Cougars Break Barriers with Period Positivity Event

By Caroline Pease | Published April 24, 2024

“There is no reason why we shouldn’t talk about periods,”  says Liz O’Donnell.

“Let’s break the stigma, let’s talk about it,” said O’Donnell, a social worker with Cougar Connections. 

O’Donnell, along with Grant Coordinator Aaliyah Robinson, are the initiators behind  Period Positivity: Breaking Barriers, which held a kickoff event in late March

 They worked with organizations both on and off campus to create a menstrual education awareness event for all students.

O’Donnell has been sharing her assistance at Kean since late 2018, first starting as an Academic Specialist in Accessibility Services and being promoted to a social worker in Cougar Connections after she completed her Master’s degree. 

The concept for a menstrual awareness event first began last November, when Chief Well-Being Officer Erkia Charles encountered a student in the bathroom in need of period products. This prompted Charles and O’Donnell to retrieve products from the Wellness Center, however they wanted to solve the root of the issue. 

Following the submission of a sponsorship proposal to the Flow Initiative for menstrual products, O’Donnell and Robinson were successfully able to stock all female restrooms in CAS. However, with increased awareness and surplus products, they hope to stock male and staff bathrooms with both menstrual and general hygiene products. 

Once O’Donnell and Cougar Connections secured a relationship with the Flow Initiative, they worked to produce a twofold program at Kean: a kickoff event for menstrual awareness and health and then finding a way to provide products to all students in need. 

The event, “Period Positivity: Breaking Barriers” joined on and off campus organizations that offered menstrual education, packages with period products, Kean merchandise, food from Gourmet Dining, and interactive games. Overall the event drew in 179 students of all genders  and involved the Kean Wellness Center, Kean DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Kean NCNW (National Council of Negro Women), Kean Student Government, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the Flow Initiative.  

“The whole purpose of the event was to bring education and awareness, and we were able to pull from different entities on campus, and off, to meet all the different pieces of awareness and education,”  O’Donnell said, noting the need to end the stigma surrounding menstruation. 

O’Donnell hopes students will now recognize a lack of products within bathrooms and seek out to alleviate this issue through creating a menstrual awareness club or advocating for products in public areas. Even an act as simple as offering an individual in need of a product works to end the stigma. 

The next step in O’Donnell and Cougar Connections’ program is to secure funding for menstrual and general hygiene products in all bathrooms. 

“I think this was a really good starting event. [Menstrual awareness] doesn’t just end here, it’s an ongoing effort,” she said. “Now we are looking towards what this looks like at Kean moving forward…what can we do not only to bring awareness and education to the students, but what can we do to where every single bathroom on campus is stocked with menstrual and general hygiene products on a consistent basis.” 

---