Healthy Relationships for Youth (2006-2008) continues the core work of the Rural Youth Education Project (RYEP). The dynamics of delivery will alter to accommodate working with an increased number of schools, being in one grade level and working with teachers and community partners as adult facilitators while the youth facilitator component will remain unchanged. The curriculum will maintain the diversity focus developed over the past four years by the RYEP, and will also draw upon the resources provided by other youth violence prevention models which represent best practices in this field.

BELIEF STATEMENT:

Healthy Relationships for Youth is based on the belief that communication which reflects sexism, racism and homophobia creates harmful stereotyping and discrimination and that these oppressions are forms of violence.   Through enhancing awareness of the social context of their lives and also promoting skill development to promote healthy interpersonal communication, youth can make positive decisions about their own behavior.  

GOAL:

The goal of this work continues as one of working to reduce the risk of violence for youth through developing skills and knowledge related to developing and maintaining healthy relationships.  

Program

Healthy Relationships for Youth is a school based program which highlights youth involvement as peer educators in the classroom and within their schools and communities. The focus of this program is to deliver a series of twelve sessions within the Health curriculum of grade 9 which focuses on developing and maintaining health relationships.

The classroom delivery of this curriculum will be with a community person partnered with the classroom teacher who will be assisted by a member of a Youth Team. The Youth Teams in each participating school will be recruited from Grades 10 - 12 and will be trained in leadership and facilitating. Youth Team members will also develop self-directed in-school projects. Ten schools in the Strait Regional School Board will be invited to participate.

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Reports

Healthy Relationships for Youth 2007 Annual Report

Healthy Relationships for Youth 2006-2007 Evaluation Report

Links

Canadian Women’s Foundation

Respectful Relationships
SWOVA Community Development & Research Society, British Columbia

The Fourth R
University of Western Ontario

Making Waves/Vague par Vague”, New Brunswick

Healthy Relationships: A Violence Prevention Curriculum
Men For Change, Nova Scotia

Heartwood Center for Community Youth Development

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Objectives

• To engage Grade 9 students in ten school sites within the Strait Regional School Board, in a series of classroom sessions designed to promote healthy and respectful relationships.

• To assist youth in developing the attitudes, values and skills they need to build and maintain healthy relationships.

• To increase students’ understanding of racial/cultural diversity specifically relating to the Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian community.

• To increase students’ awareness of issues related to violence prevention and social inequities from a gender based perspective.

• To foster youth development which includes: peer support, youth empowerment, youth-adult partnerships, meaningful contribution and experiential learning.

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Background

Healthy Relationships for Youth continues the youth-focused work of the Antigonish Women’s Resource Center (AWRC), values the voices of youth and addresses issues that are of concern to them through research, project work and direct services. The accumulated learnings from this work inform current programming. While the AWRC has provided support services to young women and their families since opening in 1983, community action work on youth issues first emerged in the early 1990s.    

• Adolescent Health Project (1990-91) Responding to growing concern around inadequate understanding and response to health needs of teenagers in the community, this project completed a community based needs assessment on adolescent health in Antigonish. A need for increased opportunities for youth to discuss and learn about three key areas emerged; substance abuse, mental health and relationships.

Since that time there have been a number of specific youth-focused programs and projects.  

• Teens Take Action (1997-present) A peer education approach to dating violence and sexual assault initiated in 1997, has continued as an annual program. Each year, a group of Grade 11 & 12 students participate in training which prepares them to deliver sessions to Grade 8 students.  Through skits and classroom discussion issues are presented relating to recognizing and responding to dating violence and sexual assault.

• Young Women: Exploring Our Lives Together (1999-2003) An after-school program for high school girls who want to talk about the world they live in and issues they face in their lives.

•  Adolescents Coming Together For Change (ACT For Change) (1999) The AWRC was instrumental in setting up the ACT For Change Program and Youth Center in 1999.

•  Students Against Social Injustice (2000-2002) A group of youth who met regularly to identify, discuss and plan action on social issues.

•  Students Acting Against Sexual Harassment (2001) A project that produced an educational resource kit on peer sexual harassment for use by adult and peer educators.

•  Inspire (2001 - 2006) An ongoing program designed for adolescent girls who face challenges. This supportive group format allows exploration of personal and social issues and emphasizes self-care and healthy decision making.

• Assessing Youth Homelessness in Antigonish (2002) A project which gathered information about the issues faced by youth who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  A community forum was held to discuss the findings and to develop a community report. 

• Rural Youth Education Project (2002-2006) The RYEP provided school based, violence prevention programming to all grade 7 - 11 students, in two rural schools serving diverse student populations. Working to replicate an existing model developed by SWOVA (Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse) adaptations were made most significantly in the area of diversity with specific focus given to diversity of race and sexual orientation while maintaining the gender focus. 

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About Our Funders

Canadian Women’s Foundation 2006-2008 Multi-Year Violence Prevention Grants with Teens:

The Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre (AWRC) has recently been awarded one of four multi-year grants awarded nationally to further their ongoing work of violence prevention with youth.  

The stated goal of the Canadian Women’s Foundation is to “prevent violence against women and girls in Canada through work involving girls, or teens (girls and boys age 12 and up, grade 7 to 9)” and their objectives are:

• “to learn more about effective work with teenagers to prevent violence against women and girls”, and

• “to build the effectiveness of community organizations and practitioners.”

(CWF 2006-2008 Multi-Year Violence Prevention Grants with Teens - Grant Information and Selection Criteria)

The first group of grantees receiving this funding includes:

“Healthy Relationship For Youth”
Antigonish Women’s Resource Center,  Nova Scotia
www.antigonishwomenscentre.com

“Respectful Relationships”
 SWOVA Community Development & Research Society, British Columbia
 www.saltspring.com/swova

“The Fourth R”
 University of Western Ontario
 www.thefourthr.ca

“Making Waves/Vague par Vague”
New Brunswick
www.mwaves.org

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