#DTL16Days Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education in School Communities: Q&A Panel Webinar Recap

""

Our world is ever-changing and the students of today and tomorrow are not the students of yesterday or the year before. Educators are striving to provide students with a wide range of opportunities to learn, practice and demonstrate their knowledge and skills related to the curriculum and the constant changes around them. Continuing to take time to understand and reflect on students at every age and stage, helps each of us become better listeners and active members of our school communities.  

 

In reality, some students come to school carrying big emotions, challenges, and past and present trauma that may not always be visible in the classroom. Every day, headlines of violence broadcast news from around the globe. These stories occur in different locations and different cultures, and with different perpetrators.

Did you know… 

  • One in three girls or women1, one in six boys or men2, and one in five transgender individuals3 will experience some form of gender-based violence in their lifetime. In addition, further evidence shows that transgender individuals are more likely to experience violence since the age of 15 than their cisgender peers4.

  • Girls and women under the age of 25 experience higher rates of sexual assault and criminal harassment than women above that age1. 

  • Girls and women with disabilities are four times more likely than girls and women without disabilities to experience gender-based violence1. 

  • Indigenous women are three times more likely than other women to experience all forms of violence1. 

  • Less than 10% of sexual assaults are reported to police1. 

  • Approximately 80–95% of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows1. 

How can we work together to build a safe and positive space in our school communities to engage students in learning about gender-based violence? How can we support students with strategies to intervene safely and effectively as bystanders and empower them to make a difference in their school and community? 

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual global campaign that begins on the 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and goes until the 10th of December, Human Rights Day. Ophea would like to thank our Draw-The-Line partners: Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes, Egale, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, and White Ribbon for working in collaboration to provide professional learning opportunities for educators through the #DTL16Days Draw the Line Educator Learning Series to enhance awareness and understanding of key topics including sexual violence, harassment, consent, healthy relationships, and engaging in discussions aimed at preventing gender-based violence and discrimination.  

In connection with the #DTL16Days Draw the Line Educator Learning Series, we’re pleased to share this Ophea platform with Vishaal Beharry (he/him, they/them), one of our Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education in School Communities; Q&A Discussion panelists. Vishaal is the Coordinator for the City of Toronto’s Youth Vaccine Engagement Strategy, and a dedicated youth advocate who uses their lived experience with issues based on race, gender, and mental health to contribute to how youth explore their identity. In their work, Vishaal prioritizes youth voices and uses their role to provide the supports and services that youth say they need the most. Outside of this role, Vishaal has volunteered to improve health literacy in the community and encourage youth to creatively explore their identity and nurture healthy relationships. Vishaal has also been involved in Ophea’s inclusion work through his contributions to the Equity Feels Like Belonging blog post and our Re-imagining Quality Health and Physical Education video series. 

Let’s talk about: Healthy Relationships in Health and Physical Education 

Ophea: As a youth advocate, how do you see the value and importance of students learning how to build healthy relationships?  

Vishaal Beharry: Every day, before they’ve even entered the classroom, students are confronted with information and experiences that shape how they relate to themselves and those around them. Through their own relationships, those that their peers model, and the ones they see represented through media and consumable content, they are asked to consider what feels healthy, meaningful, or impactful in their relationships. When we ask students to critically examine how to build healthy relationships we are encouraging them to have agency in how they form relationships and to be responsible about how they interpret their experiences and those that they see. 

When I focus on a key experience as a young person learning respect and consent in a relationship, I think about the ways that I’ve learned to approach conflict and communication through others. As we grow older, I’m sure many of us can identify our own negative or reactive responses to conflict and even recall the relationships and events that cause us to respond this way.  

 

However, conflict can be one of the most rewarding ways to develop an understanding of boundaries, consent, and self-respect when it occurs in healthy relationships that prioritize mutual care and communication. I single-out this aspect of relationship-building in particular because I feel that across all ages, educators can encourage students to approach the conflicts that occur in everyday life with an awareness of their values and boundaries that help them to build respect for others, for themselves, and a greater sense of accountability for how they form healthy relationships. Helping a student enforce their boundaries, apologize sincerely, and taking a restorative approach to instances of negative behavior forms the basis of respectful, consenting, and genuine relationships at all stages of life. 

Let’s talk about: Intersectional Approaches to Consent Education 

Ophea: In the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education in School Communities; Q&A Panel Discussion you briefly spoke about your intersectional identities, and the importance of helping students establish personal boundaries in relationships with others. Can you talk more about your perspective as a youth advocate, and how educators can support addressing gender-based violence education in classrooms, schools and communities?  

Vishaal Beharry: During the Panel Discussion, we spoke with some of the other panelists about how gender-based violence is a condition of large, systemic issues of how power is exerted and influenced in ways that disenfranchise and oppress marginalized people. Addressing gender-based violence can feel like a Herculean task because we hope to dismantle these huge structures of oppression that are the root of violence. However, I think it’s important that educators recognize that there are so many steps they can take to counter these forms of oppression and equip students to be agents of change in their own rights.  

