Video
The film explores how a 1996 syphilis outbreak in a well-off Atlanta suburb affected over 200 teenagers and revealed their lives unknown to parents: group sex, binge drinking, drugs and violence. Some were as young as twelve and thirteen years old.