Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation

The Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation is a package of guidance, tools, activities, and supplies to support adolescents ages 10-18, especially those who are affected by humanitarian crises.

The Kit aims to bring about positive change in adolescents’ lives through arts and innovation. The activities offer adolescents the chance to express themselves, explore and connect with people and places around them, and design and carry out projects to make positive change. In the process, adolescent girls and boys develop key competencies and new skills that help them to cope with stressful circumstances, build healthy relationships, and engage positively with their communities.

The Kit promotes bringing groups of girls and boys ages 10-18 together in a safe space on a regular basis to have fun, cope with difficult experiences, learn, and take action together. It draws from good programmatic approaches in psychosocial support, life skills education, project-based learning, child protection, social cohesion and peacebuilding.

The Kit can be used by anyone involved in managing programmes or working directly with adolescents in humanitarian and vulnerable development contexts. This includes staff across different sectors, teachers, facilitators and youth volunteers. All or part of the Kit can be integrated into programmes for adolescents in areas such as child protection, education and youth development.

The materials in the Adolescent Kit are designed especially for “programme coordinators” (anyone who designs, leads or oversees programmes for adolescents) and facilitators (or teachers, animators or volunteers) who lead activities with groups of adolescents. But anyone, adults and young people alike, can explore and use the Adolescent Kit materials to learn more about adolescents, and their developmental potential as agents of positive change!