Workshops for High School Students

30-34% of girls and 23-25% of boys presenting across clinical and non-clinical service sectors report disordered eating symptoms (Henderson et al., 2017)


During this stage in their life, youth undergo puberty and begin to develop a strong sense of identity. Messaging about food, bodies, exercise, and health can feel especially prominent, and the school environment serves as an important space of influence. In our endeavour to prevent further development and exacerbation of food and body related concerns, we’re offering presentations that help students enhance their media literacy skills, reflect on all the values food and exercise brings into their lives, ways to engage in compassionate self-care, and how to support a friend or loved one who may be struggling. 


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Workshop Details

We have developed two educational offerings for high school students. Please note that there is no requirement to complete the workshops sequentially (e.g., if you are only interested in booking one, there is no prerequisite knowledge required from the other). You are also welcome to book the workshops as a two-part series.




Perceiving Health: Navigating food and body politics 

Grades 9-12  |  45-90 minutes

Our friendly and knowledgeable presenters use activities, discussion, and audio-visual tools to:

  • Engage students in critically examining the media they encounter daily, including social media
  • Spot and reject messaging that fuels disordered eating behaviour
  • Reflect on the conversations we have about nutrition, exercise, and health
  • Discuss the importance of food, as an energy source and in our human relationships
  • Share resources for students to support their friends if they notice concerning warning signs


Beyond Body Binaries: An introduction to body image, health, and identity 

Grades 9-10  |  60-90 minutes

This interactive workshop helps students understand how our social identities, oppressions, and privileges are deeply connected to our experiences of health and how our bodies are judged, perceived, and treated. Through this workshop, students will:

  • Learn about the social determinants of health, and gain a deeper understanding of how fatphobia works alongside other types of discrimination
  • Gain more empathy for students who are marginalized, how marginalization impacts one’s health, and how bodies are judged, criticized and treated
  • Get ideas on how to resist fatphobia and its related oppressions on an individual level, with family and peers, and within a school environment


Our workshops for high school students are:

  • Gender inclusive
  • Offered in various formats, including in-person in the classroom if you're in the GTA; through a hybrid format wherein we'll connect virtually and be streamed into your physical classroom; and fully virtual via platforms like Zoom, Google Meets, MSTeams

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We believe that money should never be a barrier to providing crucial education to communities in need and have the ability to offer a majority of our school-based programming for free. If the school has an existing fund to bring in guest speakers, we provide workshop fees on a sliding scale to directly cover costs related to preparation of tailored content, staffing, and travel for each presentation. We are more than happy to work with you to determine a fee that makes our programming accessible to your context. 


Presentation Request Form
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Have More Questions? 
Contact Ary Maharaj, Outreach and Education Coordinator

Phone: 416-340-4800 ext. 2660

Email: aryel.maharaj@uhn.ca

Educators

We offer two customizable workshop options for teachers and school support staff so that you and your colleagues can learn the skills and tools you need. One focuses on supporting students in need, while the other engages educators and administrators in a conversation about taking a whole-school approach to eating disorder prevention, including policies and curriculum. 

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Elementary & Middle School Students

Our interactive workshops for elementary and middle school students are appropriate for students in Grades 4 through 8. We’ll explore ways students can appreciate all that their body does, reflect on all the values food brings into our lives, shed light on pervasive media messaging, and converse about communicating care to themselves and the people around them.

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High School Students

Our workshops for students in Grades 9 through 12 dive deep into spotting (and then rejecting!) diet culture. We’ll reveal the sticky truth of many social media posts, engage in critical discussions about conversations centred around "health", share information about the importance of food, and share resources for students to help their peers if they notice a concern.

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Parent Panels

Our parent panels are designed for your local community, creating a safe space for caregivers to share their concerns while empowering them with resources to support the well-being of their children. We organize these in collaboration with partner organizations, such as school parent councils, local school boards, community organizations, and interested groups of parents. Panelists include youth with lived experience, fellow parents, and mental health practitioners arranged by our team to reflect the needs of the local community. 

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Post-Secondary

In line with national post-secondary mental health strategies and frameworks, our team has created two educational workshops and a social media campaign that have been delivered to post-secondary communities across eight provinces and territories over the last two years. Whether you are a group of student wellness ambassadors looking to relay information in an eating disorder-sensitive way, a team of campus counsellors looking for best practices, or coordinating a wellness summit on campus, our facilitators can tailor our virtual programming to meet your needs.

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Professional Development

Our workshops aim to help people recognize disordered eating, reflect on their internalized weight stigma, respond compassionately with someone experiencing disordered eating, and navigate to different pathways to care. For mental health providers, we share latest practices on assessment and time-limited strategies to support your work. We can deliver in-person presentations to clinics, teams, or organizations based in the Greater Toronto Area, and virtual presentations via Zoom to anyone across the country. 

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