Sexual Health Rights are Universal Human Rights

Pioneers in Person-Centered Social-Sexual Support Services

Our Mission

Our mission is to help parents, professionals, and anyone else who cares for someone with complex needs to understand their social-sexual behaviors within an ecological framework and offer innovative strategies, skills and solutions. 

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Our Expertise

Our specialty is helping people with everything related to:

  • Bodies - body parts, bodily functions, body image

  • Gender - exploring gender identity / expression, transitioning

  • Sexuality - orientation, self-pleasuring, activities, risky behaviors

  • Relationships - friendship, dating, partnership, breaking up

  • Communication - boundaries and consent

  • Rights - self determination and supported decision-making

  • Trauma - sexual trauma, sexually maladaptive behaviors, trauma-informed care

  • And Other Related Topics – such as: sexuality and technology, healthy sexual development, safety and legalities…and much, much, more!!!

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.”

“[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.“

“For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled.”

Co-Owners

Cara Wiggins and Shanya Luther

We Partner With YOU!

We partner with parents and professionals who support someone who is vulnerable, has cognitive impairments or neurodiversity, and/or who has complex needs 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 who are dependent on long-term care keep their behaviors safe, healthy, and legal.

We offer a variety 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 Story

Among Friends opened in 2012 with just one program and one behavior professional. After only two years we had over two-year waitlist for social-sexual behavior services. Read our origin story to see how we evolved into the five programs and multi-member team we have today!

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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 work to 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!