SHE SOARS

Youth-led activism and the power of micro-behaviours

• CARE Canada • Season 4 • Episode 3

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*Warning: This episode contains sensitive content.

The Youth Champions Shreya, Olivia and Lauren discuss the latest initiatives they’re leading in their communities across Canada to speak up and take action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Olivia shares insights from organizing a student event for ‘Take Back the Night,’ a global movement against sexual violence. Shreya discusses strategies for breaking down barriers to youth political engagement in her community and Lauren shares a story of students speaking up. Together, they explore examples of youth-led activism, how to measure impact, and insights from the youth survey they conducted including the power of stigma to prevent young people from accessing SRHR. They discuss how micro-behaviours can perpetuate harmful attitudes around violence as well as positive social impact, highlighting the need for youth to have honest conversations and hold one another accountable. The conversation encourages listeners to reflect on their social responsibility and take small but important steps towards fostering inclusive, supportive environments for youth.

*Warning: Please note that this episode contains discussion of sensitive topics including sexual violence, rape and related topics. Please take care and listen only if you're comfortable and decide what's right for you. 

SHE SOARS, funded by Global Affairs Canada, is the Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment Supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills project. Learn more at: https://care.ca/shesoarsproject

Episode transcripts are available in French and English at: care.ca/shesoars.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the SHE SOARS podcast are the speakers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, standards and policies of CARE Canada. The SHE SOARS podcast is a youth-led initiative that provides space for young people to discuss global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with the purpose of raising awareness in Canada. Listeners acknowledge that the material and information presented in the podcast are for informational purposes only and do not constitute advice or services. The podcast is for private, non-commercial use and speakers do not necessarily reflect any organization they work for.

[00:00:00] Paniz: Hi, and welcome to SHE SOARS. Her voice. Her rights. 

[00:00:05] Jacqueline: We are CARE Canada's Youth Champions, a group of young people across Canada who are passionate advocates for Sexual and Reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

[00:00:13] Paniz: We're excited to discuss and raise awareness about young women's rights and choices in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. ​

[00:00:18] Jacqueline: Together, we will explore how these global issues connect to our lives as Canadian youth and discover ways in which we can all take action. 

[00:00:26] Paniz: We will also talk about the SHE SOARS project, which improves access to health and education, which are areas we want to see change in. Join us!

[00:00:33] Shreya: Hello everyone and welcome to the SHE SOARS podcast. My name is Shreya and I'm one of our Youth Public Engagement Champions (YPEC) and one of the hosts today. We have a really exciting episode today where we're going to be discussing and diving into some survey results that we found when we polled our audience to see what topics you are interested in and what you want to hear on this podcast. So I'm really excited to introduce my co-hosts and have this discussion about all the things that youth in Canada and globally are wondering about sexual and reproductive health.

[00:01:09] Lauren: Hi everybody, I’m Lauren, also a Youth Public Engagement Champion. I was on the last episode in Toronto but I'm back.

[00:01:16] Olivia: Amazing! Hi everyone. My name is Olivia and I am also a Youth Public Engagement Champion and I'm so excited to be here with you all today to share some insights on different youth views around sexual and reproductive health and also a little bit into what we're doing as YPEC members as well.

[00:01:32] Shreya: Before we dive into all of the topics we'll be discussing today, please note that this episode contains discussion of sensitive topics including sexual violence, rape and related topics. Please take care and listen only if you're comfortable and decide what's right for you.

[00:01:47] Shreya: So a lot of us YPEC members have been really busy in our own local communities doing different initiatives to raise awareness for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) and trying to make our school communities, our local communities and different community members kind of understand why we should learn more about each other, about our bodies and about our health and wellness.

