Consent Belongs Here

Students, staff, faculty, and admin invited to order a Lakers-inspired pronoun button.   These buttons work to raise visibility, normalize these conversations, and remove the expectation that transgender or gender-nonconforming people are the only ones that need to share their pronouns.

Recent graduate and digital artist Jasper intentionally designed each unique gender pronoun button based on their NU experience.

• She/Her: The Lake Nipissing sunset
• He/Him: The tree line from the top of the College Drive hill
• They/Them: Water at the North Bay quarry
• Ze/hir: The Nipissing pond located on campus
• Ask me for my pronouns: North Bay local bus stop
• Blank to fill in your own: Nipissing University Coat of Arms owl.

To recognize International Pronouns Day, the SVPE Outreach Team will share resources and information, host educational events, post online using the #PronounsDay hashtag, and work to increase awareness and inclusion of the Lakers' Community. 

Please note that some activities will work better in certain contexts than others. We encourage you to choose activities that work best for your context. Some examples include (but are not limited to): 

• Share knowledge, resources and thoughts about the importance of using the correct pronouns for people. 
• Share actions that your office/department/induvidual has taken to use gender-inclusive language.
• Create a photo opportunity where people can gather as a group to visibly show their support. 
• Make pronouns an optional field in student/employee records. 
• Add pronouns on your business cards and email signatures, screen names and encourage others to do the same.  
• Put your pronouns on name badges (e.g. temporary ones for events/conferences, and permanent name badges used for work). 
• Show off your Lakers' gender pronoun button (FREE click here to order).

We invite Lakers community members (students, departments, services, faculty, etc.) to highlight how they are using pronouns and gender-inclusive language in their personal and professional lives on social media. 

• Share your posts on October 20th, 2021
• Use hashtag #PronounsDay
• Tag us!
  • @consentbelongshere on Instagram 
  • @NUSDS on Facebook
  • @SVPEOutreach on Twitter

Below are links to websites and resources to learn more about pronouns. Please note, we do not own/maintain the information on these external links.  

• mypronouns.org
• pronounsday.org
• What are Pronouns (video)
• LGBT Equity Center: Sharing Your Pronouns (Video)
• Pronouns | Trans | One Word | Cut (video)
• Why Pronouns Matter for Trans People (Buzzfeed) (video)
• Trans Student Educational Resources, Pronouns 101
• Gender-Specific and Gender-Neutral Pronouns Infographic
• Gender and Pronoun Guide (University of Connecticut)

We recognize this list of resources is not comprehensive. We encourage you to share your videos, links and resources with us if you would like us to add them to this website. You can reach us at consentbelongshere@nipissingu.ca

• Healing justice
• Sexual harassment in the workplace
• Child sexual abuse, partner abuse, family violence, elder abuse
• LGBTQ2S experiences of sexual violence
• The impact of trauma
• Protest movements
• Transformative and restorative justice
• Disability and sexual violence
• Sexual violence and anti-Black racism
• Multi-generational trauma and healing
• People affected by sexual violence and systems
• Sexual violence and settler colonialism
• Impacts of sexual violence on Indigenous communities
• Consent culture and the media
• State-sanctioned sexual violence
• Prevention and intervention practices
• Education campaigns

This symposium features outstanding work of undergraduate and graduate students from across Ontario.

• Nealob Kakar: Intergenerational: Trauma that Crosses Blood and Borders
• Prish: ‘Bloom Bold Flower, Bloom' 
• Kharoll-Ann Souffrant: "The freedom to be bothered" as a white and bourgeois privilege: power, race and gender in news media during the #MeToo movements of France and Quebec
• Elizabeth-Serwaa Peprah: "What Is The Voice Reclamation Campaign? Education Through Cultural Production in 70 Points" 
• Dr. Jessica Wright: “Fostering Critical Consent Culture on Campus: Using a Disability Justice Framework in Consent Education to Promote Collective Care”
• Shannon Thom: “Grey Areas of Consent: Shaping the Next Generation of Consent Culture”
• Raghad Elgamal: “The 5 stages of grief and loss”
• Sabrina Masud: “Kintsugi”
• Maddie Brockbank: “Engaging men in sexual violence prevention”
• Novera Shenin: ““Not So Little Now”
• Simon Popescu: “The Lady of Shalott
• Daysha Loppie: Misogynoir: Sharing a personal narrative of resistance
• Holly Smith: Queering Sexual Violence Prevention Education

Registration is FREE! 

