5 Ways to Implement the #ConsentIsNotCancelled Campaign on Your Campus
The #ConsentIsNotCancelled campaign is an invitation to reflect on how consent ought to be prioritized as an ongoing practice in our daily lives, including when engaging in sexual activity. Courage to Act hopes that the #ConsentIsNotCancelled campaign can be used by other institutions this Fall to inspire conversations about consent, gender-based violence and bystander intervention, especially in a time of social distancing.
Here are 5 ways that your campus can participate in this national campaign:
1. #ConsentIsNotCancelled Day, September 21st, 2020: Join universities, colleges and CEGEPs across Canada as they engage in conversations about how to practice consent in online spaces, and how to be an active bystander online. How can you use this day to bring awareness to your campus community?
2. Bring Consent into Online Classes: If you deliver workshops on your campus, think about the ways you can start conversations with staff and faculty about consent in an online learning context. How might consent look different in online classrooms? How can you create a culture of consent in your class and amongst your students? Take a look at Jordyn Perreault-Laird, Mina Rajabi Paak and Rebecca Godderis' article in Academic Matters or CREVAWC Learning Network's upcoming webinars on technology, digital platforms and violence against women for excellent information on remote teaching and technology-facilitated gender-based and sexual violence.
Courage to Act’s notes on our National Skillshare on Online Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education may also be helpful in considering how to transition our education and awareness initiatives online. On-campus workers and educators from around the country shared ideas, questions, strategies, and promising practices during skillshare breakout sessions into a toolkit that you can view here.
3. Safe Sext: Encourage students to engage in conversations about the ways that they use online spaces and apps with consent. For example, Ryerson's Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education is working on a series of guides about sexting, dating online and online sexual harassment for their #ConsentIsNotCancelled campaign, informed by a student survey around how they online date and safer sext.
4. Create Opportunities for Student Empowerment: Work with Peer Volunteers to plan for Consent Action Week January 25th - 29th 2021. Consent Action Week (also known as Sexual Violence Prevention Week) is an Ontario based provincial initiative to bring awareness to sexual violence and to support skill-building to make serious change annually during the last week of January. Trent University’s 2020 week themed on “Flip the Script” offered opportunities through the week that included a Safer Sex Fair, Bystander Intervention workshop, survivor storytelling event, and sex after trauma workshop. What are programming, activations and conversations can you cultivate around the theme of #ConsentisNotCancelled?
5. Lead your own #ConsentIsNotCancelled social media campaign about what continued consent while working and learning remotely means to your institution. For example, MacEwan University's Office of Sexual Violence Prevention Education & Response invited MacEwan students, staff, faculty, and alumni to participate in a community photo project for social media called #ConsentIsNotCancelled to affirm the importance of consent within the campus community.
#ConsentIsNotCancelled began as a mini-campaign under Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Active Bystander Network social media as part of the biannual SFU Consent Matters campaign. We hope campuses across Canada will continue this conversation as our prevention efforts adapt.
#ConsentIsNotCancelled
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Suggested Citation: Courage to Act. (2020, August). 5 Ways to Implement the #ConsentIsNotCancelled Campaign on Your Campus. Courage to Act. www.couragetoact.ca/blog/consentnationalcampaign