Avenir d’enfants is a major donor to the Marie-Vincent Foundation. Thanks to the organization, we were able to launch a sexual violence prevention project for young children aged from birth to age 5. This project focuses on education about sex and egalitarian relationships. We are pleased to introduce you to Avenir d’enfants and to its Executive Director, Julie Dostaler, in the following interview.
What is Avenir d’enfants?
Avenir d’enfants is an organization with thousands of local, regional and provincial partners across Québec. Our shared mission is to contribute to the overall development of kids aged from birth to 5, to give each and every one of them the chance for a good start in life. Our approach is ecosystem-based, meaning that our actions don’t target just the children, but also their families and the communities they live in. These three aspects are closely linked.
Why focus on kids aged from birth to 5?
The early childhood period offers unique windows of opportunity to prevent problems that might have repercussions later in life, such as dropping out of school, poverty, and social and health inequalities. The first years of a child’s life are the most active ones for learning. For Avenir d’enfants and our thousands of partners, seizing these opportunities means acting on factors that protect early childhood, mobilizing not only child-specific resources but also those for parents and for the communities the children live in.
Why start educating children aged from birth to age 5 about sex and egalitarian relationships?
It’s terrible, but we know that one out of 5 girls and one out of 10 boys will be sexually assaulted in childhood. This trauma can have many impacts on their life journey, for instance on their academic success, their sense of personal safety, their confidence and their self-esteem. So it’s essential to act on the risk factors associated with sexual assault and to aim to eliminate them. The process of providing education about sex and egalitarian relationships to children aged from birth to age 5 offers a prevention tool in the aim of reducing the risks of sexual mistreatment and abuse. Beyond that, it’s an excellent way to strengthen kids’ social and emotional skills from a young age.
What appealed to you about the project with Marie-Vincent foundation?
First, we were aware that Marie-Vincent Foundation was well known for its expertise and understanding of the issues related to sexual violence toward children. It’s a credible organization and we had a strong interest in partnering with it to develop a prevention project for young children.
For children, protection factors such as growing up in a stimulating and safe environment and maintaining healthy and balanced relationships with the people around them are essential to harmonious development.
I believe that preventing sexual assault on children is everyone’s business. This project feels innovative and inspiring because it relies on the contribution of a variety of local, regional and national partners, including Indigenous groups, in an approach that includes working with children and their families as well as with community workers and decision-makers.
What’s your hope for the project’s future?
Our greatest wish is to help put into place an approach that identifies truly effective practices toward preventing the sexual assault of young children, and for this approach to snowball. We hope the project will be rolled out across the whole province.
The multiple partnerships will serve to mobilize the highest possible number of contributors to help provide education about sex and egalitarian relationships to all our young children and their parents.
What’s your wish for young children in the coming years?
In the coming years, I would like to see education about sex and egalitarian relationships become part of the education curriculum for all young children, for there to be no more taboos about this subject, for it to become normal to talk about it.
Ultimately, I would wish that nobody—and certainly no children—should ever have to use the #metoo hashtag. The personal and social consequences are too heavy. I want all of society from now on to use the hashtag #neveragain and to take on the mission of protecting the most innocent among us: young children.