[00:02:12] So for myself, currently I'm working on a project where I am hoping to host a kind of town hall to bring together local leaders like MPs (Members of Parliament) and MPPs (Members of Provincial Parliament), so like members of Parliament and different politicians together in a room alongside different university staff and community members and then students in order to develop relationships with one another. In the community I live, which is in the city of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, I go to the University of Waterloo, I have noticed that because it's a university town and there are three schools within the span of a couple kilometers of each other, a lot of young people here are not really engaged within the civic engagement setting. I guess because of a lot of things; there is not really much presence from these local politicians on our campuses to tell us about how these policies that they're building affect students or our rent or our healthcare and things like that. And I guess it's just something that people haven't really considered is something they should be involved in. So I am working on building an event to help people connect with those folks and ask them questions and share their grievances and spark some sort of conversation and make civic engagement something that is accessible to people and more fun for people. So that is what I've got going on. Do you two have any exciting projects that you want to talk about?

[00:03:36] Olivia: Amazing. That sounds so interesting and I think that is a very important topic because for people, especially young Canadians, I feel as though there is a barrier in accessing politics sometimes, or there is a barrier in accessing political engagement and you don't really know how to start or what is going to impact you or things like that.

[00:03:55] So that is a super neat initiative. And yeah, so I recently also held an event in my community. So I go to Bishop’s University, which is in Lennoxville, Quebec. So it's a suburb or a borough, I guess, of Sherbrooke. But we have an event every year that the Sexual Culture Committee organizes, which I am the chair of, and it is an event called 'Take Back the Night.'

[00:04:18] So Take Back The Night is one of the longest movements against sexual and gender-based violence in the world. And it's a large organization that has had protests and events all over the world since the seventies. This was the Bishop’s community's eighth year having this event. So it's been around longer than I have been at Bishop's, but I'm very thankful and have loved the opportunity to really step into this role and be able to be a part of making change on my campus and in the local community around sexual culture.

[00:04:47] So Take Back The Night happened on November 13th and we had a couple hundred students and community members come out and it honestly is my favorite night of the year. It is so impactful to be able to see the amount of people that show up to say that sexual violence isn't tolerated in our community and that they stand with survivors.

[00:05:05] So it takes a lot of planning and organization from the committee, but that is also fun. We have it down to a bit more of a map now that we have a kind of a guide we follow. So we're able to engage with community members before and have protest sign-making tables. Sexual violence and gender-based violence is a topic that can be really difficult for communities to embrace the prevention of these issues.

[00:05:30] It can be really stigmatized. So it has been really eye-opening for me to see the community embrace this full on and say that sexual violence isn't tolerated in our community. So everyone met on a field just a bit off campus and students share their stories and give speeches around their own experiences, but also what changes they wish to see in our community. And then we walk through the streets of Lennoxville, we have our little chant sheets, we have our banners and posters, and it really was an incredible night to see the impact and see how people want to enact change.

[00:06:03] Shreya: Love that.

[00:06:04] Lauren: And it's so great that your community is connected like that as well. For me, I was thinking like in terms of what you said Shreya about how you're able to connect with the politicians in your community and for me, in my community it's very different actually.

[00:06:16] We had at my school the other day two local politicians and an ex-university professor come to our school to basically say that the residential schools didn't exist. And that was first of all very shocking; everybody was like what is going on here? Especially to do that on our university campus where that is not something we stand for at all right. But it was actually really amazing to see the response from the students as well, like a lot of people came to the spot to counteract what they were talking about. And then the next day we had a tabling event for anti-racism that we had been planning anyway, but that is how it worked out the next day. So we were really able to respond to that as well. But it made me think about how disconnected we are from our community politicians and how maybe we need to make a change on that as well.

[00:07:09] Olivia: I'm really sorry Lauren. 

[00:07:10] Shreya: That's like really crazy and awful. In Kitchener Waterloo like a couple weeks ago there was supposed to be an event to support the LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) community. And there was a credible threat of a hate crime that was supposed to happen. So they had to cancel everything. And yeah, local law enforcement had to shut down the whole thing. There is a lot of, you know, really hard and bad things happening in the world right now generally and people disagreeing but like in very violent ways. And it's really sad.

