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, which 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.
The Consent Café received a $10,176 Social and Community Development Grant in 2024. This is how the grant was used:
Submitted by Thompson Rivers University Consent Café:
The Consent Café is an activity-based consent education, communication, and sexualized violence prevention program for youths and young adults. The funding has allowed the Consent Café to meet community needs sustainably and responsively and was able to achieve the following in 2024:
- Hosted community partner meetings to directly inform the Consent Café Train the Trainer program. The meetings included one Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization focus group and three Indigenous learning circles. These meetings provided valuable information about ensuring cultural humility in the curriculum and program design.
- Held two workshop meetings with School District No.73 partners to ensure the Consent Café Train the Trainer program is reflective of Kamloops and meets the needs of our local school district.
- Conducted a review of the Consent Café curriculum and program learning objectives based on a new McCreary Centre Society BC Adolescent Health survey showing an increase in online sexual exploitation.
- Hosted two parent focus groups to provide insights on parent/caregiver educational programming to begin in spring 2025.
- Presented the Consent Café model to the BC Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses Community of Practice and the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services 2024 Conference: Supporting our Students; Sustaining Ourselves Conference. We were also invited to present at a Kamloops West Rotary meeting where the work of the Consent Café in Kamloops and the support of the City was highlighted.
We acknowledge and have deep gratitude for the continued support from the City of Kamloops in providing an opportunity for our program to grow and thrive. We believe that the next step for the Consent Café is to deliver a train-the-trainer model and develop adult-focused education so that parents and caregivers can continue the conversations about consent, communication, relationships, and sexualized violence prevention and response at home and in the community. The more people who can skillfully navigate these conversations free from shame and stigma, the better our society becomes at honouring boundaries and celebrating healthy and respectful relationships.
As our Consent Café work becomes known locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally through academic and practice conferences, it has been our priority to highlight that this is a made in Kamloops initiative that has flourished through community support.
To learn more about this Social and Community Development Grant, visit Kamloops.ca/Grants. Review the full list of stories of how other groups used their Social and Community Development Grants.
