PROGRAMS  |  BLACK CHURCH INITIATIVE AND LA INICIATIVA LATINA

Clearing House and Resource Center - Youth

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

Teens
When Children Want Children, Leon Dash (for parents and educators)

How to Talk So Teens Will Listen & Listen So Teens Will Talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (for parents and educators)
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.

The Real Truth About Teens & Sex, Sabrina Weil
Former Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Sabrina Weill reveals what she’s been told by the millions of American teens whose trust she’s earned—and offers parents insights into how to communicate with young people so they’ll think before they act. Some topics include: Virginity, Why some teens stay virgins and others don’t, Media: How movies, music, video games, and the Internet affect teens, and the truth behind sex parties, oral sex, and trends in the sex lives of today’s teens. 

Girlology: A Girls Guide to Stuff that Matters: Relationships, Body Talk & Girl Power!, Melisa Holmes, MD and Trish Hutchison, MD
According to Girlology, knowledge is power—or more specifically—Girl Power! Whether you believe it or not, there’s a lot more to know about the body and the opposite sex. This book will give you confidence and girl power to build your goals, beliefs, and future. In this book you will find straight-talk about friendships, parents, sex, sexuality, teen relationships, media influences, values, and decision making.

The Gift of Sexuality: Empowerment for Religious Teens, Steven Clapp (for parents and educators)
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.

For Teens Who Think They Know Everything: Life Skills for Teenagers, Kandias Conda
Twelve tips on 55 subjects important for teenagers including; sex, parents, peer pressure, prom, health, self-esteem, jobs, entrepreneurship, money management, music, media, Hip-Hop, etiquette, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, gangs & gun violence, friendship, dating, stress, anger management, relationships, tattoos, piercing, drinking, drugs, communication, driving, Internet surfing and much more. 

The Real Deal: A Spiritual Guide For Black Teen Girls, Billie Montgomery 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.

The Datable Rules (teen), Justin Lookadoo and Hayley DiMarco
This book provides teens and young adults with some helpful tips on dating and interacting with the opposite sex. This book, really two books in one, includes a side made specifically for girls and a side made for guys. 

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.  

What Do You Stand For? For Teens A Guide to Building Character, Barbara Lewis
This book assumes that you want to be a person of good character. It also assumes that you’re capable of building your own positive character traits. You’ll probably get lots of support and encouragement from the adults in your life. But even if you don’t, you can still be the kind of person you want to be. This book includes descriptions of particular character traits, quotations from people past and present who offer words of wisdom, and Dilemmas that challenge your thinking about the character traits and help to sharpen your problem-solving and decision-making skills.

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

Young Gifted and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African American Students, Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, Asa Hilliard III (for educators)
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.

Moving Out and Moving On: Guide for Female Teens and Their Mothers, Brenda Hayes
Moving Out and Moving On hits hard on subjects that our young ladies need to be taught. We can no longer tip-toe around the issues of teen pregnancies, suicide, low self-esteem, abuse, and early school dropouts. This skillfully written, no-holds-barred book is guaranteed to be an eye-opener.

How to Talk with Teens about Love, Relationships, and Sex: A Parents Guide, Amy Miron and Charles Miron (for parents)
Many parents find it difficult, even impossible to talk with their kids about love, relationships, and especially sex. But the real choice parents face is not if their kids will learn about these topics, but how they will learn and who will do the teaching. This candid guide covers everything you might ever want to discuss with your teen about intimacy and sex.

Children
You Are So Wonderful, Jacqueline Lewis
With simple, rhyming text and charming illustrations, this inviting read-together book affirms the uniqueness of each child. Fun to read and hear, and featuring illustrations of children of many races and various abilities, this book emphasizes that each person is special and deeply loved by God.

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up and Sexual Health, Robie Harris
In this intelligent, amiable and carefully researched book, Harris ( Before You Were Three ) 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.

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 Not the Stork: A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies and Bodies, Families and Friends, 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 babys 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.

Curricula - For Teens

Safer Choices Preventing HIV, Other STD and Pregnancy Teen Resource, ETR

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), Kathleen McGee and Laura Buddenberg

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

Videos - For Teens

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 by World Education Media

Nightmare on AIDS Street, A Scenarios USA film
A teenage girl experiences flashbacks and realizations as she waits to get the results of an HIV test. Written by 15 year-old Nicole Zepeda (San Juan, TX).

Don't Dance with Death, A Scenarios USA film
This film is based on the Mexican myth, "Devil in the Dance Hall." A night at a dance blub turns serious for four chicas when an unwanted image appears. Don't Dance with Death deals with condom use, relationships and friendships.

Today I Found Out, A Scenarios USA film
Shot on the Texas/Mexico border town of Laredo, this film was adapted from an essay written by a 14 year-old girl who is trying to make sense of the world around her when she learns her best friend is pregnant. Deals with choosing abstience, peer pressure, and self-awareness. Written by Samantha Hernandez.