TEEN CONNECT is a student-led program created by two passionate students, Stephanie and Ivy. For the last 4 years we have been creating workshops to connect our peers with their own health and well being. We have discussed topics ranging from sexual and reproductive health to relationships and mental health, working in collaboration with a Gynecologist-Oncologist and SERC (Sexuality Education Resource Centre) to ensure any information we are sharing is accurate. We began our program back in grade 9 after finding our health curriculum to be outdated and lacking in information. To address this concern, we took a more progressive approach through creating these workshops!

Our goal has always been to remove the stigma associated with these topics. And we wanted that to be reflected through our final conference, wrapping up our program for the year. We hosted our event on May 17th, at Maples Collegiate. For this event, we invited our guest presenters including MARL, SERC (Sexuality Education Resource Centre) and Dr. Christine Robinson. As well as our keynote speaker, Hemali Vyas, who shared a wonderful and interactive presentation on healthy relationships of all forms!

In the afternoon, our students were able to join 2 workshop sessions ranging from contraceptives and sexual health to endometriosis and the menstrual cycle. And of course, we had to end our day with our tradition of handing out goodie bags! Overall, we were very excited to conclude our project with such a wonderful community! We look forward to passing down our project to continue sharing our purpose of connecting teens with their own health and well being.