Love or Illusion: Teaching teens abuse, consent, and healthy relationships with an interactive activity kit

Teens can often have blurred boundaries when it comes to close and intimate relationships. Many teens get hurt by one another and do not have an understanding of the impact that their actions may have. While no one enters a relationship in hopes of being abused, the number of adolescent relationships that are abusive or coercive in some way is astounding. This activity kit outlines some of the everyday behaviours that occur between friends or partners and asks students to rate them as healthy or unhealthy activities. The idea here is to get students thinking about three things: 1) what behaviours in a relationship are acceptable for them; 2) the characteristics of a relationship they wish to be involved in; and 3) the impact of their own actions on another person and the relationship.
Included: Healthy/Not Healthy/It Depends category cards, 32 activity cards.
Concept: Students match the actions on the cards to the categories they believe fit best. Discussion follows on the actions in the three categories. Students can also discuss a map for what they believe is a healthy relationship.
Duration: 20 minutes + discussion.
Level: Grade 7-9.

All playing pieces in the kit are laminated so the game can be enjoyed by students over and over again.