SWOVA’s ‘Pass It On - Engaging Boys and Young Men Council’ is soliciting input from boys and young men 13-19 years (cis- trans- & non-binary inclusive) in our 5- minute online survey (link provided here). This is a project coordinated by David Norget and...
Position Title: Male Facilitator, Respectful Relationships Program ("RR") Contract: November 1, 2016 - May 30, 2017 The successful candidate will have education, job skills and training in the areas of youth violence prevention, social justice, community organizing...
Winter seems to be a time of great change and learning for me. My mother passed away this year on January 1st. For anyone who has lost a parent, the mixed emotions and loss will be familiar. When a parent dies we flounder between our adult selves and the child inside...
I’ve just recently completed 4 weeks of delivery of Respectful Relationships and Peace Kids programs at Salt Spring Island Middle School. This is my first time in my role as male facilitator in these programs working alongside Christina Antonick, an experienced...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAy5LYJlTII From high profile cases in the media to Canadian students and faculty calling for change across college and university campuses, the term “Consent” is being put under a microscope. Our understanding of this word raises...
Statistics tell us that one in three women and one in six men will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, while less than one in ten assaults are reported to the authorities. Most sexual assaults happen by someone the victim knows. (Stats Can 2004)...
Read Canadain Women's Foundation Blog Post "Day 8: How SWOVA is Helping BC Teens Develop Respectful Relationship Skills"
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is yet to come. We have only today. Let us begin." Mother Theresa During the month of October and November Christina Antonick and I were in the classes of primarily grade 3, 4 and 5 students delivering the Peace Kids program....
"Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky." - Sonia Gandhi- In early October, I was blessed to travel to Calgary for a national meeting of Canadian Women's Foundation's 17 Teen Healthy Relationships Grantees - of which our...
Consent is a big topic in the news these days. What constitutes consent to sexual activity? When and how is consent given? How do we misinterpret consent? These are some of the topics in the news and on many peoples’ minds. This is particularly true for...
There is a lot of violence in our world and it takes many forms- men’s violence towards other men, violence perpetrated on children, violence directed at seniors, violence against lesbian, gay and transgendered people, and violence against women, to name some of the...
Canada is spending billions of dollars each year on police, courts and corrections. In the past 10 years these costs have increased by 50 percent. These costs do not include the human suffering to individuals and families. Investment in preventing crime is a wiser use...
Adele Mark, our Marketing and Communications Assistant at The Circle and former Pass It on Girl, spoke with Emma Phillips to hear about her experiences the past five years in the Pass It On Girls program. Emma has been a part of the Pass It On Girls program since...
I have advocated for consent for over a decade, but if I am going to be honest, I only began to practise consent within the last three years. I am not talking about sexual consent. However, I am going to assume that when I said “consent,” you thought I meant “sexual...
Social–Emotional Learning and Violence Prevention: What’s the Connection? Here at The Circle, our focus is to deliver innovative, evidence-based social–emotional educational programs. Our motivation? We want to encourage youths to develop empathy, respect,...
COVID-19 Impact on Social–Emotional Learning The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected students’ academic performance, but it has also significantly impacted their social–emotional learning. Research shows that students are experiencing an increased lack of...
I recently heard about a fascinating study in which researchers were investigating human perception of challenge. One of their findings was that when a person stands at the base of a hill that they are about to climb, they perceive the hill to be 10 to 20% larger than...
We welcome to Alex and Albert to our facilitation team! We're thrilled to have Alex King-Harris and Albert Strasser join the team of facilitators here at The Circle. Each of them brings an incredible skill set to their work in the Pass It On Boys program, for boys...
A blog post by Kate Nash . SWOVA’s Girls Pass-It-On program started in 2010 as an after-school program that provided structured and individual mentorship between high school youth and Grade 8 students throughout the academic year. Kate Nash was hired as the program...
We are delighted to announce that #Lobstick Foundation has contributed $6,000 towards the Pass it On Girls Program! Our sincere gratitude to Lobstick for their generous support of the Pass It On Girls #MentorshipProgram. In this program, high school young women...