About the Adolescent Kit
What is the Adolescent Kit? Why did UNICEF create it? How can you use it?
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 Kit's 100 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, they develop key competencies and new skills that help them to cope with stressful circumstances, build healthy relationships, and influence positive change in their communities.
All of the materials in the Adolescent Kit are designed for use in education, psychosocial support, youth engagement or any other programmes that support adolescents in developing ten key competencies - each of which is a broad category of essential attitudes and skills that all people need to cope with challenges, care for themselves and others, build and enjoy healthy relationships, pursue their priorities and develop to their full potential. The cross-sectoral methodology of ten key approaches, promoted by the Kit's guidance and tools, draws from best programmatic approaches in psychosocial support, life skills education, project-based learning, child protection, social cohesion and peacebuilding.
Since its launch in 2015 the Adolescent Kit has been used in more than 45 countries in humanitarian and development contexts, and through diverse programmes including education, mental health and psychosocial support, civic engagement, peacebuilding, arts and innovation initiatives, reaching 1.9 million adolescents globally.
Why a Kit for adolescents?
The Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation (Adolescent Kit) was created to address the particular challenges that adolescents face in humanitarian situations, filling the gap in programming to support them. It aims to support adolescent girls and boys in difficult circumstances, and to open spaces for them to engage as agents of positive change in issues that affect them. The Kit's cross-sectoral approaches were designed with the recognition that especially for adolescents ages 10-18 who are living and growing in challenging circumstances, learning and practicing skills, feeling safe and connected, and taking action to influence positive change are independent and inherent to their healthy development and the wellbeing of their communities.
How to implement the Kit
The Adolescent Kit can be used by anyone involved in managing programmes or working directly with adolescents in humanitarian and vulnerable development contexts. The Kit's guides, tools, activities and supplies 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!
The Adolescent kit can be adapted according to the context in which it is applied. Supplies can make the activities and approaches in the Adolescent kit more engaging and fun for young people. However, if the materials cannot be found locally, one option is to use creativity to build them with what is available.
Adolescent Kit resources
Guidance
These resources serve to enrich initiatives with adolescents and impact their lives in a positive way. Before starting your work with the Adolescent Kit, read through the guidance sections. While some of these sections are specifically targeted at programme coordinators and facilitators, users are encouraged to read all of the guidance to get a full picture of how the Adolescent Kit works.
- Programme resources: Guidance and tools for programme coordinators to design and manage interventions for adolescents using the Adolescent Kit.
- Facilitation resources: Guidance, tools and activities for facilitators to work directly with adolescents through the Adolescent Circles approach.
- Training resources: Resources to orient, train and plan with programme teams implementing the Adolescent Kit
- Adapted resources and publications: Adapted guides, packages and case studies created by UNICEF teams and partners utilizing the Adolescent Kit in countries and programmes
- Supplies: Guidance for managing, storing and replacing supplies for interventions with the Adolescent Kit. This includes advice on creating and finding your own supplies if you don’t have access to a Supply Kit.
- Kit in action: Explore how the Adolescent Kit is used in a range of humanitarian and protracted emergencies, in countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and protracted crises, in fragile and vulnerable development contexts, and with migrants, refugees, internally displaced people and host communities.
The Activity Box
The Activity Box includes useful tools and resources to help facilitators as they work with adolescents. These range from in-depth guidance and instructions for running activities to quick and easy ideas to motivate participants.
- Activity guides: Step-by-step guides to activities that can be adapted to adolescents’ interests, needs and developmental level.
- Energizer cards: Cards with instructions for short, fun games or restful activities to run with adolescents.
- Inspiration cards: Inspiring ideas for quick activities to keep adolescents motivated and
interested. - Self-guided activities: Guides and tools for adolescents to learn and stay engaged independently while participating in programmes remotely.
The Adolescent Kit's guides, tools and activities in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Farsi and other languages.
The Kit can be used and adapted for ongoing projects, or a new initiative or program can be created. The different resources contained in the Kit can be applied in different ways, depending on the context. It is possible to select the tools and activities that suit the needs of adolescents in each context and adjust them as you go along.
Getting started
Before beginning the activities, it is important to understand what the Adolescent Kit offers, and what are the key principles and approaches that underpin it:
Guide: Why a kit for adolescents’ expression and innovation?
Guide: Decide how to use the Adolescent Kit
Guide: Ten key competencies for adolescents
Guide: Ten key approaches for working with adolescents
Guide: Planning activity sessions for adolescents
Guide: The four activity phases
