Curriculum » The Safe Zone Project

Our foundational curriculum is recommended for all groups to introduce them to core concepts of marginalized genders and sexualities

Updated several times a year, our curriculum is perfect for 2-to-3-Hour Safe Zone Trainings. We encourage you to sign up for free updates when we make improvements (but it’s not required).

All Curricula include:

Participant Packet, Facilitator Guide, and all handouts
.ZIP Folder containing .PDFs and Google Drive Documents
Files for stickers and extras

New in 5th Edition

Accessibility overhaul, including higher contrast ratios and more legible body text typefaces
Added multiple training timelines
Reworked lectures, framing, examples, and walk through for most activities
Sprinkled more facilitator advice throughout, including several new “Unlock the Magic” tips
New vocab terms and updated definitions

Download Free 2-Hour Curriculum

5.0

Old Editions

Curriculum Questions & Answers

Do I need to be “certified” to use your curriculum?

Nope! We actually don’t offer certifications anyhow, so you can’t be certified by us. Our curriculum is provided here for your use — no strings attached.

Is your curriculum evidence-based?

Nope. Our curriculum is evidence-informed, but not evidence-based.

Here’s why:

We tweak the curriculum several times a year based on changes in culture, research, and feedback from facilitators.
We overhaul the curriculum every year (including frequent substantive changes to the structure, or replacing activities)
Our curriculum is used in over 100 countries in more capacities than we can keep track of (far beyond just higher education)

Just one of the above would be enough to break the deal on our curriculum being evidence-based. All three are a deal-breaking trifecta.

While we appreciate evidence-based curricula, and what doors that opens for some people, it’s not something that aligns with our goals for this project.

We don’t want to limit who can use our materials, or tie our own hands against improving the curriculum to react to new trends/data/needs.

To be evidence-based, (1) we’d either have to proscribe uses beyond the specific application we’re studying, or potentially mislead/misrepresent people with data that aren’t generalizable; and (2) we’d have to allow our curriculum to stagnate for several years (or nearly a decade) without changes for the data to be viable.

Both of which are deal-breakers for us.

Note: As of now, any published research or evidence you find discussing “safe zone” trainings is not about our curriculum specifically. There are several researchers who have reached out to tell us they’re using our materials in some capacity for their study, but as far as we know none of these have been published yet. We’ll update this if that changes.

Is your curriculum really free? What’s the catch?

Yes, it 100% is. And there are no catches. For serious.

We get it. The way we do things is a little, well, different. A lot of people have grown to expect curriculum to cost hundreds of dollars to use, and to come with a lot of caveats, usage restrictions, and hoops to jump through.

A lot of that is literally why we created this project. We wanted to remove barriers that stand between you and doing good. Like this:

Person Who Wants to Do Good Through Education ~~[BARRIER]~~ Tool That Might Help.

And once you get started down this road, it’s amazing how thrilling it is to keep going. Our curriculum and activities have been free from the start (we’ve never had a paywall, and we never will), but how much more accessible can this be?

That’s what led to us uncopyrighting everything. So, not only is our curriculum really free, but it’s really not our curriculum. It’s yours.

Use it. Put it to work to do some good, and know you’re doing good by us.

Do you have translated versions of your curriculum?

Yes! We have a Spanish translation of our Foundational curriculum.

We will be releasing it on the site soon but in the meantime, if you want to join our group of beta testers please send us a request at [email protected] and we’ll send you a copy!

Can I modify the curriculum / resources?

Yes yes yes! Please do. Everything is uncopyrighted, and we did that for YOU. No need to ask permission, but we would appreciate you sharing back anything cool you make, so we can spread the word.

In addition to curricula, we have a collection of individual activities have you covered for à la carte LGBTQ+ educational opportunities

Use the Activity Finder

Our activity finder will help you to filter activities by type, knowledge, trust, time, or subject.

Collection:
Foundational Curriculum Activities

Anonymous Q&A

This activity creates the opportunity to for participants to ask what they are most interested in with anonymity.

Core Vocabulary

This activity focuses in on the essential vocabulary and LGBTQ terminology relating to gender and sexuality.

F(earfully) Asked Questions

Creating an opportunity for people to ask the questions they’re afraid to ask — with less risk.

First Impressions of LGBTQ People

An activity that will provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their first understandings and assumptions of LGBTQ individuals.

Genderbread Person

Using the Genderbread Person as a guide, the activity leads participants to understand the important difference between gender, sex, and sexual orientation.

Group Norms

Set your training up for success by beginning with shared group expectations.

Introductions

An essential component to any workshop, intros are when participants learn a little bit about you, and you a little bit about them.

