Program Details & Booking Information.
2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion Programs
Welcome to Canvas Programs’ SpeakOUT Program stream. All programs listed can be booked individually, however our clients find our programs are best when they’re working together.
2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion Panel
Teacher Program
Using storytelling and knowledge sharing to increase empathy for and knowledge of sexual and gender diversity, trans identity, and pronouns. All panels include multiple lived experience perspectives followed by an informal Q&A with questions submitted in real time at the session.
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Participants will:
Deepen understanding of sexual and gender diversity, including trans identity and pronoun use.
Build empathy through storytelling and lived experience perspectives.
Strengthen confidence asking respectful questions and engaging in inclusive dialogue.
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Length: 60–75 minutes on average
Audience: Staff teaching at any grade level, as well as parents and youth-serving adults
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person panel
Booking details: 30-minute support call/training strongly encouraged for all in-person panels
Customization: Panels are tailored based on a pre-survey, focusing on key themes emerging from staff questions.
Intersectionality & Belonging
Teacher Program
This program supports adult learners in distinguishing between individual and systemic experiences of inclusion. Participants explore belonging, key terminology, intersectionality, and allyship, and apply their learning through a case study focused on exclusion related to intersecting identities.
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Participants will:
Distinguish between individual and systemic experiences of inclusion and exclusion.
Build shared language around belonging, key terminology, and intersectionality.
Strengthen allyship skills and apply learning through a case study on intersecting identities.
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Length: 60 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60–75 minute time slots)
Audience: Staff teaching at any grade level, as well as parents and youth-serving adults
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion Workshop (Student Program Preparation)
Teacher Program
This workshop will provide participants with both foundational and nuanced understandings of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, including exploring key terms, pronoun use, and a framework for allyship. Through interactive activities and customized scenarios, participants will leave the trainings with robust skills for creating safer, supportive spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ identified youth.
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Participants will:
Build empathy and respect for 2SLGBTQIA+ students and communities.
Understand the limits and impacts of gender and sexuality binaries.
Gain practical tools for pronoun use and everyday allyship.
Leave with clear strategies to create and maintain safer, more inclusive spaces for youth
How to challenge transphobia and homophobia in the class room.
Practice advocating for and supporting Queer youth.
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Length: 90 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60–90 minute time slots)
Audience: Staff teaching at any grade level, as well as parents and youth-serving adults
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
Unconscious Bias
Teacher Program
This training equips educators with tools to identify bias and intervene to create more equitable classroom environments. Participants learn eight types of unconscious bias and how they can affect students and colleagues, then practice a framework for mitigating bias through classroom-relevant scenarios. Educators leave with tangible goals for the school year.
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Participants will:
Identify common forms of unconscious bias and how they impact students and colleagues.
Build skills to intervene and support more equitable classroom environments.
Practice a framework for mitigating bias through classroom-relevant scenarios.
Leave with tangible goals to apply throughout the school year.
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Length: 60 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60–75 minute time slots)
Audience: Staff teaching at any grade level, as well as parents and youth-serving adults
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion
Student Program - Grades 6-12
Our 2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion workshop (affectionately dubbed Q101), is our base course in the SpeakOUT roster, and an introduction to gender and sexual identities through a queer lens. It is an interactive, informative, and eye-opening exploration of identity and how societal binaries of sex and gender are not one size fits all. The aim of the workshop is to encourage empathy and motivate participants to challenge homophobia and transphobia in their daily lives.
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Participants will:
Develop empathy and respect for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, particularly those in their school and surrounding communities.
Begin the understand the limitations and impacts of gender and sexuality binaries.
Understand why supporting the 2SLBGTQIA+ community matters and feel empowered to do so.
Understand that homophobia and transphobia can impact us all regardless of our gender or sexual orientation.
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Length: 75 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60, 75, or 90 minute time slots)
Audience: Learners in Grades 6–12 (content tailored to age)
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
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2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion Panel
Student Program - Grades 6-12
We also offer panels which can be a good option for some schools. Through personal storytelling, Canvas staff provide learners with empathy for and knowledge of sexual and gender diversity, trans identity and inclusive future. Though we can offer more attendance at one time for these panels, we cannot always accommodate interactivity as well as our regular programs above.
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Participants will:
Build empathy through storytelling and lived experience perspectives.
Deepen their understanding of sexual and gender diversity, including trans identity and pronouns.
