NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
‘Minding our Business’ for Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week
SERC highlights interconnectedness of mental & sexual health
WINNIPEG, February 7, 2018 – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Sexuality Education Resource Centre (SERC) is encouraging a dialogue about sexual and mental health as part of their ‘Minding our Business’ campaign for the 15th National Sexual & Reproductive Health Awareness Week (SRH Week). Running February 12-16, SRH Week promotes sex positivity, safer sex and sexual health as a vital part of overall well-being.
To mark the week within Manitoba, SERC is planning and publicizing a series of events with the goal of highlighting the interconnectedness of mental health and sexual health in our bodies and within our communities.
“Sexual health is complex and includes mental, spiritual, emotional and physical components,” says Nicole Chammartin, Executive Director of SERC and Klinic Community Health. “Mental health plays a large role in how we understand ourselves. Stress at work, family dynamics, social discrimination, these and other aspects of mental health impact our sexuality and how we engage in relationships with ourselves and others.”
Events planned for Sexual & Reproductive Health Awareness Week in Manitoba include:
· Self-care tips released each day on SERC’s social media
· A special digital Valentine created by Winnipeg artist Kristin Aleida
· Online release of a new SERC video ‘Facing Stigma in Our Own Words’ based on the experiences of African newcomer communities in Winnipeg
· A sexual health information extravaganza at Portage Place & Brandon University
· A free lunch & learn workshop for service providers on youth mental & sexual health
· A free lunch & learn workshop in Brandon on sex toy use
· Bar outreach in Brandon
· …and more!
For more information and sexual health resources, please visit www.serc.mb.ca.
About Sexual & Reproductive Health Awareness Week
A campaign spearheaded by Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights, Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week takes place each year in February around Sexual and Reproductive Health Day (February 12). SRH Week raises awareness of sexual and reproductive health, and emphasizes that all people have a right to be respected, protected and sexually fulfilled.
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