By Elizabeth Douglas, Marketing and Communications

Sexual violence comes in many forms, can happen anywhere and to anyone. But it’s preventable.

Standing at the forefront of that change are students Broughan Jansz, Kia Ferrer and Rebecca Day. Through their zine, Inspired Journeys: A zine guide to careers in sexual violence prevention, they want to help stop acts of sexual violence altogether.

The zine, co-authored by Sociology instructor Dr. Lisa Smith, recent Sociology grad Nell Perry and Douglas Students’ Union Women’s Representative Kristina Bonface, connects social sciences students with organizations involved in sexual violence prevention and guides them on how to prepare for careers in the field.

A Statistics Canada study states sexual assault is the only violent crime in Canada to not decline over the past 20 years, with approximately 4.7 million women reporting experiencing sexual assault since the age of 15.

Despite the large population affected by sexual violence, mapping a career in sexual violence prevention isn’t always straightforward. For Lisa, smoothing out the journey for her students is a top priority, and working on Inspired Journeys further fuelled that passion.

“Social sciences careers do look different, and I think we as instructors need to help students see the pathways available and show them that they don’t all look the same,” says Lisa. “It’s not necessarily about finding just one job. It’s about understanding how your skills can be meaningful in a variety of roles.”

Identifying existing skills and knowledge is a prime component of the Inspired Journeys zine. Using reflective practices alongside career and job search resources, the zine helps students identify their strengths and find careers that align with their goals.

“It was important to make the zine approachable and encouraging. It can help you work through what your values are, what you truly believe in and how to leverage the skill set you already have to get the job you want,” says Kia, an Associate of Arts in Communications student. 

It’s with those tools and support that she hopes to combat stereotypes in the field.

“Stereotypes teach us that there isn’t much you can do with a social sciences or arts backgrounds, but we want to show people that if you’re fulfilled and want to make a difference in the world, you’re going to find a career.”

While Broughan and Kia still have time before they graduate, this fall Rebecca will begin working toward getting her sexual health educator certification – a journey inspired by the zine she helped create.

“As a queer, disabled woman, the sex education I received didn’t give me the tools or the knowledge I needed at the time,” says Rebecca. “While working on the zine, I was able to use the reflection exercises we created to figure out what areas I was drawn to and where I can take my future.”

Read more about Dr. Lisa Smith’s advocacy for menstrual equity across the country

Lived experience prompts activism

“My interest in sexual violence prevention stems from lived experience and having so many people around me go through the same thing – especially women and non-binary folks who present femme,” says Rebecca, a soon-to-be Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology (Honours) grad. “I was feeling fed up, and that helplessness and frustration made me want to pursue something that would stop the next generation from going through the same things we did.”

Broughan and Kia’s motivation also comes from lived experience of sexual violence.

“We need to stop the normalization of sexual violence and how it’s assumed that everyone will know someone who has gone through it. It starts with teaching young people that it’s not OK and that it’s not normal,” says Broughan, a third-year Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies student. “I want to focus on how we can create a society where these things are talked about ahead of time so we can stop it at the beginning.”

Taking their project across the country

Last month, Broughan, Kia and Rebecca took their zine to the 2025 Canadian Sociological Association Conference at the Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences Congress in Toronto.

“Every copy we brought was snatched up. We saw folks sharing the zine on their social media, and we were even approached to guest-speak in undergraduate classes. We built so many new connections and created memories that we will cherish as we continue in our journeys and move on to new projects.”

Inspired Journeys comes at the end of a seven-year project aimed at addressing and preventing sexual violence on post-secondary campuses. iMPACTS is a $2.5 million partnership grant with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, led by Dr. Shaheen Shariff at McGill University.

Backed by an additional $3.7 million in donations, the team has hosted events, spearheaded research and produced numerous publications around sexual violence prevention. Douglas College joined the iMPACTS initiative in May 2018 and has since hosted numerous on campus events and initiatives.

To get a copy of Inspired Journeys or to browse other zine collections, visit the Douglas College Library.