Centennial College has a long history of collaborating with social enterprises, and under the leadership of the department of Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services (ARIES) and its Social Innovation Research Centre (SIRC), this activity continues to grow. We are pleased to announce that we have received long-term funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to support children and youth’s access to comprehensive sexual health education.
Under NSERC’s College and Community Innovation program, Centennial research team was awarded $360,000 over 3 years to design, implement and evaluate an online, open educational resource that provides gender-affirming, age-appropriate content for children and youth. Titled “Gender-Affirming, Life-Affirming: Centering Gender-Independent, Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex Youth in Puberty Education with Adaptive Interactive Media,” the research project engages students and faculty across multiple areas and schools at the College to address a substantive gap in public health education.
The project team includes Centennial College’s Dr. Chris Jackman (Chair, Arts & Design, School of Communications, Media, Arts & Design), Dr. Lauren Wolman (Manager, Social Innovation Research) and Dr. Purnima Tyagi (Director, Social Innovation Research), along with Professors Pamela Kostur and Sarah Fewson from Centennial’s SCMAD, Professor Roya Haghiri-Vijeh from the School of Community & Health Studies, and Research Associate Majura Maheswaran from ARIES. Also on the team are community partners Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights (formerly Planned Parenthood Canada) and independent publishing house Flamingo Rampant.
“Access to unbiased, scientifically accurate and comprehensive sexual health and puberty education is a human right mandated across all provincial and territorial curricula,” says Dr. Jackman. “However, few resources provide adequate support for gender-independent, intersex, non-binary or trans children and youth. Our online resource will host essential health information for this group, and serve as a safe space for children and youth to find crucial health information.”
As an open educational resource, the online material will be freely accessible by all for teaching, learning and research purposes.
“For Centennial College, this project aligns with our longstanding commitment to equity and inclusion, as well as our vision to transform lives and communities through learning,” adds Dr. Wolman. “One of the most crucial benefits of this work is ensuring that the education information will be made accessible to gender-independent, intersex, non-binary, or trans youth and their families, who need this information to navigate a potentially complicated set of physical changes and personal choices. This project will also provide important health information to those who are in ‘caring’ positions, but may otherwise lack access to appropriate literature. We are very excited to continue to make this information available through our Social Innovation Research Centre and our collaborators, long after the project is completed.”
We look forward to continuing to collaborate with all areas of the College as we make strides in social innovation and inclusion.
For more information, contact aries@centennialcollege.ca.