Grants Funds Help TRU Consent Café Program Reach More Than 800 Students

Each year, the City of Kamloops issues a call for proposals for registered charities and non-profit agencies in our community to apply for Social and Community Development Grants. These grants are intended to fund special projects, operational costs, and/or capital expenditures that address specific current social problems and/or issues related to the City’s Social Plan or the Livability and Sustainability pillar of the Council Strategic Plan. 

 

TRU Consent Café received a $12,000 Social and Community Development Grant in 2023.This is how the grant was used: 

 

Submitted by the TRU Consent Café

 

Funding from the City of Kamloops Social and Community Development Grant has been a huge gift. It demonstrates that we live in a community that supports the health, well-being, and safety of youths and their caregivers. It has made our work possible and has given us the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of youths in Kamloops. 

 

The Consent Café is an activity-based consent education, communication, and sexualized violence prevention program for youths and young adults. It was co-founded by two TRU faculty members, Tanya Pawliuk, Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Social Work and Human Service, and Chelsea Corsi, Senior Wellness Coordinator. 

Using the funding, we completed numerous goals: 
 

  • We delivered our Consent Café to approximately 850 grade 8 students across rural and urban School District No. 73 sites. 
  • We ensured consent education and consent communication was delivered to parents and caregivers across the Kamloops community.  
  • We planned, prepared, and co-facilitated 33 Consent Café events in a pilot with School District No. 73. 
  • We initiated a Consent Café Indigenous Stakeholders group to review our curriculum and journal from a decolonized lens and to ensure content and delivery was relevant and collaborative. 
  • We administered and reviewed surveys to gauge participant outcomes and feedback. 
  • We also received approval from the TRU Research Ethics Board to conduct research about our Consent Café Pilot Project. We facilitated two youth focus groups with grade 8 Consent Café participants to ensure the curriculum and experience is aligned with their needs. 
  • We facilitated a Consent Café mentor focus group to ensure the curriculum was aligned with their experiences and needs. 
  • We evaluated and updated the Consent Café Journal for Consent Café use. 
  • We explored and reviewed the benefit of developing a youth mentorship or peer-to-peer role in the delivery of the Consent Café curriculum. 
  • We hosted a Consent Mentor Night with an educational session with a focus on neurodiverse youths and young adults. 

Approximately 850 youths participated in our School District No. 73 pilot program from October 2022 to May 2023. On average, we estimate that only 8%–10% of grade 8 students in our pilot program had ever talked about consent at home or at school before the Consent Café (students self-reported with a show of hands). With this, we truly realized how many youths in our community needed the Consent Café program. 

 

We also curated and hosted a My Consenting Self art exhibition for Kamloops youths at the Old Kamloops Courthouse, May 17, 2023. This gallery exhibit was organized in collaboration with students, teachers, and social workers from the First Steps Program at the Twin Rivers Education Centre. Students who curated the exhibit and/or submitted artwork from First Steps received educational credit for their contributions. 
 

The Consent Mentors are the magic of our program. We had five to six Consent Mentors (current TRU students or recent TRU graduates) present at all 131 Consent Café lessons (33 Consent Café's). 
 

The way the mentors engaged in relational practice with the youths by colouring alongside them, modelling grounding strategies, listening to their concerns and questions, supporting their learning by encouraging dialogue, etc. was the way we were able to co-create a courageous learning environment with the youths. Students said the mentors were, “nice”, “cool”, and helped them engage in hard conversations. Mentors also made the Consent Café fun! 

 

To learn more about this Social and Community Development Grant, visit Kamloops.ca/Grants. To view stories on how other groups used their Social and Community Development Grants, visit Kamloops.ca/CityStory.