Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN)/Conseil du Canada d'information et éducation sexuelle

Published purpose

Through this 36-month project, the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN) will develop and put in place a promising practice in the form of a strategy to increase the ability of educators to provide effective consent education to boys and Autistic youth, which will strengthen the GBV sector. It will address the needs of educators, Autistic youth, and boys, taking an approach that considers various intersecting identities. To do so, the project will implement two sets of the same activities, with one focusing on Autistic youth and the other on boys. This includes scans and reviews of consent literature and educational resources, the development of consent education working groups, conducting online consultations of Canadian educators to determine consent education needs and effective implementation practices, and conducting focus groups with youth to understand their consent education needs and best practices for implementation. SIECCAN will then create and distribute summary reports of consultation and focus group findings, develop backgrounder educator guides focused on improving youth's consent knowledge, attitudes, and skills, as well as develop interactive e-learning consent modules and digital content resources on consent for educators to use with/for youth. The organization will subsequently conduct usability sessions to determine needed revisions to the digital content resources. SIECCAN will disseminate and facilitate the usage of the two sets of consent materials for educators by releasing and promoting the e-learning consent modules and the digital content resources on consent online, and sharing the backgrounder educator guides on the organization’s website, with their educator listserv, and with project partners. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the promising practice through a final report and will additionally work with SIECCAN to evaluate the change in educator knowledge and skills and ability to deliver consent education to Autistic youth and to boys. The external evaluator will also work with project partners to conduct two usability sessions, one with Autistic youth and one with youth (including boys) to determine the effectiveness of the two final digital content resources on consent. SIECCAN will disseminate all educator consent materials at national conferences/workshops to share information and facilitate implementation of the promising practice so that others may replicate it or expand upon it. With supplemental funding, SIECCAN will create two lesson plans that will be developed directly from their existing backgrounder educator guide for boys, in response to educators’ ongoing need for practical, ready-to-use tools to teach core consent skills. These lessons will translate the guide’s evidence-informed concepts (1) asking for consent and (2) accepting “no” as an answer, into two interactive, age appropriate classroom activities for grades 6-8 that support boys in practicing respectful, healthy communication. With this investment, SIECCAN can equip educators across Canada with high-quality resources that strengthen consent literacy, promote safer relationships, and contribute to the prevention of gender-based violence. With the Supplemental funds and extension provided in early 2026, SIECCAN will develop, pilot test, disseminate, and evaluate lesson plans for Autistic youth (2 lesson plans), and technology-facilitated sexual violence (1 lesson plan). SIECCAN will also pilot test, disseminate, and evaluate the previously developed lesson plans for boys (2 lesson plans). SIECCAN will develop and conduct trainings to adequately equip educators to incorporate the lesson plans within their work. SIECCAN will promote and disseminate these lesson plans online and at in-person events, such as conferences. SIECCAN will draw from its foundational work on incorporating gender-based violence prevention into comprehensive sexual health education to advance gender equalit.