The Simple Truth

When it comes to supporting young people, Joanne Kirby knows her stuff. She is a mother of four and a qualified social worker who has years of experience working within education. She brings her knowledge together to provide an easy to understand, inclusive and educational resource which provides holistic teaching of all aspects of relationships. The Simple Truth equips the readers with the tools to navigate falling out with their friends; to understand why someone might not like them; how to deal with bullying, how to protect their mental health and how to love who they are. This book has been designed as a tool to help parents and professionals to safeguard young people by empowering them with the knowledge of what a healthy relationship looks like, teaching them to respect themselves and others and by giving them the full facts about all aspects of sex including how to masturbate, the realities of pornography and how to have healthy and enjoyable sex. The simple truth avoids making assumptions about what the reader’s life might look like and understands that each person’s home life; sexual identity, sexual preferences and/or ability to understand and process relationships is unique to each and every one of us; this is what truly makes The Simple Truth, truly inclusive.

Joanne Kirby has always shown an interest in working with children and young people. Her early career was based in residential education settings supporting children and young adults with additional needs. She continued in this role until she started her own family. Joanne has four children, three of which are currently in their teenage years. Joanne has a degree in social work and experience of working as a social worker. She began writing her book which discusses information surrounding relationships and sex because she felt that it was important that all children were given good, relevant and complete information about these topics to enable them to have good and healthy sexual outcomes and to build and understand positive relationships.