Some of the in-person or virtual talks Jeff delivers:

DRAWING MAPS TO MANHOOD:
More than ever, people today are having conversations about our ideas of masculinity and manhood. Jeff illustrates how the rituals and path we traditionally set for men and boys to achieve manhood are like a ladder which is rigged to fail us all. He challenges us to rethink harmful ideas of manhood on our pursuit of identity as men. Jeff explores how all this reinforces a certain definition of manhood that limits us all. Jeff encourages men to instead embrace new models of manhood and forge new maps, new paths forward. Together we look at how men and young men can become part of a change that impacts us all where we work, live and study. A way forward begins with us, within us.

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LOOKING UNDER THE HOOD: Identifying Gender Bias in the Workplace
Join guest speaker Jeff Perera for a session with a fresh approach to a challenging but important conversation. Together we’ll explore ways to identify unconscious gender bias – both internally and externally – as roadblocks impeding our abilities to be better colleagues, community members and friends.

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MEN BUILDING EMOTIONAL MUSCLE
Just as we build physical muscle, we can learn to build or re-build and strengthen our emotional literacy like a muscle. Being in touch with what we are feeling is our strength. Empathy is the muscle that leads to taking action and finding connection. As men, we can go to the ‘Emotional Gym’ together, learn to lean on one another to have hard conversations, support one another, and develop our emotional literacy. We can spot one another as we learn how to nurture and grow our relationships, connections and friendships.

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SPEAKING IN A LANGUAGE OF CONSENT
In this session, Jeff helps create a courageous space to have some real, honest conversations about the many ways we interact with one another from everyday interactions to romantic and sexual situations. Consent is a conversation we tend to have backwards: we start at the end. The conversation actually starts before we meet someone, and it continues with the person we meet and get to know (whether it is a one night interaction or a lifelong relationship). Rather than transactional, we can approach every interaction as a collaborative one.

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BEING BETTER TEAMMATES
Bring Jeff to speak with your students, team, community or space about ways we can have each other’s backs in everyday situations and moments that matter.

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DIVING INTO DISCOMFORT: MEN, VULNERABILITY, RISK AND STRENGTH
Let’s talk about the true strength and growth we can discover in our personal and professional lives as men and boys when we learn to embrace vulnerability and strength as partners.

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STRIVING TO BE AN ALLY: BEING A HELPER VERSUS A FIXER
Now is the time to build bridges of understanding across oceans of difference experiences. How can we work together to champion societal change, and further inclusive spaces where we work, live, study, and play? As men wanting to solve or fix problems, how can we also embrace the value of being a helper or follower or volunteer: going from “I Got This!” to “I Got You!” Through an engaging presentation, personal stories and discussion, Jeff Perera invites us to sit with the hard conversations, and to move from awareness to action as we strive to be an Ally in both our personal and professional lives.

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BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN OUR DIFFERENCES
In an era of divides, how can we inspire one another to work past ‘the illusion of our separateness’ and find ways to nurture spaces of respect, and build community amongst people? Invite Jeff to talk with your group about facing hard truths, and doing the gardening work to cultivate environments where we all can thrive and bloom!

THE GENDER OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE
We have assigned a gender to our concepts of success and failure in all arenas of life: defining so-called masculine traits as those of success, and treating human traits that we deem feminine as those of failure, Bring Jeff to talk on how these concepts impact and limit us from the boardroom to the dating scene, and how we can instead nurture and develop collaboration, empathy, and healthy communication between people of all genders.

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MEN RESPECTING WOMEN’S ‘EMOTIONAL PPE’
Just like Men learned to wear PPE to protect ourselves from the virus, we can also learn to respect the layers of ’emotional protection’ women and non-binary people wear to navigate everyday interactions online, in public, or in private, in order to avoid potential exposure to harm or violence. We can learn to have a healthy impact that allows others to trust us inside their emotional bubbles. Men’s: Let’s talk about Emotional PPE.

…or reach out to explore themes or discussions Jeff can deliver or facilitate with your group, org, or space!

about jeff perera

In a time of divides and tension, it is time to build bridges of understanding across our oceans of difference. We need to inspire Men in an engaging way to ‘Be The Lesson in Action’ and strive to become models of possibility for other men. Jeff is a speaker, writer and facilitator, who since 2008 has delivered keynotes, talks and workshops for tens of thousands of people across North America and beyond about gender, masculinity, empathy-building, and men helping end gender-based violence.

Whether in the boardroom, on campus, or the locker room, we need more examples of positive ways to be a man today. As a speaker with the National Speakers Bureau, Jeff delivers interactive talks for team leaders and groups within various organizations, conferences and community spaces, as well as grade school, high school, college and university students. Jeff discusses how society’s unattainable and harmful ideas of masculinity impact people of all genders, as well as ways forward and positive maps to manhood.  From Rogers Media, Vidyard, Canada Post, to numerous post-secondary spaces, conferences, and organizations, Jeff creates space for people of all genders to explore being ‘the lesson in action’!

Jeff has delivered two TEDx talks on Masculinity and men’s troubled pursuits of identity: Words Speak Louder Than Actions looking at the power of gendered words, and The Ladder of Manhood which explores the male pursuit of identity and how too many men are fluent in a language of violence. Jeff started Higher Unlearning as an online space to explore how ideas of gender and masculinity impact us in everyday life. Jeff also contributes articles to Huffington Post. He has organized dozens of gender/masculinity-related events, founded and curated the first four ‘What Makes a Man’ Conferences and was event director for the first TEDxWomen event in Toronto, Canada. He was named to Racism Free Ontario’s Top 100 Person of Colour list spotlighting anti-racism activists.

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