What was the initiative?

SEXEDUCATE is an online community dedicated to providing resources and connection opportunities for Nova Scotian educators. Maëlle worked with Venus Envy Halifax, SRHR Hubs, Acadia Student Union’s Sexual Health Resource Centre, Acadia University Sexualized Violence Response & Education Coordinator, and Survivors for Change & Empowerment NS to create resources that addressed gaps in Nova Scotia’s Health Education curriculum. Alongside Bachelor of Education students, Maëlle analyzed Nova Scotia’s current curriculum to identify areas of improvement, and how to best provide support for Nova Scotian educators. Maëlle sought to remove the barriers educators are faced with when teaching sex education, by compiling resources from varying sources into one location, making it easier for them to find resources that were relevant to their lessons. 

What was the community connection?

Originally SEXEDUCATE was going to serve as an extension of the Healthy Relationships for Youth (HRY) program provided by the Antigonish Women’s Resource Center. However, the scope and vision for the initiative changed and expanded beyond the mission of the HRY Program. As a result, SEXEDUCATE sought to connect with Bachelor of Education students in Nova Scotia, as well as community organizations that had a vested interest in sexuality education. Several organizations expressed an interest in working alongside SEXEDUCATE and their unique perspectives helped foster new ideas and inspire changes to SEXEDUCATE’s original goal. 

How was it innovative?

Education is a field where workers are expected and required to work outside of their ‘scheduled’ work hours. So many people believe that a teacher’s job starts and ends with the school day and as a result believe falsehoods such as students being assigned homework is the sign of a lazy teacher. Teachers have to come up with lesson plans, how they are going to test their students’ knowledge, how they are going to grade these assessments, and so on. Most of the work done by teachers is done ‘outside’ of work hours, and this often includes purchasing materials using their finances. As a result, Maëlle wanted SEXEDUCATE to provide free resources so that educators no longer had to spend their own time and money on their students. By creating a teaching collective, SEXEDUCATE can serve as a community for educators to share their experiences, tips & tricks, and find like-minded people.  

In the Fellowship, Maëlle learned how to create and design a website, and how to create more accessible content for disabled people. This has prompted further interest in accessibility and the diversity within accessibility and assistive technology. It encouraged Maëlle to examine the ways that content can be accessed or made difficult to access, and how they can contribute to creating more accessible content. This is incredibly important to them as a disabled person, and they wanted to ensure that SEXEDUCATE would create equitable access for people, rather than adding more barriers for people. They learned to try and find more creative solutions that would be accessible to a variety of people. 

What is Maëlle doing now?

Currently, Maëlle has accepted admission to the University of Alberta and will be starting a Master’s degree in Women’s & Gender Studies in September 2024. They are excited to continue their research into the relationship between queerness and autism, and how this relationship can illuminate the way society structures power and privilege. They are looking forward to continuing their educational journey and hope to continue their work with SEXEDUCATE in the future and expand the scope of the training curriculum beyond provincial borders.