It’s Complicated:
The Relationships Curriculum
What is the project?
From 2019-2024 PPO is working on developing a skills-based curriculum which aims to prevent teen dating violence by supporting grade 9 students in building satisfying relationships. In designing this curriculum, our team has aimed to use a trauma informed and anti-oppressive lens which has been informed by extensive consultations with youth in Ontario.
As part of this endeavor, we launched a community-based research project done in collaborration with researchers from York University. Through this partnership we are evaluating the effectiveness of our curriculum, and will work with Ontario teachers to implement this evidence based curriculum in their classrooms. The entire project has been funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
Meet the Project Team!
Timelines of the project
Year 1
January – December 2019
Brainstormed ideas, made community connections, made an action plan, researched what information already existed around teen dating violence curriculums.
Year 2
January – December 2020
Focus groups with youth and youth leaders, build first draft of the curriculum, shifted to an online curriculum delivery, piloted online curriculum with grade 9 students.
Year 3
January – December 2021
Finalized second draft of curriculum, facilitated an online youth coalition to gather feedback from youth on our curriculum, worked with OCTEVAW to gather feedback on the curriculum from an equity and gender based violence (GBV) lens. Began research phase of the project to assess effectiveness of the curriculum.
Year 4
January – December 2022
Finish research phase of curriculum. Incorporate any further lessons learned and feedback into the curriculum. Connect with teachers to mentor them in delivering the curriculum.
Year 5
January 2023 –
January 2024
January 2024
Continue working with teachers to mentor them in delivering the curriculum. Attend events and work with community stakeholders to share lessons learned from the curriculum and delivering the curriculum.
Project highlights
2020
Spring Online focus groups and interviews
Our team conducted several focus groups with youth of various ages across Ontario to discuss their wants and needs in regards to relationship education in their schools. We met with diverse groups of youth to ensure voices that are not always heard were centered in the curriculum development.
We also had the pleasure of meeting with several Indigenous youth leaders. In doing so, we got a better sense of what particular considerations should be made in building a curriculum that considers Indigenous ways of knowing and worldviews.
2021
Summer Youth Coalition
Our team gathered youth from across Ontario between the ages of 14-18 to discuss education in schools on the topic of relationships. Youth received $25 gift cards each time they spent time with us. We shared with the group of youth our ideas on how to create interactive, anti-oppressive education, and they shared with us how we can better support the youth of today through education in school settings.
The youth also helped us design the visuals for our curriculum, came up with a title for our project, and co-created a letter to future teachers who will be teaching on the topic of relationship. This letter will be included as a foreword in our final curriculum document.
The Curriculum
The curriculum has five main topics: Identifying one’s personal wants and needs in a relationship, strategies of de-escalation during conflicts, communication tips for a conflict, examining power in relationships and navigating accountability.
The finalized curriculum will be available for educators to use by Winter 2024. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when it launches!
When deciding on the content and within the facilitation of this curriculum, there are a few major ideas that are included that make this curriculum unique:
Considers teachers perspectives
This curriculum takes into account the realities of an average Ontario school teacher, and the limitations they have to cover content around relationships, specifically time limitations were considered.
Explores relationship nuances
This curriculum goes beyond what is “easy” when teaching on relationships (ie. hitting is bad, kindness is good) and attempts to explore the nuanced areas of relationships like: emotions, jealousy, communication, etc.
Informed by youth
This curriculum also centers the lived experiences of youth in all their relationships, meaningfully incorporating lessons learned from extensive consultation with a diverse group of youth.
Uses a trauma-informed approach
When approaching the topics of teen dating violence, the curriculum takes into account the potential of students living with or through traumatic experiences. In doing so, we give participants choices that allow them to determine how they want to participate and our team always aims to ensure the benefits of a discussion outweigh the potential costs.
Challenges euro-centric ideas
Our curriculum aims to challenge euro-centric ideas of what a healthy relationship looks like by not enforcing a “one-size-fits-all” approach on how to understand or be in relationships.
Media
Listen to our Curriculum Developer, Léa Gareau, share about the 2021 Summer Youth Coalition.
“The project aims to educate youth on how to avoid and prevent teen dating violence. The coalition was made to get youth input on a curriculum that Planned Parenthood is hoping to bring to ninth grade classes in Ottawa.”
Watch our team present at the 2021 National Sexual Health Conference
“I think there’s a lot of possibility in using technology and social media in these innovative learning strategies to reach young people on a different level. ”
Funded by
