Project completed Winter 2016
Original Project Description
Organization
Projet Bleuet
Description
Consent is a tool that is currently being taught in many Canadian universities to help mitigate the culture of sexual assault. However, learning to practice consent at the age of a university student can be “awkward”, challenging, and require the unlearning of ingrained social habits.
Teaching kids to identify their own and other’s boundaries, how to practice consent, and to use tools like active listening and check-ins at an early age engenders a culture of respect and personal empowerment, and hopefully helps prevent sexual assault and other cultures of abuse. Projet Bleuet has been promoting education of consent to kids in summer camps settings, in conflicts (lack or absence of respecting boundaries of others) between two kids and in other situations such as hugging, physical games, etc.
This research project explores how the notion of consent can be incorporated in child-care contexts and in a school context, at an early age. It also seeks to identify more situations or practices where it can be used/taught.
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About the Organization
Projet Bleuet offers training workshops for counselors and child care providers to equip them with anti-oppressive practices and construct supportive environments for children. We offer training workshops that center an understanding discrimination in Montreal, managing challenging behaviours with kids, and creating sport activities that are inclusive to all children. Throughout the workshops, counselors will work through practical scenarios and develop language, responses, and strategies for addressing discrimination and achieving greater inclusion in child care contexts.
Our aim is two-fold: to explore “multiple frameworks for thinking about difference and nuanced understandings of otherness, race, culture, gender and sexuality” in the context of work with children and youth, and to use these frameworks to inform actionable practices and strategies for those who receive our training, to help them build supportive environments for themselves and the children and youth that they work with.
With Projet Bleuet, we tackle inequities and barriers that prevent children and youths from accessing a space that is essential to their mental and physical health and hope to equip counsellors and people working with them with the tools to prevent and address these issues. We focus on three subjects that affect children’s mental health and well-being:
- Challenging behaviours and mental health
- Sport and inclusivity
- Discrimination
Through its training workshops, Projet Bleuet hopes to tackle the following issues:
- Many counsellors and other educators working in extracurricular and auxiliary programs report feeling ill equipped to manage challenging behaviour of kids, and get frustrated in attempting to build supportive environments for their students
- Persistent challenging behaviours can have an impact on socialization, school success and mental health in adolescence and adulthood
- Lack of understanding between what is known about effective practices and what practices facilitators typically utilize when working with young children to manage challenging behaviour
- Unsupportive, discouraging and fearful sports culture towards children at risk, or disadvantaged children are far too prevalent
- Lack of education around the notion of consent
- Lack of discussion around mental health, racism, accessibility, and gender identity
- Discrimination against silenced, and underrepresented groups of people (these groups include but are not limited to: Queer and Trans people, refugees, Black people, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities, and people of colour)
- Trends in mental and physical health symptoms show that there is a widening gap between affluent and disadvantaged youths
www.projectbleuet.ca
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