Young people exist in different intersections of the social categories that create systems of power, and it’s important that we encourage them to find out how they can do things differently from their unique positions. How can we encourage young men to decouple violence from how they think of masculinity? How can we provide young people with healthier models of relationships than what they see in the media? Are the discussions we have in the classroom reflective of the cultures and values of the wider community? Tackling the issue in a truly intersectional way stems from a willingness to meet students where they are in life. Doing this well starts with education, and I suggest to check out the resources developed by organizations such as Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes, Draw the Line, Egale, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, Ophea and White Ribbon. 

I’ve been blessed to come across many other young people who are eager to advocate and work to dismantle structural violence in so many different facets of our life, and I believe that when educators and community leaders take those first steps to activate this awareness in young people, they are eager and willing to take up the torch themselves and address inequity wherever they see it in life. 

Let’s talk about: Advice to Educators 

Ophea: As a youth advocate, what do you think educators need to know when working with students in school communities in our world today? 

Vishaal Beharry: I was talking to a friend and colleague about how to make meaningful connections when discussing social justice issues. Although young people we work with are curious and engaged on the subject, it can be hard to differentiate what we’re saying to them from the dozens of people in their lives and online who perpetuate their own ideologies. It is so important that we recognize that youth are constantly bombarded by a vortex of ideas and information, often from sources that they find more valuable or influential than your voice alone. If you approach relationships and gender-based violence prevention education as subjects that you are explaining to them, you might find your words drowned out by the influence of thousands of others. I think it’s crucial that educators approach this kind of work with the goal of equipping students with the tools and experiences they need to be critical and value-driven in how they analyze other opinions and other relationships in their lives. It can be a humbling experience, but it’s very important when working with students in the contemporary world to recognize the capacity and limitations of your role and identify how you can work with others in the network of the school community to model healthy relationships and develop a strong framework for showing others care and respect. There’s no rubric for relationship-building and the learning opportunities for students might occur outside of the classroom, so the focus should be on making the school environment a place that rewards honesty, respect, and the values that we hope students seek and demonstrate in all walks of life. 

Additional Information, Resources, Programs, and Services 

To learn more, check out these 2022/23 #DTL16Days Draw the Line Educator Learning Series recorded webinars that were funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, within the government of Ontario: 

Draw the Line resources:  

  • Draw the Line.ca: an interactive campaign that aims to engage Ontarians in a dialogue about sexual violence. The campaign challenges common myths about sexual violence and equips bystanders with information on how to intervene safely and effectively. The campaign includes downloadable posters, postcards, and user guides.  

  • Draw the Line Videos: Video resources on bystander intervention.  

  • Publications Ontario: Order hardcopy Draw the Line resources at no cost.  

Egale Canada resources: 

  • Draw the Line Against Transphobic Violence website: Egale’s resources include a new webinar for learning and companion resources to support learners in brushing up on the basics, naming the problem, cultivating cultures of consent, and fostering trans and gender affirming climates. Be sure to check out their Putting Learning to Action resources that dive deeper into allyship, cultural change and a template for action planning. 

  • Community Member Profiles: This set of community member profiles was developed to support the work of bringing critical learning and conversations about trans and gender diverse identities and experiences into school communities. 

  • 2SLGBTQI Terms & Concepts: This document is intended to provide readers with a common, functional understanding of language, concepts, and terminology related to topics around 2SLGBTQI identities and experiences. 

  • Pronoun Usage Guide 

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres resources:  

Ophea resources: 

White Ribbon resources: 

  • WRPrevent: produced in partnership between White Ribbon and the government of Ontario, this resource provides educator resources and lesson plans relating to ending child sexual exploitation.   

  • WR Draw the Line resources: Draw the Line resources for elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students to encourage them to start having conversations on consent culture, healthy relationships, and healthy masculinities. 

  • 6 Easy Ways to Take Action: Learn more about how you can play a role and prevent sexual violence in your community. 

  • Let’s Redefine Masculinity:  Learn through White Ribbon’s manbox video about the characteristics that we usually put in the "box" of what it means to be a man in our society and the importance of promoting healthy masculinities.  

Thank you to Vishaal Beharry and our friends at the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, Egale, Draw The Line, and Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes for collaborating with Ophea in the Draw The Line Partner Series. 

Let’s keep the conversation going! Share with us how you’re using Ophea’s Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education Resources as conversation starters in your class and school by tagging @OpheaCanada on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To stay up-to-date on Ophea professional learning offerings, resources, and supports sign up for Ophea’s e-newsletter eConnection. 

REFERENCES:   

1. From the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) website: Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centre (2020). Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres. https://sexualassaultsupport.ca/ 

2. From the 1in6 website: 1in6. (2020). Get Information: The 1 in 6 Statistic. 1in6. https://1in6.org/get-information/the-1-in-6-statistic/  

3. From the Canadian Mental Health Association website: Canadian Mental Health Association. (2020, February). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Queer identified People and Mental Health. Ontario CMHA. https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-queer-identified-people-and-mental-health/ 

4. From the Statistics Canada website: Statistics Canada. (2020, September). Experiences of violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours among gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people, and the transgender population, in Canada, 2018. Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics.  https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00009-eng.htm