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Supporting Safer Professional Practice (SSPP) is a skills-based, small group, live facilitated two-hour Zoom training focused on the skills graduate students need to decrease harm in their roles as students, teaching assistants, research assistants, lab work and future researchers.

Unlike the undergraduate training, SSPP is not focused on the personal sex lives of students, but rather on how harm shows up in professional and public spaces. Graduate students hold significant influence and power within the university community and occupy complex and shifting positionalities, simultaneously navigating power dynamics as students in supervisory relationships and as instructors or mentors to students of their own. SSPP aims to provide graduate students with the skills to navigate GBSV, healthy power use, trauma and boundary setting.

Recognizing some graduate students may not have the foundational knowledge that is covered in the undergraduate training, an optional precursory module, Foundations of Consent will be offered to all graduate students in addition to SSPP. This training will include foundational definitions of GBSV, consent and the policy landscape, emphasizing how these concepts can show up in a students’ professional role.

Learning Outcomes

Divided into four sections and utilizing small group and self-reflection exercises, SSPP covers the following learning outcomes:

1. Using Power for Good

• Explain and reflect on your use of power over/under with others and how to be accountable to that positional power.
• Recognize the power you hold in relationships with students and clients, and how this power can impact campus culture.

2. Setting Boundaries

• Identify how to set and maintain boundaries with students and staff you may have power over/under.
• Practive effective boundary-setting strategies related to your unique role on campus.

3. Understanding Trauma and Triggers

• Differentiate between activating vs. Triggering behaviours and identify ways to implement practices and tools to support safer professional engagement.
• Recognize how to integrate trauma-informed approaches into your unique role on campus.

4. Tools for De-escalation

• Develop practical skills to navigate difficult interactions with students/clients.
• Practice effective de-escalation strategies related to your professional role.

How to Complete SSPP

Log in to your Brightspace account using your ³ÉÈË´óƬ email address. You should see that you are enrolled in SSPP. When you click on the course you will have to sign up for one of the available sessions that works for your schedule.

Expectations

• The session is two hours long on Zoom. You must be present for the entire session.
• You must come ready to participate with your camera on

If you are unable to meet these expectations, you will be asked to reschedule for an alternate training session.

2026 trainings available soon!