Week 0: Challenging menstrual stigma and supporting menstrual health in sport and education

This project gives you a space and a team to explore the issue of menstrual stigma in sport. You will work towards building resources and outreach material that you believe to be important in your subject area or professional field. For example, if you are training to become a teacher, you could develop a lesson plan delivered to a year group in school or if you are a sports coach, you could design a booklet to distribute among girls, who you coach.

First up, How does the project work?

This project will take place over six weeks and involve guided group work to create an idea that you will present at the end of the project.

Each week will consist of a meeting with a series of short tasks with guidance on what you will need to work on with your team on before the next session. You will also be provided with resources to support you in creating and delivering your idea.

At the end of this project you will present your idea and discuss methods to go out and implement your outreach in the real world!

This project gives you a space to create and play with different ideas! You should aim to be as creative as you can, and your ideas and solutions can be as ambitious or as practical as you would like! You will get the most out the project by being engaged, passionate and keeping up good communication with your team.

Your Problem Brief

In recent years, issues surrounding menstruation and menstrual health have become more openly discussed in society. We now know that period poverty is a huge issue for many girls and women. There have been positive changes to sports clothing, for example, with the Lionesses changing their shorts to dark colours and Wimbledon allowing dark-coloured underwear under white shorts and skirts.

However, the education and knowledge especially of young girls, who are experiencing the first years of their first periods, is still limited. Menstrual health education in schools is minimal and the lack of knowledge about successful coping strategies with menstrual symptoms and menstrual stigma prevents girls from participating in Physical Education (PE) and activities of daily life (e.g., sport). This project prompts you to think about the challenges that girls, young women, and those supporting them (teachers, coaches) might face and invites you to develop practical, easy-to-digest information and solutions on menstrual issues.

Why does this project need YOU?

Before starting the project it is worth conducting self reflection on what you are bringing to the project and what you hope to gain from it.

Even if you feel like you don’t have any expertise in this area just by being here you have displayed a motivation for this kind of work!

Below are some questions to reflect on before you meet your team. You may want to jot a few answers down to bring to your first team meeting.

Regarding your own expertise you might want to return to the project brief.

• What motivated you to join this project?
• How can you use your degree specific skills and knowledge to address the problem brief? Think creatively!
• Do you have any skills or knowledge from any other areas of your life, like hobbies or work, that you can bring to the project?
• Do you have any personal connections to the issues raised by the project brief?
• What is the first idea that came to mind when you read the project brief?

Starting Resources

Below you will find a library of reading resources that will help you get started on this project and refer back to as you create your ideas