The Cycle Alliance Is a Gender-Inclusive Period Advocacy Program
The Cycle Alliance is a menstrual equity initiative geared towards teens that aims to destigmatize and de-gender conversations about menstruation; combat period poverty; and empower teens to advocate for social causes. Teens will participate in programs where they will learn how to advocate for menstrual equity; identify misinformation; and express their creativity through writing, drawing, or developing videos for the library’s teen blog and social media accounts.
Cycle Alliance Values:
- Menstrual equity is for for all who menstruate.
- Periods are a natural and biological event that are not shameful.
- Menstruators should have access to free or low-cost menstrual hygiene products.
- New York prisons, shelters, public middle and high schools should provide free period products.
- A mandatory, accurate, and up-to-date sex ed curriculum in schools that destigmatizes menstruation.
- Avoiding superstitious, offensive or hurtful language when talking about periods.
- To teach people who “just don’t get it" by using facts.
- Accepting that menstruation begins in childhood, and shouldn't be associate menstruation with becoming an adult or the ability to have babies because that unintentionally sexualizes a child who is neither physically or emotionally ready to think about sexual relationships or parenthood.
Resources:
- "All About Periods." Source: Nemours KidsHealth
- "Doctors Answer Commonly Googled Period Questions." Source: YouTube
- "People with Disabilities Have Periods Too, & We Need to Talk About That." Source: SheKnows
- "Period Poverty Resources at the Library." Source: Public Libraries Online
- "Understanding Your Menstrual Cycle." Source: Womenshealth.gov
- "The Launch Pad: Your go-to for Resources for Menstrual Equity Activism." Source: Period, the Menstrual Movement
- "Guidance for Providing Respectful Menstruation Related Care To TGNB Patient Populations." Source: Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
- The Pad Project, The Pad Project’s mission is to create and cultivate local and global partnerships to end period stigma and to empower women worldwide
BKLYN Incubator is supported by generous funding provided by The Charles H. Revson Foundation and Robin K. and Jay L. Lewis.
Staff Picks
- Ready, Steady, Flow
- Changing Bodies and Puberty
- Relationships and Sex Primer for Teens
