Hinsdale-based Candor Health Education celebrates its 50th year of open and honest conversations with youth

The Robert Crown Center, known around the Chicago area for 46 years as an organization that educates students, their trusted adults, and communities on the topics of puberty, sex, and substance abuse prevention, changed its name four years ago to Candor Health Education.

But the mission remains the same: to positively impact the physical, social, and emotional health of young people through innovative education programs in partnership with parents, schools, and communities.

“We changed our name to Candor Health Education in 2020, said Candor Executive Director Barb Thayer. “Our Health Educators begin each program explaining that Candor means ‘open and honest’ and that what we do is have open and honest conversations with the students we work with.”

While the name has changed, the nonprofit organization is still going strong as it celebrates its 50th year in 2024.

“Kids have round-the-clock access to information about sexuality,” said Katie Gallagher, Candor’s director of education. “If no adult is providing them quality information, they’re going to find whatever they can on the internet.”

Candor provides science-based sex education programming to students in grades four to eight with a curriculum presented in school classrooms by specially trained educators to an estimated 80,000 students in more than 600 schools each year, according to Candor.

“Our goal is to equip students with important, functional knowledge to make healthy decisions for themselves and to appreciate and respect the bodies of others as well,” Gallagher said.

Thayer said Candor provides programs to students in both public and private schools across the Chicago area for in-person programming and across the country for live virtual programming.

The Robert Crown Center used to regularly attract busloads of students for its programs in its building at 21 Salt Creek Lane in Hinsdale. The organization sold its building in 2017 and moved to in-school delivery.

“Only about 20% of our programs were being delivered at our center at that time,” Thayer said “Because of time limitations for schools and bus transportation expenses, many schools had already moved to in-school delivery.”

Thayer said doing away with onsite programs in its Hinsdale building has not affected what is offered and how it’s offered.

“We were already offering the same programs at the center and in schools, but we began a complete curriculum overhaul in 2017 and have completely updated all programs with social-emotional skill building, decision making, and technology,” she said.

Candor has added two programs to its sex education continuum and one to its substance abuse prevention continuum as well as a social-emotional learning program called Navigating Middle School years, Thayer said.

“Most of these programs are offered in in-person, live virtual, and online interactive formats,” she said, adding that in-person programs are delivered in schools within 35 miles of Candor’s Hinsdale location, but do live virtual programs are done in other locations. School clients in New York and Wisconsin currently are using Candor programs.

“Candor has been talking to kids about puberty and sex for 50 years, but the breadth of content has grown beyond just the birds and the bees,” Gallagher said. “We still talk about puberty, but today we also cover topics like sexting, consent, digital dating abuse, and drug education.

“Evidence shows that educating children appropriately with medically accurate sex education leads to better sexual health choices. Quality sex education can help young people develop better social and emotional skills and healthy relationships.”

Thayer said Candor/Rober Crown Center has been offering similar, age-appropriate content for a long time. Thayer said Puberty I is the most attended program and has been since the inception of the center in 1974. Human Reproduction and Embryology and Teen Sexual Health programs also have been long-standing programs.

“We received feedback from schools that they were looking for additional content in puberty and Teen Sexual Health, so we developed Puberty II and Teen Sexual Health II,” Thayer said.She said program offerings don’t change a great deal from year to year.

“But we do review them annually to make sure information is current and based on up-to-date information and research,” Thayer said. “Based on feedback from students and teachers, we may change portions of the programs to better meet the learning needs of students.”

While many of the basics of program offerings have remained similar or the same, new delivery models have been developed.

“The new delivery models, Live Virtual and Online interactive were developed as a response to the pandemic,” Thayer said. “These programs have allowed us to reach more students outside of the Chicago metro area, but some schools within the Chicago metro area also opt for virtual delivery.”

Thayer said Candor is having a year-long celebration for its 50th anniversary with schools and the community, which will culminate in a 50th-anniversary fundraising event on Feb.1, 2025, “Dancing through the Decades.”

“We will celebrate songs and dancing from the 1970’s through 2025,” Thayer said. “It will be a great time to join with friends, staff, and supporters, both old and new.”

Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.