Recognize the harms of binaries, homophobia, and transphobia in school communities.
Leave with concrete ways to support 2SLGBTQIA+ peers and foster inclusion.
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Length: 75 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60, 75, or 90 minute time slots)
Audience: Learners in Grades 6–12 (content tailored to age)
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
Proud to Be Me
Student Program - Grades 6-9
A single-session, two-hour body image program for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and allies ages 12–14. Youth explore pressures related to appearance, practice affirmation strategies, and develop flexible ways of thinking about bodies that celebrate diversity and build confidence..
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Participants will:
Learn to recognize appearance pressures and their impact on body image.
Be able to challenge harmful gendered and appearance-based norms.
Practice skills that support authentic self-expression and confidence.
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Length: 2 hours (delivered in structured sections).
Audience: LGBTQ2S+ youth and allies, typically in dedicated queer-affirming spaces (e.g., GSAs, LGBTQ2S+ clubs, youth centres). Ideal group size is 6–8 participants to support meaningful discussion.
Facilitators: 1–2 program leaders.
Delivery: In-person, group-based program.
Allies at the Intersection
Student Program - Grades 6-12
Canvas Programs’ Allies at the Intersection is a highly interactive introduction to the topic of intersectionality and how our various identities come together to create different privileges, challenges, and opportunities. We achieve this by using accessible metaphors and relatable scenarios through which we examine how different or how similar our experiences can all be.
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Participants will:
Begin to understand how different intersecting identities can create different life experience.
Gain a deeper understanding of how our intersecting identities are related to privilege and oppression.
Develop tangible skills for demonstrating allyship across intersecting identities.
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75 minutes in length with flexibility for class schedules
Facilitated by Canvas trained presenters
Appropriate for learners Grades 6 thru 12
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Click HERE to view Grade 6-8 curriculum
Communities of Kindness
Student Program - Grades 6-12
Canvas Programs’ foundational empathy-based workshop supports community building by inviting participants to reflect on how both differences and similarities shape school communities. Through group activities and discussion, participants explore perspective-taking, empathy, and ways to support others and foster a sense of belonging.
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Participants will:
Understand how our differences and similarities make school communities special
Learn to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and consider life from another point of view.
Discuss empathy and build it for others in different or difficult situations and identify how they would show support.
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Length: 75 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60, 75, or 90 minute time slots)
Audience: Learners in Grades 6–12 (content tailored to age)
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
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Click HERE to view Grade 6-8 curriculum
“I’m part of the LGBTQ+ community and I find it nice to know that other queer people, other queer adults, exist. It’s nice knowing I’m not alone, and there are other people who go through similar experiences as me… ”
Consent Programs
Our Consent Kit program-series focuses on the fundamentals of healthy consent practices and the societal impacts consent culture has on young people.
At Canvas Programs we are on a mission to create spaces where consent is normalized, while learning better skills to support those impacted by sexual violence.
By working together, consent can be at the forefront of our classrooms, and youth can feel supported in knowing healthy communication skills.
Consent Culture Workshop (Student Program Prep)
Teacher Program
Consent Cultures trainings are tailored to each group, recognizing the unique needs of youth-serving adults working in different spaces. Participants will learn best practices to foster, promote, and maintain a culture of consent in their youth-serving spaces, while gaining skills to tangibly support youth survivors of sexual violence.
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Participants will:
Build foundational knowledge of consent frameworks, including interpersonal consent, clear communication, and barriers to informed consent.
Learn best practices to foster and maintain a culture of consent in youth-serving spaces
Gain practical steps to create safer, more supportive classroom/community environments.
Use a trauma-informed checklist to advocate for and support youth (including survivors of sexual violence).
Apply learning through customized scenarios and skill-building practice.
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Length: 60 minutes (flexible; can be delivered in 60–75 minute time slots)
Audience: Staff teaching at any grade level, as well as parents and youth-serving adults
Facilitators: Canvas-trained presenters
Delivery: In-person (on-site)
Format: Offered in two streams to best accommodate group needs
Interpersonal Consent
Student Program - Grades 6-8 or 9-12
This highly interactive program offers a collaborative experience for youth to better understand how to communicate, empathize and show support for others. We offer a catered experience for either middle school or high school audiences that allows students to attain a foundational understanding of consent, including barriers, such as power dynamics, alcohol/drugs and peer pressure as aligned with their respective curriculum content.
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Understand the different types of pressures can influence the way we interact with others.
