About

RELATE— which stands for Relationship Education: linking adolescents, transforming expectations— is a relationship education program for adolescents. The goal is to highlight the importance of healthy relationships with their peers. The program also incorporates parents, significant adults, schools, and communities in modeling healthy friendship and relationship strategies. The ultimate hope is that youth recognize the importance of cultivating healthy relationships now so they reap the benefits of connectedness throughout their lifetime.

Some of the benefits of connectedness include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Lower rate of depression and anxiety
  • Emotional regulation
  • Better self-esteem
  • Optimistic outlook
  • Improved cognitive function
  • Stronger immunity
  • Longer life expectancy

For more information about connectedness, visit Acts of Connection.

Vision: The program aims to help youth in Weld County make healthier relationship choices that lead to a lifetime of optimal health.

Mission: Intentionally impacting Weld County youth to invest in healthy relationship choices through stable environments, sincere relationships, and supportive experiences.

Values: Relationships. Intentionality. Youth.

Overall program goal: The RELATE program will develop, enhance, and expand prevention programming aimed at increasing the protective factors of social connectedness, healthy relationships, and high expectations and boundaries in youth to delay the onset of adolescent sexual activity and participation in other risky behaviors including unhealthy friendships, dating violence, and bullying through a positive youth development approach.

Youth are educated, equipped, and empowered through family-based experiences, school-based education, and community-based engagement to make informed decisions, practice healthy behaviors, and establish great expectations.

History

1998 - Beginning of program: Weld County Abstinence Education Program became one of the first abstinence education programs in the nation to be housed in a county public health department.

2001 - Beginning of school partnerships: Foundation established through networking and relationship building. WAIT Training Curriculum implemented in schools through train-the-trainer model.

2004 - Community saturation model: Program expanded beyond schools to youth-serving organizations, parent education, Latino Program, sexual cessation (one-on-one counseling) and media.

2005 - Rebranding as WeldWAITS: Program created new branding that better reflects the goals of the program. WeldWAITS instead of the Weld County Abstinence Education Program.

2007 - Building intensity and duration: Program encourages schools and youth-serving organizations to increase the amount of education — more than simply one-time presentations and to implement education over multiple grade levels.

2009 - RESIST after-school program: After-school program to prepare 5th graders for the transition into middle school. High school students are empowered with leadership skills to mentor younger students and model healthy behaviors.

2013 - Latino initiative (Platicas): Platicas, or "little chats," are educational opportunities offered to Latino families in their home or a familiar setting. Parents are empowered and equipped to discuss important topics with their children.

2017 - Comprehensive and holistic: Lessons based on sexual risk avoidance and sexual risk reduction curriculums. Yearly updates to lessons and curricula to ensure alignment with Colorado policies, laws and CDE standards, as well as updated information.

2021 - Standards-based curriculum: Developed a compilation of lessons into a standards-based curriculum for 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and high school students with a total of 20 lessons.

2025 - Rebranding as RELATE: Program created new branding that better reflects the goals of the program. RELATE instead of WeldWAITS.

Guiding principles

  • Upstream prevention:  Upstream prevention aims to prevent public health problems before they occur by optimizing the physical, economic, and social factors that shape communities' health. It consists of strategies that address the root causes of health issues before they develop.
  • Positive youth development: Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a framework that provides an intentional, prosocial, strengths-based approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive.
  • Developmental relationships: Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people discover who they are, cultivate abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them. They move beyond surviving to thriving and show signs of positive development in many areas.
  • Relationship education: Relationship education is designed to provide youth with knowledge and skills that can help them form and sustain healthy relationships now and build a strong foundation for their future relationships. The goal is to equip youth with the tools they need to build healthy relationships through identifying true versus toxic friends, setting healthy boundaries, practicing refusal skills, preventing bullying behavior, increasing personal power, and making healthy, informed decisions.
  • Sexual health education: Sexual health education provides youth with the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves from sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs) and unintended pregnancy. Quality sexual health education includes medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant content and skills that are practical and engaging for all students while involving parents, families, and community partners to foster positive relationships between youth and important adults.

Program highlights

2024 to 2025 school year

111 presentations

1,450 participants

Partnering schools

Ault School District RE-9: Highland High School

Eaton School District RE-2: Benjamin Eaton Elementary (RESIST), Eaton High School

Greeley-Evans School District 6: Frontier High School, James Madison Elementary (RESIST)

Prairie School District RE-11J: Elementary, Middle School, High School

Roosevelt School District RE-5J: Elementary Schools

St. Vrain Valley School District: Firestone Charter Academy

Weld Central School District RE-3J: Elementary Schools, Middle School (6th Grade), High School and Cardinal Community Academy

Highlights

94% of students reported that they would rate the presentation(s) as great/good. (60% great, 34% good). 85% of students reported they feel more confident making healthy, informed relationship decisions (with family, friends, dating/romantic relationships) after the presentation(s). (57% strongly agree, 28% agree, 12% neutral)

2023 to 2024 school year

124 presentations

1,376 participants

Partnering schools

Ault School District RE-9: Highland High School

Eaton School District RE-2: Benjamin Eaton Elementary (RESIST), Eaton High School

Greeley-Evans School District 6: Frontier High School, James Madison Elementary (RESIST), University High School

Prairie School District RE-11J: Elementary, Middle School, High School

Roosevelt School District RE-5J: Elementary Schools

St. Vrain Valley School District: Firestone Charter Academy

Weld Central School District RE-3J: Elementary Schools, High School, Cardinal Community Academy (5th to 8th grade)

WEST U (Transitional Students, Windsor)