Activities

Gender-based violence prevention education encompasses a variety of topics included in the Healthy Living Strand of The Ontario Curriculum, Health and Physical Education Grades 1–8 (2019) and The Ontario Curriculum, Health and Physical Education, Grades 9–12 (2015). These topics include: 

• Characteristics of a healthy relationship 
• Warning signs of an unhealthy relationship 
• The concept of consent and respect for others 
• Internal and external factors that affect a person’s feelings 
• How a person’s body and brain respond to challenging or uncomfortable situations 
• The connections between gender-based violence, an individual’s mental health, and mental illness 
• Bullying, relationship violence, abuse, exploitation, harassment, and other forms of gender-based and identity-based bullying 
• How to recognize and respond to coercive, inappropriate, and non-consensual sexual behaviours, including the role of bystanders in preventing gender-based violence and harassment 

Each activity includes: 

• A Scenario Card outlining the activity scenario
• A Scenario Video with a subject-matter expert discussing what is happening in the scenario and strategies students can take as bystanders to gender-based violence
• Activity instructions with guiding questions and discussion prompts
• A Student Worksheet with question prompts that promote discussion about the issues of gender-based violence within the scenario

Unpacking the scenarios through critical thinking, group dialogue, and individual reflection leads students to examine their proposed actions as bystanders from moral and ethical stances and generate solutions about how to safely and reasonably respond such a scenario.