introduction to delay work

 

RU REALLY READY? – OR NOT QUITE YET?

Supporting young people to delay early sex

Sometimes known as - NO RUSH, NO REGRETS

Or - LET’S LEAVE IT TILL LATER

Let’s start by spelling out clearly what this work – sometimes called ‘Delay’, ‘Nor Rush, No Regrets” or ‘Let’s Leave it Till Later’- isn’t. Because, maybe understandably, there are concerns and misperceptions of it doing the rounds. So it categorically isn’t about virginity or saving sex for marriage. It also isn’t just about girls - the training pays great attention to how we can work sensitively and effectively with boys round these issues. And it isn’t exclusively heterosexual but is as relevant for the needs of gay and lesbian young people too.

Delay work is all about supporting young people to make choices about sex that feel right for them as well as providing excellent confidential sexual health services enabling them to access condoms, contraception, emergency contraception, abortion and support for choices about sexuality. It balances messages that it’s a good idea to delay sex till it’s a positive decision with good, accurate information and the skills to negotiate safer sex when young people do choose to take this step. Discussions of the importance of both intimacy and pleasure are also central to this work.

Delay training courses are designed to be extremely practical, equipping professionals to feel confident about offering tangible support to young people in making positive healthy choices for themselves. Accompanying the courses, there’s a range of support resources and materials. These include the “RU Ready?” checklist of five tick-boxes to help young people determine for themselves whether they are really ready – points such as ‘You feel you could say no if you wanted to ‘, ‘You can have fun together without anything sexual involved’, and ‘Nobody's forcing you, pressuring you or making you’

More than 500 people throughout the country have now trained as Delay Trainers and more are being trained up every month. If you want to make links or train as a Delay Trainer, or for copies of the RU Ready checklist, contact Jo Adams at apple.loft@virgin.net

Written for NANCSH newsletter – March 2007

 

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