About the Project
Summary
Objectives
- Establish a Partner Advisory Council (PAC) and a Youth Advisory Council to guide the creation of new and relevant educational resources and tools for teaching sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
- Pilot our new resources in five cities: Regina (SK), Toronto (ON), Ottawa (ON), Halifax (NS), and St. John’s (NL).
- Publish our new resources and tools online for educators across Turtle Island.
Timeline
Phase I: Needs Assessment (Sept-October 2022)
- Establish two advisory councils (one general, one youth)
- Establish needs and gaps specific to each pilot location through key informant interviews and environmental scan
Phase II: Toolkit Pilots & Summit (November 2022 - May 2023)
- Develop toolkit modules
- Host CSE/SRHR-focused Youth Summit
- Collect feedback from the Project Advisory Council
- Run pilot sessions in five cities: Regina, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, and St. John’s
- Revise toolkit based on feedback from advisory councils
Phase III: Program Delivery (June 2023 - March 2024)
- Bring educators from pilot locations to Ottawa for ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions that they can then share with their peers in their home communities
- Community trainers receive a stipend to run five educational sessions in their community between July 2023 and February 2024
- Prepare final project reporting
- Prepare for future: scout new pilot locations and focus new intersectional lenses. Obtain funding to continue training sessions and develop new content.
Partners & Funders
The Canadian Centre for Gender & Sexual Diveristy
- Eliot Newton (they/them) – Project Manager
- Janani Suthan (she/they) – Project Coordinator
PAC
- Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights
- University of Western Ontario
- Physical Health and Education Canada (PHE Canada)
- Ontario Physical and Health Education Association (OPHEA)
- Jessica Wood, Sex Information & Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN)
- University of Regina Pride Centre (UR Pride)
- Halifax Sexual Health Centre (HSHC)
- Thrive, CYN (www.thrivecyn.ca) Newfoundland
Frequently Asked Questions
Not Just The Tip is a pilot project! Although we hope to include other cities in future phases, the initial run of the project is for a combination of cities where the CCGSD has existing relationships that can ensure the project’s success, as well as cities with demonstrated need.
- Ottawa is the base of operations for the CCGSD, and we have a lot of connections in Toronto
- We have a previous partnership with the Newfoundland and Labrador English school district
- Project partner Wisdom2Action is based in Halifax and
- Regina was selected as a city with significant need for SRHR support.
We are actively looking for funding opportunities to extend Not Just the Tip into other regions and target other specific population needs after Phase 3 of the project ends in March, 2024.
We wouldn’t be able to develop a toolkit for educators who teach sex-ed without input from said educators! Educator engagement at key stages in this project will nform how Not Just the Tip is executed. In Phase I of the project, we’re partnering with Wisdom2Action to conduct Key Informant Interviews with school-based and community-based educators who teach sex-ed, to ask them what their barriers are in teaching sex-ed comprehensively, and what would be helpful for us to include in the toolkit modules. In Phase II, we’ll pilot the resources to teachers and community-based educators and source their feedback on the modules. In Phase III, we’ll upload our resources to a free and public website so teachers across Turtle Island can access the information. In addition, we have several teaching associations and local teachers on our Project Advisory Council, who we will look to for guidance throughout the project and keep teachers’ needs central.
The Not Just the Tip project is being led not only by CCGSD, Wisdom2Action and Dr. Nadine Thornhill, but also two advisory councils. One of these, the Youth Advisory Council, contains six youth, one from each target city of the project, as well as one representative of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN). In recruiting for the council, we prioritized the voices of youth who are part of groups that are disproportionately impacted by incomprehensive sex-ed. This is why the entire council is composed of 2SLGBTQ+ youth. We prioritized the voices of those who are trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming, Black, Indigenous and other People of Colour, as well as disabled youth. We also welcome youth who have lived/worked outside of the target cities but still have connections to it, which allows the inclusion of youth from rural areas.
While we have just recently filled our spots for educators on the Project Advisory Council, there are certainly other ways for educators to get the most use out of our toolkit! Look out for posts in early 2023 for details on where you can attend a toolkit pilot session in your city. This is where you can learn all about the toolkit, how to use it, and gain skills to improve your CSE delivery!
CCGSD will also be funding training events held by community organizations in our five target cities, where folks can also receive training on the toolkit! Look out for notice of these throughout 2023 as well.
And of course, once the toolkit is launched, the best thing you can do as an educator is use it! The toolkit is not only free, but will contain everything you need to get more comfortable and confident teaching CSE in an inclusive way, and what educator doesn’t want that? The second best thing you can do with it is share it with your educator friends and colleagues.