[00:07:46] But something that has been providing me comfort recently, which obviously it's really hard to find comfort in these sorts of situations, but what has been making me feel better is like what you said, the response, and the fact that people in times of injustice I feel like find the most community and find people who they can band with and really come together. I think a really good example of that was a recent election in New York City for Zohran Mamdani. The community came together to ensure that man came into office because there are a lot of things that are happening in the state that they care about and that they want to be solved. And seeing people come together for a cause like that I think is really lovely. In a sense it’s bad that it needs to happen, but the fact that people are not plagued by inaction in those moments is really beautiful and meaningful. Like even being a university student, there is a lot you have on your plate already, but the fact that people have found such strength to go and stand up to that and say something about that I think is really meaningful. So it's really great to hear that people are not becoming apathetic to things like that happening in their communities.

[00:09:03] Olivia: I agree 100%. I think in every community, in every area, there are going to be moments of crisis or there are always going to be unfortunately things that occur where it isn’t inclusive or it hasn't been a positive event or something has happened that has created harm in the community. And I think something that young Canadians are good at, and something that I love to see within young Canadians, is the changing of that narrative. Instead of allowing that to occur, it's that changing in how you approach the scenario. And kind of what we have talked about before, I think, but spring-boarding into hope is that there is always going to be things occurring and there is always going to be a negative.

[00:09:43] So how can we focus on the positives? But also hope is an action we have to put work into to try to strive for better and more inclusive communities. And that is something that is super important but also being able to see what that looks like in different communities. So what youth are working on maybe at Bishop’s is super different from what youth are working in at Waterloo. But that's good because we're all working on things that are trying to positively impact and create change in our community. And that was something that actually Shreya and I were talking about the other day like the amount of people that come to events and how to create that impact.

[00:10:18] And we had a really great conversation about impact. So when youth are trying to engage in these conversations and are hosting events or are trying to strive for more inclusivity, the focus should always be on impact. It should always be on how you have been able to teach people or to call people into these conversations or how maybe one person feels inspired to go and start something else from that. So that is always something I love to focus on is, okay, this has happened. How can we pivot and make sure that A) this doesn't happen again? Because mistakes can happen but repeated mistakes are actually not mistakes. So how can we pivot from that? But also, B) make sure that there is positive coming from this. Make sure that we are creating a community that cares and is changing the conversation to, okay, this happened, this is what we're doing to make sure it's not going to happen again. And from that other youth will get inspired and then keep the ball going I think.

[00:11:14] Shreya: I think that conversation for me was really interesting because it made me think about impact assessment and is there a framework or a metric that we should be using to understand our impact? I feel like working in the social justice space and like doing anything that is related to social impact. When it comes to trying to raise money for your cause, or bring people into the room and into the space, for me, like I had a big crash out moment on Instagram a few weeks ago where I was like, why is no one coming? Why is no one engaging? How do I spark engagement and how do I make this fun? And a lot of the responses that I got, people were saying, “I feel stressed and I feel overwhelmed by the state of the world because there are so many things going on and how do I possibly dedicate myself to all of these different causes?

[00:12:14] So I would rather do nothing because, I don't know, I don't have the extra energy because I waste so much energy thinking about all the problems that the time of action is really difficult. Because what first am I focusing on, is it the community that is most greatly affected by it right now and focusing on that cause or where should I fall on that scale?”

[00:12:31] And I'm like, okay, well I had impact in just making that post and starting that conversation with people because I was able to message back and forth and say, “Yeah, I do relate and I do agree that this is a problem.” And it gave me a lot of good data on my initiatives and how to craft them and how to build them to make them more fun. And then I was thinking how do I measure participation and engagement? Because I think the disconnect is when working in this space, you have all these ideas.

