Changing Male Conversations-New Leaf Pilot Project

“Changing Male Conversations” is an initiative that will be designed to engage a group of young males in discussions around specific topics that are necessary if young men are going to have  positive attitudes towards women which will translate into having healthy relationships.   

Our current Adolescent Male Program only provides one on one counselling for young men on  the issues of violence against women.  This initiative seeks to deal with these issues on a more social level, particularly as new technology and social media create unlimited access to not only valuable information, but also to images and attitudes about women that are disturbing. 

We plan to:

• Invite discussions with community service providers
• Gather research and information relating to these issues, 
• Design a current and relevant program format that allows us to work with the same group of young men over a period of time, 
• Seek other community collaboration,  
• Go into the schools and engage young men in that social setting, and evaluate the process. 

Our focus will be primarily on positive engagement, providing current and relevant information, inviting and opening up conversations and discussions, and changing the negative male culture of 'locker room talk' into something more meaningful and productive to healthy relationships.

These discussions will cover a variety of topics that have historically been viewed as 'boys being boys' and will challenge their personal sense of responsibility towards women, relationships, themselves, and their community.  

The conversations that are essential include:

• What is consent?
• What is sexual assault?
• What is sexual violence?
• What does respect look like in a healthy relationship?
• How does an addiction to pornography occur?
• What are the effects of that addiction?
• What are the effects of intergenerational violence?
• Why is there so much male violence in society?
• What can a male do if he doesn’t want to be violent?
• How can he respond to violent situations?

We look forward to keeping you updated on this exciting initiative. As information regarding the program becomes available it can be found http://www.newleafpictoucounty.ca/news.