Equip students with RIVER acronym as a tool for practicing consent in interpersonal relationships
Learn different methods of communication and how it can create barriers to consent.
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75 minutes in length with flexibility for class schedules (60-75-90 minute slots)
Facilitated by Canvas trained presenters
Two streams: Middle School (grades 6-8) OR High School (grades 9-12)
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Braver Together
Student Program - Grade 12
Our newest Consent Kit program examines
how youth can support their peers in the wake of sexual assault. Participants will learn a support framework called BRAVER that walks them through how they can be there for one another when they experience harassment or violence of a sexual nature. Together we will explore what care can look like when we are empowered to show up for each other.
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Briefly overview consent education
Framework and discussion to create a safer school environment for giving and receiving consent.
Trauma informed checklist for peer support.
Gather resources that are most applicable for themselves and their community through group brainstorming.
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75 minutes in length.
Facilitated by Canvas trained presenters
Appropriate for learners Grade 12, content tailored to age
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Click HERE for curriculum
Consent & Care
Student Program - Grades 11-12
Our new Consent and Care program looks at consent through the lens of our emotions. In it, participants will examine how our emotions affect our state of mind, our decisions making skills and our interactions with others.
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Briefly overview consent education
Framework and discussion to create a safer school environment for giving and receiving consent.
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75 minutes in length with flexibility for class schedules
Facilitated by 2 Canvas trained presenters
Appropriate for learners Grades 11-12
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Click HERE to view curriculum
“...everyone should know about consent.”
Community Programs
Our Community Programs are at the heart of what we do. These programs bring queer-affirming and consent education to diverse community spaces.
Delivered in partnership with community organizations, our dynamic arts-based programming is shaped by, for, and with participants—emphasizing the importance of community care and connection across all ages and spaces.
By extending our programming into the broader community, we are strengthening inclusive spaces where people of all ages can feel valued, supported, and free to be themselves.
RelateABILITY
In Partnership with Geneva Centre for Autism
A multi-session, interactive workshop series about consent for adults with developmental disabilities. The program builds understanding of consent and body ownership, emphasizes self-advocacy, and provides accurate information about gender and sexuality. Sessions are tailored to participant needs and include an anonymous “Ask Me Anything” box.
Back Talk
In Partnership with Friends of Ruby
Back Talk supports queer youth ages 16–29 in using poetry and spoken word to explore experiences related to queerness, sexual violence, gender equity, and resilience. The program culminates in a published chapbook and live performances.
Youth Arts Action Committee
In Partnership with Peel District School Board
YAAC brings together 2SLGBTQIA+ students and allies to engage in activism, artistic expression, and community building. The program emphasizes connection, peer support, mentorship, and identity exploration through art.
“Back Talk allowed me to connect with people who have all sorts of different backgrounds but who have similarly struggled nonetheless. The program allows me to open my mind and heart to the different ways people live their lives, and affirm the way that I live my life is something to be celebrated and validated.”
Frequently Asked Questions
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How Long are these programs?
Canvas Programs’ interactive workshops are approximately 75-minutes long.
What is the capacity for these programs?
Our workshops are capped at 30 people.
What time do you typically book programming?
Canvas Programs begins facilitations at 9:00AM for TDSB and 9:30AM for PDSB.
How many programs can I book at a time?
Canvas Programs can facilitate two workshops simultaneously, and up to six workshops total in a day. In other words, Canvas could facilitate two simultaneous workshops from 10:00AM - 11:15AM, two simultaneous workshops from 11:30AM - 12:45PM, and two simultaneous workshops from 1:00PM - 2:15PM.
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Canvas Programs works with students in grades five through 12.
Canvas Programs has three educational ‘streams,’ all are empathy-based, interactive and taught through an intersectional lens. There are three educational ‘streams:’
(1) the Speak OUT series that covers 2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion,
(2) the Consent Kit: series that covers consent and healthy relationships, and
(3) arts workshops.
All the workshops follow the same structure: an interactive game to introduce the topic, a knowledge building section, a framework for allyship, and practice implementing allyship through interactive scenarios.
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Canvas Programs is able to do in-person workshop for locations in the GTA (locations that fall within the PDSB, TDSB, YRDSB and DDSB Catchment areas). We are also available for virtual workshops outside of this catchment area.
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Canvas will travel outside catchment areas upon request for a travel fee! Please contact Hannah@canvasprograms.com