[00:13:01] You want to do all of these things, but in order to further these ideas or build on these ideas, you need money. That is really unfortunate, but the way that you get money, you apply to a grant or you start a business that is social impact oriented. And then once you do that, they want you to quantify; what were you able to achieve?

[00:13:21] Who are you able to impact? How are you able to impact it? And it seems like the projects that are all getting funded are the ones that have these accolades or we're able to get this many people to come together, etc. So there is like a disconnect. And I think that as a society, we need to change the way that we approach social justice work and how we bring people together and how we decide whether it's productive and working. For me, it seems like that is one thing that is stopping people from engaging is they want to start their own thing and starting your own thing is a lot of work. It is really hard to create your own organization and bring people together. When you're trying to decide if you're passionate about a certain topic or you want to work in a certain space, the first thing you should be doing is exploring that space. The way that you do that is you see who is already working in that space that I can learn from and that has programming that is similar to what I want to learn about. Then you go and attend that and you decide; is this a path that I want to dedicate myself to learning? Then you continue to show up and go to those events and then if you notice that there are gaps you have to research, are there any other organizations that are working within those gaps or should I be the one to fill that and then go work in that? And I think that that framework has been really helpful for people but a lot of people are stuck at figuring out which cause it is that they should invest in and engage in first. And yeah, I thought that was really interesting. 

[00:14:53] Olivia: I agree 100% Shreya. And first of all, I love the framework you provided because I think that is such a useful approach and technique for youth to use in getting engaged in social justice work. And something that I have really been trying to do within my own work is because it's so easy to get caught up in those statistics and the numbers, but when we center a de-colonial approach, when we center people's stories and their experiences and center communities within this field of work, I find that is where the impact is the most meaningful to me. My advice to all youth would always be just to try. You have to just take that first step in getting involved because that is always the first step. Just got to do it. Also on the similar lines of youth experiencing barriers and getting involved in social justice work, youth are also experiencing barriers in accessing accurate sexual health and reproductive health and rights information. So recently we were able to conduct a survey and Shreya do you want to jump in with a little bit more information?

[00:15:51] Shreya: Okay. Yeah. On one of our previous episodes of the SHE SOARS podcast we had on a guest named Ziyaan, and during that episode we chatted about his organization, Leaders of Today, and he very graciously sent out a survey that was in his newsletter that he does where he shares opportunities in the social impact space, to help gather data for us to try to see what youth are interested in learning more about and what potential gaps and problem spaces still exist within SRHR. And then also a way for us to figure out what types of programming we should be building and how we can support people in this advocacy mission.

[00:16:35] Olivia: So I have the survey results here and the top topics participants were interested in learning more about are sexual health education, menstruation, and gender-based violence.

[00:16:46] And overwhelmingly a lot of the responses talked heavily about how a barrier that youth face in engaging in sexual and reproductive health and rights is stigma and shame. A lot of youth talked about that in a general sense, just feeling like there is a societal stigma associated with accessing SRHR knowledge or resources, but also engaging openly around that topic.

[00:17:09] Specifically it was also brought up and mentioned that individuals also face stigma and shame within their cultural communities and within their different sociodemographic communities as well. So a point that I thought was very interesting is that in Canada, depending on where you are or the community that you're in, the acceptance and the openness around these topics is going to differ and not every young Canadian's experience is going to be the same. 

[00:17:35] Shreya: For myself, the kind of situations that stigma shows up in is different. I have the cultural stigma present because I am South Asian and specifically Indian. And I find that these source of conversations with immigrant parents is very different because there is not really a conversation like that doesn't happen.

[00:18:00] And I'm speaking very generally of what I have observed from different South Asian folks that I have talked to. Also, I think one that we don't think about as much as youth is how we perpetuate social stigma with each other and how that shows up in our friendships and in our relationships with our school members and peers and our community there. And I think that is something I want to talk about because I find there are a lot of micro behaviours and micro actions that people do that actually contribute to the social stigma that exists.

