How GuysWork is shifting attitudes about masculinity in Nova Scotia schools
10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. - Tradewind
12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. - Tradewind
GuysWork started as a pilot project in 2012 in two schools in the former Halifax Regional School Board as a response to a challenge in the health care system. Few young men were accessing Nova Scotia's Youth Health Centres, and the pilot wanted to see how a guys-only healthy living class could help normalize help-seeking. The pilot was a success and GuysWork has grown, running in 100 schools during the last school year in all nine school jurisdictions, with lessons for boys in grades six through nine in French and English. All lessons are aligned with provincial curriculum outcomes and facilitated by teachers and other school-based specialists. During the session the focus will be on the youth, hearing from GuysWork participants about their experiences after watching a demo lesson. A Q&A will follow to help folks understand how to start and sustain the work in schools and answer questions about GuysWork research.
Moe Green
Moe Green is a health educator and health education consultant who has worked with youth for more than 40 years across a range of health issues, from physical activity and healthy eating, to HIV/AIDS education and injury prevention. Earlier in his career he worked as a journalist in radio and then television for the Gemini and Emmy award winning show Street Cents on CBC. For the last 13 years his focus has been on GuysWork, a school-based prevention/education program to help disrupt harmful masculinity norms that he created at the Department of Health and Wellness in partnership with the Department of Education and Childhood Development and the former Halifax Regional School Board. He has an undergraduate degree in physical education from Dalhousie University in Halifax, and a graduate degree in science from Columbia University in New York City.
Robert MacDonald
has been a teacher/vice principal and boys hockey and softball coach in the Strait Regional Centre for Education for the last eighteen years. In 2016, he completed his Masters in Administration with a concentration in Mental Health from St. Francis Xavier University. Between the classroom and the rink/ball field, spending so much time with the young men in his school, showed him that something more was needed to support the boys at school and give them an avenue to talk in a safe environment about issues that they face in their everyday lives. In the fall of 2018, Robert began the “Guys Group” at Richmond Education Centre/Academy with support from Morris Green who is retired from the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness where he worked as the Coordinator of Youth Health.
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