Please go to the conference website to register for all the conference sessions https://begin-by-listening.attendease.com/

It's important to note that this symposium is centred on student voices and experiences. While we welcome all folks, we ask that non-student attendees listen, respect and learn from these voices.

Lydia Collins is an Author, Educator, and Creator from the Niagara Region, currently residing in Montreal. She published her first chapbook of poetry Angry. Black. Woman. in January 2019, her second To Everyone We've Ever Been in September 2020, a free digital chapbook In Transit in February 2021, and produced her first short film Joy Is Our Birthright in October 2020. Lydia is the former African, Caribbean, and Black HIV Prevention Strategy Worker at Somerset West Community Health Centre, and has most recently entered her role as Learning & Development Specialist at the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario. Lydia's unwavering love for writing and community health are what keep her determined to continue amplifying marginalized voices through telling her own story.

Are you interested in learning how to build safer spaces for individuals impacted by gendered and sexual violence? The Sexual Violence Prevention & Education Outreach team offers a series of virtual and in-person workshops that focus on building our awareness and skills to respond to disclosures and build solidarity for survivors. 

Students who complete each of the following workshops will be eligible to receive a Sexual Violence Prevention Certificate:

• Consent+
• Gender 101
• Intro to Allyship

Students who complete the above workshops in addition to the following workshops will be eligible to receive the Advanced Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Certificate:

• BITB (Bringing in the Bystander)
• Responding to Disclosures: Sexual Violence Response Training for Students

After completing the workshops use this form to request your certificate.

Gender 101 introduces participants to discussions about gender roles, gender identity and expression. Workshop facilitators will connect our understanding of gender issues to issues of gender based violence and harassment in our communities. The workshop will provide strategies on how to recognize violence when it is happening and how to intervene. Gender 101 combines awareness with engaging activities to provide participants with opportunities to learn and put knowledge into practice.

Workshop Length: 90 Minutes

The Consent+ workshop provides participants with knowledge regarding key terms and concepts related to consent, an introduction to bystander intervention strategies, and how to respond to disclosures. Consent+ combines awareness with engaging activities to provide participants with opportunities to learn and put that knowledge into practice.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain knowledge on affirmative consent and healthy relationships,
2. Define terminology such as: consent, coercion, and sexual violence,
3. Begin to develop an understanding of bystander intervention,
4. Learn how to respond to disclosures.

Workshop Length: 90 Minutes 

The Bringing in the Bystander© workshop focuses on building awareness, responsibility, and action towards preventing interpersonal violence. This workshop provides participants with knowledge of how to recognize the continuum of violence and with strategies for safe and appropriate bystander interventions. Bringing in the Bystander combines awareness with engaging activities to provide participants with opportunities to learn and put this knowledge into practice.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the concept of active bystander,
2. Develop an awareness of barriers to intervention and how to overcome them,
3. increase recognition of behaviours that fall on a continuum of violence,
4. Gain knowledge of bystander intervention strategies and methods.

Length of Workshop: 2.5 hours 

Intro to Allyship is a one-hour condensed workshop that combines key information from Gender 101, Consent +, and Bringing in the Bystander. The workshop facilitator will connect the material together to inform the participants about the issues of gender-based and sexual violence, effective ways of intervening, and ways in which to support survivors. In addition to this material, this workshop will introduce the concept of allyship and provide concrete strategies on how to be an effective ally.

Length of Workshop: 60 minutes

The Masculinity Miniseries is a 3-part series, designed for folks to come together to engage in facilitated conversations about masculinity and today’s society.  Participants will think critically about where their idea of masculinity came from, how it influences them in everyday life and how society has influenced their understanding of being masculine.  The conversation facilitator will help unpack masculinity and redefine it for a way to positively move forward. 

Part One dives into perceptions of masculinity.

Part Two unpacks gender and masculinity.

Part Three redefines masculinity.

Each Conversation Length: 60 minutes