Rise Healthy for Life

RISE: Healthy for Life provides and promotes responsible, inclusive sexuality education and actively combats shame and fear. In addition to teaching age-appropriate sex ed to people of all ages, we partner with guardians so they are better equipped to be their children's primary sexuality educatoRISE's High School Peer Sexuality Educators advocate virtually at Healthy & Free TN's
2021 Day on the Hill.rs. 

We also advocate at the state level to oppose Tennessee's regressive sexuality education legislation and spread the word to our community about the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed fact-based comprehensive sex ed.

Responsible Inclusive Sexuality Education

Responsible, inclusive sex ed (RISE) leads to healthier, more respectful relationships, self-confidence, and, research shows, moreRISE educators provide a didactic for medical residents at ETSU's Johnson City clinic. responsible decision-making.

At RISE we emphasize that:

+ Our bodies are good and beautiful, private and our own.

RISE offers workshops and classes about bodies, relationships, and identities for people kindergarten through older adult as well as medical professionals and caregivers.

Collective Impact for Emotional and Sexual Health

RISE also is the backbone organization for Collective Impact for Emotional and Sexual Health. We work with organizations and individuals in Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia to center the emotional and sexual health of all people by:

+ Increasing access to knowledge and constituent-focused resources.

+ Promoting trauma-informed approaches to service and care.

+ Actively opposing stigma and bias to reduce shame and fear.

We work toward evidence-based practices that create positive systems change.

Equity and Inclusion

Both RISE: Healthy for Life and Collective Impact for Emotional and Sexual Health intentionally center the needs and amplify the voices of historically marginalized people, including LGBTQ+ folx, women, youth, people of color, people with diverse cultural and national heritages, neurodiverse folx, and people with visible and invisible disabilities. We proactively strive for diversity in leadership and participation.

The Need

Tennessee has some of the most regressive sexuality education legislation in the country.

As a result, most people do not receive adequate formal education about bodies, reproduction, and responsible sex. In fact, some evidence shows that the abstinence-only education provided in public schools actually harms sexual health by shaming youth, shutting down communication, marginalizing LGBTQ+ folx, and retraumatizing survivors of sexual abuse.

One answer, as data has shown time and again, is responsible, inclusive sexuality education, education in schools that is trauma-informed and fact-based.

Because of prevailing attitudes in our region, sex and sexuality are surrounded by stigma and fear. This further inhibits public health by damping communication within families, with healthcare providers, with law-enforcement professionals, and in the community.

• Our area has shockingly high rates of human trafficking--most of which is perpetrated by family members, mothers being the most likely traffickers.
• STI rates continue to rise.
• Teen pregnancy rates continue to be higher than the national average.
• Doctors are surprised to find what their patients simply do not know about their own bodies.