On June 21 and 22 2023, researchers from Centennial College’s Social Innovation Research Centre (SIRC) Daniel Huizenga (he/him), Aidan Hung (he/him), Kat Newman-Seymour (they/them/theirs) and Roya Haghiri-Vijeh (she/her) attended the International LGBTQ+ psychology conference put on by the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues (SOGII) Section of the Canadian Psychological Association in Toronto. The conference was called "Preaching to the Choir: An International LGBTQ+ Psychology & Related Social Sciences Conference."
The team presented a poster presentation and held a round-table discussion about the development of "Finn Finds a Way," a computer game that provides a safe and gender-affirming space for gender-independent, intersex, non-binary, and transgender (GIaNT) children and youth. In the game, players are given the avenue to explore questions of identity and puberty at an emotional and social register, and the opportunity to connect these experiences with relevant health-related educational information from a range of sources. The game demo has been developed by co-PI Miriam Verburg (she/her), a faculty member in the Game Development program in the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design, and a team of student developers, Theodore Telega (they/she), Nathaniel Hachey (he/him), Vladislav Volodin (he/him), Marko Kuper (he/him), Nathaniel Hachey (he/him), and Ronan Daniel (he/him).
The team received valuable feedback from attendees from across the country. This game demo has been developed with funding from the NSERC College and Community Social Innovation Fund, under the title "Gender-Affirming, Life-Affirming: Centering gender-independent, trans, nonbinary and intersex youth in puberty education with adaptive interactive media."
Read more about the project, find the poster presentation, and learn more about the entire game development team, here: www.finnfindsaway.com.