The TRU Wellness Centre is hosting a “Safer Sex is Sexy” event on Student Street in Old Main from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Participants can take part in fun activities and will receive free snacks, condoms, lube, and resources on sexual health.
Safer Sex is Sexy will be a tabling event where organizers and members of the Wellness Centre will have the opportunity to chat about important topics around sexual health. There will be several resources, including information on where and how to get birth control and other contraceptives, as well as how to check for STIs.
Students at the event will have a chance to win a gift basket and some smaller prizes by participating in a trivia game. While the Wellness Centre typically does a sexual health week or similar events in November, they also focus on regularly posting resources on their social media, an ongoing practice since the Wellness Centre was established in 2004.
Chelsea Corsi, the Senior Wellness Coordinator, who has seen these events happen for years, said the event is much more than a tabling event.
“We’re creating a resource on bodily autonomy and therapeutic abortion. So, what does that look like if students have to access those services,” Corsi said.
Although Corsi oversees the events and helps the Student Wellness Ambassador Team (SWAT) leaders and volunteers, she finds it important to highlight that the event is made by and for students.
Anzhelika Mostovshchikova, a SWAT leader at the Wellness Centre and part of the organizing team, said she understands the importance of having such events on a personal matter. As an international student, Mostovshchikova went through a drastic change when starting university, as most students do, and saw the need for groups like the Wellness Centre to help navigate the new environment.
“That type of intimacy can cause lots of fear as well, and lots of sadness, and some accidents may happen, so it’s really good to be educated and well known, especially because people are coming from different cultures,” Mostovshchikova said.
TRU, being a multicultural space, also brings different lived experiences around intimacy. Safer Sex is Sexy can open up conversations around the topic of relationships, which, as Corsi mentioned, still has a bit of stigma or apprehension.
“The event’s important because we can connect with students and have fun as well while we’re talking about [sexual health] and giving some really good information about resources to access or just if they don’t even know where to start,” Corsi said.
So, even though the focus will be on safer sex being sexy, the underlining of events like this, as said by both Mostovshchikova and Corsi, is all about relationships and communication and how to navigate those conversations.
Among other activities, the Wellness Centre will also be hosting its annual Consent Tea on Nov. 15, where the focus will be on talking about emotion regulation, communication in relationships and, of course, consent.