Maple Ridge centre starts project to address ‘period poverty’

A Maple Ridge agency can now start a project to work towards the elimination of period poverty for people who have a hard time affording menstruation products.

The Family Education and Support Centre recently received $17,500 in provincial grant money – that was first announced in May – for a research project to examine the use of menstruation products by newcomers, refugees, immigrants, and youth, in order to provide free products that are culturally safe, in a respectful manner.

A total of $750,000 was announced last year, earmarked for various grants and the establishment of a Period Poverty Task Force, that was put together in October.

United Way BC just handed out $220,000 of that funding for 10 pilot projects throughout the province.

Each project will test unique and innovative approaches for distributing free menstrual products, conduct studies to examine factors that contribute to period poverty, and look for ways to reduce stigma around menstruation.

Jenny Earley, executive director of the Family Education and Support Centre, said the project is in the very beginning stages.

The project will see the agency consult with various members of the community through a multicultural lens, with its goal being to identify any barriers that might exist for community members to accept free menstrual products.

It will eventually allow the agency to carry out some level of a survey or research to identify the blockages and barriers to receiving the product, she said.

“So we will distribute the product and we will talk to the clients who we are distributing it to, to identify where the best places might be for them to receive that, whether there are any places that it wouldn’t be appropriate to receive it, how we can best do that for them,” she said.

READ MORE: B.C. launches task force to end ‘period poverty’ and nix menstruation stigma

Nikki Hill, chair of the B.C. government’s Period Poverty Task Force, who founded the United Way’s Period Promise, said that the grants are to make sure that as a task force, they have solutions about what works in a community to make sure they are addressing period poverty.

One thing Hill realized from working with Period Promise at the United Way and partaking in menstrual product collection campaigns in 2016, was that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem – especially when it comes to helping people of different cultural backgrounds.

“For example, if we only distributed tampons to every agency we were working with or every community, that would limit some community’s access to them. It wouldn’t address the problem,” she said.

“The more information that we can have from what people actually need, the better that we can make recommendations,” she said about how not only government addresses the issue, but also businesses, cities, and anybody who should be providing free menstrual products.

ALSO: New Scottish law makes period products free for all

The 10 projects will help inform a strategy for the entire province. Recommendations are due by March 2024 on how period poverty should be addressed in the short, medium, and long term.

“Our goal really is to ensure that they don’t have to keep going to donors or going and waiting for short-term supply. Our goal is really to figure out a comprehensive response,” said Hill about creating a long-term policy where the need is completely filled.

The Family Education and Support Centre runs a multicultural women’s group, a Newcomers Advisory Committee, and a Local Immigrant Partnership Table – and they will be consulting with all of these groups with regard to barriers.

“Are there certain products that are more helpful than other products? Is it the visibility of it? Do they want it to be less public? Or is it important that they can just step in off the street and pick it up right there? Is it important to ask for it or not ask for it?” said Earley of the many questions they hope to be able to answer after the project is complete.

“The key thing here is that we ask people what the barriers are,” she said.

The project is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 10, and its findings will be reported back to the provincial Period Poverty Task Force.