Sense Project

Hey folks!

It’s been awhile since our last post, ’cause we’ve all been such busy birds and bees starting up the Sense school year!

Sense Animator Training is well underway!  We’re currently training up 14 fantastic volunteers to be able to facilitate Sense Project workshops in schools.  These dedicated young people are giving a whole lot of time and energy, putting on their student hats as well as getting up on their feet to practice.  

Some highlights of the training so far:

• coining the term ‘prejaculate‘ (pre-ejaculate) to describe pre-cum, the fluid that can come out of the penis before ejaculating. we learned from one animator that pre-cum is actually an accepted scientific term now!  but prejaculate is also funny!
• great discussions about sexuality, sexual orientations and gender identities. polyamory, pansexuality, and more… talking about these terms as a group has been a learning experience for a lot of folks, no matter how they identify.
• guest stars like Amber, the Daytime Office Coordinator at Head & Hands, who came in and offered a most excellent workshop on Active Listening & Empowering Referrals, and Robin & Mathab who facilitated a discussion about group/classroom management!
• positive attitudes on display all ’round… getting the giggles out is a regular routine in daily check-ins and check-outs!

We’re halfway through - looking forward to guest workshops from Kathleen, the Health Educator at H&H, and learning more about HIV/AIDS with ACCM on Saturday!!!

Ok, this is not how the training goes. It's even more fun!

I have recently been asked to participate on a radio show about peer sex-educators. Unfortunatly, I can’t make it, but it gave me the idea of sharing with you my wonderful experience as an animator for Head & Hands’ Sense Project.

That project won me over very quickly with its empowering and sex-positive approach. I started off my training with intimate and very useful meetings with new and returning Sense animators. They are all beautiful and devoted people (remember that we are not paid to do this: we do it because we LOVE it!).

In these meetings, I received more useful information about sexuality (anatomy, pregnancy, abortion, giving birth, sexually transmited infections, contraceptive, barrier methods, masturbation, pleasure, toys, selfesteem, love, gender, sexual orientation, relationships, violence, etc.) than I have in my entire life.

I got to practice animating a few times in mock workshops during the training, but I had no idea what the real deal would be like. I had NO IDEA that it would be THAT MUCH FUN!

Youth is so great to work with! Ok, not everyone is always into it, especially on a friday night, last period, but something good always come out of it.

When I started, I thought I would never be able to talk in front of a group. But I jumped right into it and fell in love with it! Facilitating sex-ed workshops gives me such drive. It’s amazing!

To anyone who would like to be a workshop facilitator or a peer-educator, I say: GO FOR IT!! The training is free, you will meet incredible people and wheter you end up animating or not, you will learn so many useful info about sex!! On top of it, when you do animate or help someone you know with what you’ve learn, it’s a great feeling of achievement! I highly recommend it.

If you would be interested in the peer education program, visit the Get Involved section of the website for updates on the upcoming trainings.

This is pretty neat, for those of you who like to talk about sex!

Heather Corinna, who founded the awesome teen sexuality website Scarleteen, designed this casual sex survey to find out how, why, and where people hook up, with no strings attached.

Casual sex can mean lots of things to lots of people, whether it’s one-night-stands or friends with benefits.  Some people like having casual sex where there are no expectations of a relationship attached, while others prefer sex with a partner they know well. And many people experience a mix in their lifetime!

(Either way, of course, practicing safer sex with condoms and lube helps prevent the spread of STIs and unintended pregnancies.)

The survey’s pretty long, but never boring. Check it out if you desire!

Note: To participate in this online study, you should be over the age of 16, and have had some kind of sexual partnership before, even if none has been casual.

Check it out (for queer women) and Check it out guys (for trans men) are two awesome campaigns that spread the word about the importance of getting regular Pap tests, regardless of who you have sex with.

Nice posters, too! Click for more

As they say:

“…we may have been told by doctors and other health care providers that because we have sex with other women, we do not need Pap tests. This is NOT true. Anyone with a cervix who has ever been sexually active needs a Pap test.”

But WHY? Because HPV, the major cause of cervical cancer, is a sexually transmitted infection that is passed on through genital skin to skin contact. You do not need to have penetrative sex in order to get HPV.

Meaning > If you’re sexually active (in any way), even if you don’t have sex with men, you should still get regular paps!

Meaning > If you have ever in your life had any kind of sexual activity with anyone that involved the genital area, you need a Pap.

The website also has advice for making pap tests and pelvic exams easier for trans guys as well as an awesome tip sheet for health care providers to give sensitive, empowering paps.

Montreal youth aged 12-25 can get Pap tests and STI tests right here at Head & Hands! Check our clinic schedule here.

A Switzerland company manufactures condoms for 12-year-old boys, and plans to distribute them outside of Switzerland. While it’s only a minority of 12-year-olds that are sexually active (and the sex is typically very occasional), I believe safer sex supplies should still be available for them, and a condom that fits your penis size is also great if you want to practice with it, which we always encourage people to do in workshops.

A standard condom has a diameter of 52mm in comparison with the Hotshot’s 45mm. Both are the same length – 190mm.

According to a study of 13 to 20-year-olds, a quarter said that a standard condom was too large.

Hilary Pannack, of teenage pregnancy charity Straight Talking Peer Education, said: ‘We know young people are having sex and if this is what it takes to protect them, we need to go along with it.’

Condoms in ‘extra small’ for boys age 12 set for Britain’s shelves soon @ Mail Online