Over the past year and a half, the Centre for Sexuality has been working closely with grassroots ethnocultural organizations across Calgary to make sure our gender-specific programs like WiseGuyz and Girls Program meet the unique needs of the varied communities we serve.

Thanks to funding from the Government of Alberta, we brought together an advisory committee of about a dozen community-based organizations, each deeply connected to families in their cultural and faith communities. Together, we set out to do two things:

  • adapt our WiseGuyz and Girls Program for ethnocultural audiences, and
  • co-create an awareness workshop on preventing gender-based violence designed specifically for adults in ethnocultural communities.

From the beginning, we knew this work had to start with listening. “We try our best to be intentional when we’re going into new communities and ensure that our curriculum is relevant to their needs,” said Roseline Carter, Centre for Sexuality’s Director of Programs. “Based on requests we received, we knew there would be demand for adapted programs, but we also knew that we would need to make sure that adaptations were well thought out and culturally appropriate.”

Our recent awareness workshop for adults, co-faciliated with The Family Advocates, ActionDignity and HSRC

Our advisory partners helped us look closely at our program content to ensure it would be respectful to, and relevant for, the ethnocultural communities they serve. The committee discussed how to make conversations about healthy relationships, violence prevention and dating less stigmatized and more accessible.

Once we had developed the adapted materials, we piloted the programs with youth and parents over the summer. “Ultimately, the content is relevant for everyone,” Roseline says. “Everyone needs information about bodies, relationships, conflict, communication, what someone can do when they experience things that don’t feel right. Most of the curriculum adaptations are more ‘surface-level’ pieces, like pulling in examples related to culture or faith of those who we’re working with.” For example, media examples might change to reflect what youth in the community are watching. Some cultures also have practices or celebrations to do with puberty that are important to include in programming.

But one of the most meaningful adjustments was how we engage with parents. In this project, we began with parents first. Before youth sessions began, we held parent sessions to build trust, answer questions and share tools to help families continue these conversations at home. That early connection helped parents feel more prepared to talk with their kids about these topics.

The work with our advisory committee will be completed this month. After that, the focus will shift to implementation with community partners who want to deliver the adapted programs. We also recently co-facilitated an adult-focused workshop to share what family violence is, how to recognize it and where to find support. “Because it was co-developed with our community partners, we now know what makes these things hard to talk about and specifically what participants would want to know,” Roseline says.

Ultimately, this project was undertaken with the same approach we take in all our work: Every young person deserves access to accurate, non-judgmental information about relationships and health. “This project will help organizations who already have community connections but don’t have the resources to deliver programs themselves,” Roseline says. “This way, they don’t have to develop it, but they can trust that the programming is inclusive and relevant to them.”

Centre for Sexuality offers gender-specific programs for boys and girls in different life stages, which can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse audiences. Contact Roseline for more information.