[00:18:39] Olivia: So when we talk about making sexual and reproductive health more inclusive, a large component of this is not only looking at the structural systems, but it's also reflecting on our actions and the responsibility that we and our peers have in ending the stigma around SRHR as well.

[00:18:57] So there are specific micro behaviours and actions that people maybe consciously or even unconsciously do or believe or uphold because that has been taught that it's okay or because it's an area that our society is already uncomfortable talking about. So when people have misconceptions or harmful beliefs around this area it's hard to call that out or to re-educate around these issues because there is a stigma and a shame that is associated with it.

[00:19:24] Shreya: I think that it would really be helpful to maybe share some of the different micro actions if we all want to share like different things that we have observed that contribute to the social stigma amongst young people.

[00:19:39] Olivia: Yes, 100%. So one that is extremely stigmatizing is it's referred to as ‘slut shaming.’ So that is the action of either shaming someone for their sexual attitudes, or talking about them behind their backs and saying, ‘Did you hear what so and so was doing? Or who so-and-so is seeing,’ or just in general an idea that there is a norm or there is a way that people should be engaging with sex and their sexuality.

[00:20:10] And if people deviate from that norm, then it's incorrect or they should be shamed for that. That is a common misconception and it's one area that I think young Canadians can definitely improve on because first of all, let them live their best lives. And also when we shame people for doing things that they would like to do, it just continues to perpetuate that stigma.

[00:20:34] Some other areas that people can improve on is how we engage with SRHR online and keeping it positive and respectful. Other areas that you would see maybe at the bottom of the rape culture pyramid that upholds rape culture in our society, which allows for gender-based violence and sexual violence to occur.

[00:20:54] So this can look like specific actions like rape jokes or sexist attitudes or victim blaming or the sharing of intimate or private details without individuals’ consent. It can also look like unwanted touch or locker room talk or all sorts of different little actions that if you were to look at these separately, you'd go, "Liv, what do you mean this upholds sexual violence?"

[00:21:19] Or "What do you mean this upholds stigma around SRHR?" But it is these little actions that allow bigger and more harmful actions to be allowed in our society. So we have to check ourselves and we have to check our peers and our friends and call them into these conversations and say, “Hey, these attitudes are actually harmful.” Maybe it seems like a small action, but these small actions allow harm to continue in our communities.

[00:21:41] Lauren: That and also like calling out your own friends when you hear them say something that is not okay. Like for me, I'm part of the gaming community, you know? And a lot of the time when a guy loses really badly, he will be like, “Oh, they raped me.” And you hear that all the time. And it's the casual use of that word that really bothers me personally. When you hear it, you just have to – if you can, if you're comfortable with that – call it out because it's things like that that just make it so easy for us to treat that issue casually.

[00:22:14] Olivia: 100%. Yeah. If you are saying or using sexual violence to try to make light of a scenario or to make fun of things, that is not a joke. You're creating harm. In a way you are saying that you don't think that this is an important issue or an issue that deserves to stop.

[00:22:31] And sometimes a piece of that is education. So by telling your friends, “Hey, actually, do you know what that really means? Do you know what you're insinuating? Or why is that funny?” That's my favorite one. When someone says something to me around there, I'm like, “Oh, I don't get it. Can you explain that joke?”

[00:22:46] I don't know if you have ever done that and you have seen the person go, “Well, that…” I'm like, “That is not funny. I'm not laughing.” So really, it is small attitudes like that that allow a culture of harm to thrive. Rape culture thrives on silence, and when we stay silent, it allows rape culture to continue. So it's important to have those conversations if you feel comfortable and safe. But also it's good to check in with yourself too. Check in on your own actions, check in on your peers, and it's really important.

[00:23:18] Shreya: 100%. And I think the part that sticks out to me in what you just said is the idea of like, why is that in your vocabulary in an insensitive context? Because if you understand what violence is and what that looks like and the harm that it causes to other people, in you saying that you are serving as a reminder to that harm to anyone who is around you.

