Sex Ed and the OACYC

This week, my program (Child and Youth Worker, or CYW) and college (Georgian College, Orillia) hosted the bi-annual regional conference for the OACYC. The OACYC, which stands for the Ontario Association of Child and Youth Counsellors, is the representational organization for my profession. As stated on their website, "The Ontario Association of Child and Youth Counsellors (OACYC, ou en français, AOCEJ, l'Association Ontarienne des conseillers à l'enfance et à la jeunesse) is the professional association representing the 2000+ Child and Youth Counsellors - members, students and associates in the province of Ontario, Canada. It also provides a voice for the other 8,000 child and youth workers in the province."

If you know me, you may already know that I love conferences!  To me, a conference is an opportunity to network and learn (and of course, to eat lots of yummy food!).  In the past, I've attended leadership conferences for Relay for Life, which were always fun and very inspiring.  This summer, the Guelph Sexuality Conference was an excellent opportunity to network and learn with other individuals who value sexuality in similar ways to myself.  This conference was just as valuable; although the attendees and the topics of discussion were different from any other conference I have attended, opportunities to learn and connect with others abounded!

Having made some valuable connections this week, I am eagerly anticipating whatever opportunities - workshop or otherwise - may arise over the next several months.  I will keep you posted as things continue to develop.  As always, thank you for taking the time to learn about what's happening with Sex Ed Central and myself!

Candice

Coming Very Soon!

It's Reading Week! Updates are on their way this week - what I've been up to, and will be up to very soon - as well as what I've been reading.

School is keeping me pretty busy, so I will be temporarily supplementing my posts with relevant and interesting things I have been reading.

Please be warned, some of what I'm directing you to is rather more explicit than what I normally post (particularly "Savage Love"). If you feel you may be offended or disagree with what is posted, please don't go to the sites!

That said, I hope you enjoy and please post comments on here!

Thanks for reading :)

Candice

Homophobic Bullying - It Must Stop

As Ellen DeGeneres said it in her recent video about this issue, "One life lost in this senseless way is tragic; four lives lost is a crisis".

In the past month alone, at least four teens in the US have committed suicide after being subjected to homophobic bullying and teasing.  These kids felt that they had no other option, and that death was easier than dealing with what they were going through.

My heart aches for these kids and for their families, and for the kids who are dealing with this every day.  Kids can be horrible ... I remember my own struggles with bullying, and mine had nothing to do with something as deeply rooted as my sexual orientation and sense of who I was.

I feel that it is incredibly important to share this message.  Please take the time to watch and share the videos below.

The first is of Dan Savage and his husband, Terry, talking about their own struggles with bullying and figuring out their sexuality.  The message in this video is exactly as it's titled - It Gets Better.  Our kids - LGBTQ as well as heterosexual - need to know this.  The bullying ends ... life after high school is so much better, so much more fulfilling, and so much more fun than what they are going through now.  HANG ON, you can get through it.



This second video, recently posted by Ellen DeGeneres, talks about the crisis in teen bullying and asks us to join together to make it STOP.



Please share this post and especially these videos ... spread the word that this is happening and that we need to stop it.  Kids don't need to die in this senseless way, before they have a chance to really live.

- Candice