YAIJ surveys diverse youth facing period poverty
The Period Empowerment Project is looking for young adults to participate until Feb. 20
The Youth Alliance for Intersectional Justice is aiming to destigmatize period products and highlight BIPOC youth and people with disabilities through their Period Empowerment Project. (File photo)
The Youth Alliance for Intersectional Justice (YAIJ) started a Period Empowerment Project to raise awareness around the barriers that many neurodiverse youth face when accessing period products.
The non-profit organization aims to destigmatize period products and highlight BIPOC youth and people with disabilities who may experience challenges accessing these products. Youth between 15 and 30 are being asked to participate in the pilot study survey across the Lower Mainland by Feb. 20.
“We’re here to amplify the voices of youth who have a variety of labels related to race, dis/ability, sexuality, gender expression, economic status, and other social labels,” reads YAIJ’s website.
Carolyn Tinglin, co-founder and chair of YAIJ, hopes this survey will address how people can manage their period health.
“We’re asking folks who are racially and culturally diverse to complete a survey and find out what kind of barriers they face,” Tinglin says.
The survey will let participants try out different products, including reusable products, while also letting them share the disadvantages they face, either financially or accessibility-related, when not having access to the products during their monthly cycles.
After the survey is complete, Tinglin will review it and create a follow-up survey.
“The follow-up survey will ask what they thought about the product and if they have any ideas or comments that they want to make about the project,” she says.
“We’re finding out what the barriers are and listening to the voices of young people who tend to be Black or racialized between this age group, and to those who have disabilities as well.”
In the past, most surveys overlooked racialized and minority groups and YAIJ is hoping to change that with this project.
“When it comes to Black and racialized young people, period health data is missing and does not include them. Although we are not looking specifically for people with disabilities, we wanted to have their input as well,” she says.
The survey also hopes to raise awareness around period stigma, which is still prominent today.
“We want to highlight the ways in which young people experience periods and the challenges that have not been talked about before. We want to put it out there and create a project framework to get to the heart of what we wanted to find out through a non-invasive or non-stigmatizing way,” Tinglin says.
“It is really as simple as clicking on the survey and filling it out. Then, if they meet our demographic needs, we will get in touch with them and get them to share their stories of the barriers they face and find out if the products they were given are meeting their needs and addressing those barriers.”
To fill out the survey, email connect@yaij.org.