[00:23:52] Shreya: Nearly 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. By the way, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence started on November 25th, which is a global awareness campaign to end violence against women and girls everywhere. 

[00:23:52] Shreya: So now you know that people that you can be interacting with have experienced sexual violence. So it's like you're making this joke, in some sense you're making it seem justifiable and you're serving as a reminder for that having happened to a person in case they overhear it or if they have been directly affected by it and you don't know. So yeah, there are so many micro actions, but I think one thing we always talk about is how little actions can equate to a really big problem.

[00:24:26] I think that one way to visualize this is the domino effect. It's the act of like you did a small, little push, you tipped over one domino, but that domino sets off a chain reaction that leads to a much bigger thing.

[00:24:40] And once you normalize and allow this to happen within your friend group, within your circle of influence, those folks then feel comfortable to continue to spread that same narrative onto their next friend group. Because now you have established a culture of allowance of words being shared or these jokes being made, and then it has that domino effect where you see that now within society, it is okay to make these types of jokes. And then that leads to people thinking it's okay to do that action. Because now around me, my friends don't think it's that serious.

[00:25:13] Lauren: Before you even say something or do an action, you know, think: Could this hurt somebody? Could somebody take it in a way that I didn't mean for it to be taken? Then you can stop it before it even happens.

[00:25:27] Olivia: I think as well, as much as that domino effect works for negative, it also works on the positive side of things. So on the flip side, when you are engaging and when you stand up and say, “Hey, this isn't tolerated,” it creates the domino effect just again and saying, “That wasn't funny. They didn't like that.” Now it's kind of awkward because I have said something that is harmful. That's not the vibe. I'm going to reflect on that. I'm not going to make that joke again. It creates that domino effect of positivity and positive actions. And I think that is really at least my goal in this field of work is to create inclusive environments where everyone can come together and be involved.

[00:26:15] Shreya: That is sort of the idea of many micro positive actions. You're kind of repelling that negative force of perpetuating that within society. It can stop and that cycle can be broken. And that starts with you knowing the value of what you're saying and being intentional about what your impact is. It’s really important.

[00:26:29] Lauren: You know, I think a conclusion we can kind of draw from this, from our discussion today, is I hope you feel inspired to sort of talk about what's going on for you. Speak up when you hear something and you can make such a big change with that. I think if we all put in a little bit more effort, we can really get things going and make a big change.

[00:26:52] Olivia: 100% agree.

[00:26:53] Shreya: The intention behind these episodes is to start conversations with each other and then that is hopefully part of this domino effect of you starting conversations with your friends and with your family, and deciding how you can positively influence your communities and stand up for causes and issues that you believe in.

[00:27:00] So I hope that this episode was helpful in learning about activism in sexual and reproductive health and how we need to see a culture shift within society. And thank you so much to all of our youth data contributors who helped in shaping this conversation because I feel like I learned a lot. And I hope that you tune in to our next episode and follow along @CARECanada on Instagram and check out our website for our resource hub, where we shared a lot of actionable tips and ways that you can get involved to stand up for the causes that you believe in. Thank you so much for listening today. Take care.

[00:27:45] Olivia: Bye!

[00:27:46] Jacqueline: Thanks for listening to SHE SOARS. If you like this episode, please share it on social media, connect with us in the comments, or give us a like.

[00:27:53] Paniz: Make sure to catch our next episode by subscribing to our channel and following us wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:27:59] Jacqueline: Follow @CARECanada on Instagram for updates on our show and the project.

[00:28:04] Paniz: SHE SOARS stands for Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment Supporting Out-of-school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

[00:28:13] Jacqueline: The project is funded by Global Affairs Canada. Check out our global partner organizations: the Center for Reproductive Rights and Restless Development for even more project updates. 

[00:28:23] Paniz: Thanks again for listening. Until next time!