Sexual Health Rights are Universal Human Rights
Our Mission at Among Friends
Our mission is to help anyone who supports someone with complex needs to understand their social-sexual behaviors within an ecological framework and offer innovative strategies, skills and solutions.
Our Origin Story
Among Friends opened in 2012 with just one program and one behavior professional. Within the first year we had a two-year waitlist for social-sexual behavior services. Read our origin story to see how we evolved into the five programs and nearly ten-member team we have today!
From the website of the World Health Organization:
“Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.”
“For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled.”
“[Sexual health is] a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. “
Our Social-Sexual Support Services
We partner with parents and professionals who support someone who is vulnerable, has cognitive impairments, and/or is dependent on long-term care to address social-sexual behaviors in proactive, preventative, positive and person-centered ways.
Because sexual health rights are universal human rights, and relationships and sexuality are basic human needs, we emphasize protecting a person's legal rights and advocating for sexual self-determination while working to help people with complex needs keep their behaviors safe, healthy, and legal.
We offer a wide range of services designed to cultivate rights based, medically accurate, trauma informed, and culturally sensitive social-sexual support services to promote healthy relationships and healthy sexual development.
Our Primary Goals
Our agency's work is grounded in the following goals:
support the whole person and their full human experience
promote safe, healthy, legal, and situationally appropriate behaviors
help people meet their basic human needs and protect their legal rights
improve their quality of life and increase their independence
We help people manage their behaviors in ways that allow them to maintain their services, housing, access to school, jobs, community inclusion and so much more!
Get started with Among Friends today.
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