LGBTQ Umbrella

A mini explanation of queer, LGBTQ. A useful place to start helping folks separate genders from sexualities.

Privilege for Sale & Coming Out Handout

This combo activity invites participants to deeply engage with privilege and segues into a conversation about the coming out process.

Scenarios

An opportunity for participants to work through how they would handle particular situations regarding gender, sexuality and LGBTQ issues.

Wrap Up & Feedback

To make the biggest impact it’s important to stick the ending.

Collection:
Recently Added Activities

Privilege for Sale & Coming Out Handout

This combo activity invites participants to deeply engage with privilege and segues into a conversation about the coming out process.

LGBTQ Umbrella

A mini explanation of queer, LGBTQ. A useful place to start helping folks separate genders from sexualities.

Group Norms

Set your training up for success by beginning with shared group expectations.

F(earfully) Asked Questions

Creating an opportunity for people to ask the questions they’re afraid to ask — with less risk.

Demystifying Coming Out

A handout (and handy activity) for demystifying coming out as well as some easy do and don’ts when it comes to supporting someone’s coming out process.

Activity Questions & Answers

What is the difference between a 101 and a 201 activity?

A 101 activity is one where the participants/learners do not need any prior knowledge in order for the activity to go well and for them to learn/get something out of the activity. However, those with prior knowledge will still likely benefit!

On the other hand, a 201 activity requires some prior familiarity with the topic for participants to able to meaningfully engage with the activity.

Did you make up all these activities?

Nope!

Much of the content and structure of these activities exists in what we think of as “the commons,” or the collective knowledge and wisdom of educators who have been doing gender and sexuality education/activism for a long time. Most of the activities exist out there already in multiple iterations and variations, and we (Meg & Sam) were often exposed to basically the same activities from different sources.

Some of the activities we did write/create off the top of our noggins. We have many influences and inspriations to acknowledge for what we put into those creations. We wrote, formatted, and uploaded these activities to the site because we dig them and want to share them with you! (And if you have an activity you love, you can share it here too!)

I’m looking for activity about [blank] but you don’t have one. What should I do?

Email us!

Seriously. We create everything on this website so that people have better resources, and if you’re looking for a resource likely someone else is too! So let us know what you need, we’d love to hear from you.

I have an activity I think you should add to the site. Do you want to see it?

Yes! One of our goals for this project is to turn it into the go-to resource online for sexuality and gender education activities, so we’d like to add as many as possible. If you have a great activity we don’t already have on the site, drop us a line. No guarantees we’ll add it, and we will likely modify it (or spruce it up a bit), but at the very least we’d love to read it!

Still looking for an activity?

Let us help you find it. We have dozens of activities waiting for you in the All Activities directory. Head over there and poke around. We've likely got something to fit your needs.

Browse All Activities

All Curricula include:

New in 5th Edition

Old Editions

Curriculum Questions & Answers

Do I need to be “certified” to use your curriculum?

Is your curriculum evidence-based?

Is your curriculum really free? What’s the catch?

Do you have translated versions of your curriculum?

Can I modify the curriculum / resources?

Collection:
Foundational Curriculum Activities

Anonymous Q&A

Core Vocabulary

F(earfully) Asked Questions

First Impressions of LGBTQ People

Genderbread Person

Group Norms

Introductions

LGBTQ Umbrella

Privilege for Sale & Coming Out Handout

Scenarios

Wrap Up & Feedback

Collection:
Recently Added Activities

Privilege for Sale & Coming Out Handout

LGBTQ Umbrella

Group Norms

F(earfully) Asked Questions

Demystifying Coming Out

Activity Questions & Answers

What is the difference between a 101 and a 201 activity?

Did you make up all these activities?

I’m looking for activity about [blank] but you don’t have one. What should I do?

I have an activity I think you should add to the site. Do you want to see it?

Still looking for an activity?

WOOHOO!

We're happy you're joining our efforts!

You Found a Birthday Present!

All Curricula include:

New in 5th Edition

Old Editions

Curriculum Questions & Answers

Do I need to be “certified” to use your curriculum?

Is your curriculum evidence-based?

Is your curriculum really free? What’s the catch?

Do you have translated versions of your curriculum?

Can I modify the curriculum / resources?

Collection: Foundational Curriculum Activities

Collection: Recently Added Activities

Activity Questions & Answers

What is the difference between a 101 and a 201 activity?

Did you make up all these activities?

I’m looking for activity about [blank] but you don’t have one. What should I do?

I have an activity I think you should add to the site. Do you want to see it?

Still looking for an activity?

WOOHOO!

We're happy you're joining our efforts!

You Found a Birthday Present!

Collection:
Foundational Curriculum Activities

Collection:
Recently Added Activities