10 years of tea: celebrating consent education
The Consent Tea, an annual health promotion and wellness education event, was developed by TRU Senior Wellness Coordinator Chelsea Corsi in response to hundreds of conversations and observations about student struggles to navigate consent, relationships, sexual health, and healing from sexualized and other forms of violence. The tea party concept blossomed from the Tea and Consent viral video, as Corsi thought it provided a cozy and dignified space to discuss challenging or activating subjects.
Over 1,000 students, staff and faculty have participated in the past nine years.
Corsi and former colleague Meaghan Hagerty co-developed a Consent Tea Toolkit referenced and utilized nationally and internationally. Corsi and her research partner, Tanya Pawliuk, an Associate Teaching Professor at the School of Social Work and Human Service, have since co-founded a spin-off program for youth called the Consent Café.
This programming is rooted in a commitment to increasing skills and literacy about social justice, gender-based violence, intersectional feminism, and health promotion on campus and in the community.
Senior Wellness Coordinator Chelsea Corsi has been working at TRU for 25 years.
“This event is among the most popular and well-attended health promotion outreach offerings the Wellness Centre coordinates annually,” Corsi said. “It’s been a privilege for our team to deeply connect with students and employees over courageous conversations about consent, relationships, and sexualized violence prevention and response over the past nine years. Because this is a big anniversary for us, I wanted to create special learning and engagement opportunities for our campus and the surrounding community of Kamloops, who continue to support this work.”
To honour the 10th Annual Consent Tea anniversary, Corsi coordinated the event to align with Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), which takes place every January. The Wellness team will collaborate with Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response and the Writing Centre on events rooted in resistance, which is the theme of SAAM 2025.
The Wellness team will be hosting two separate offerings on Wednesday, January 29, 2025:
- Consent Tea Panel and Dialogue Event from 11:45 am – 1:20 pm in House of Learning 190.
- The evening keynote, “The Power of Sharing Your Story,” will be facilitated at 7:00 pm in the Alumni Theatre in the Clocktower building by Meghan Gardiner, an actor and writer living in Vancouver, BC. In 2003, she premiered ‘Dissolve,’ a one-woman show based on her experience of being drugged and sexually assaulted. The TRU Wellness Centre, the TRU Sexualized Violence and Prevention Office, and the TRU Gender Equity Committee are sponsoring the evening keynote.
For more details, please follow the TRU Wellness Centre and TRU Student Life for updates on various programming initiatives throughout the year.