Tool: Integrating the Adolescent Kit: Practice scenario

Use the sample scenario below to explore how the activities and approaches in the Adolescent Kit could be applied within a programme for children or adolescents in your community.

Discussion exercise:

1. Study the scenario below:

Keeping Children Happy (KCH) is an international NGO that organises recreation programmes for children in a refugee camp in Kenya.

They have ten Child Centres where around 500 children come regularly. Each centre is managed by two facilitators. Centres are open from 1PM – 5PM (because school hours are from 9AM-12PM).

Children who come to the centres are between the ages of 6 and 15 years old. The majority are boys. When they come to the centres they can play freely in a safe space. Some of the adolescent boys have organized themselves into small groups to play football, and the girls like to play jump rope. 

2. Consider: 

How could KCH use the Adolescent Kit to support adolescents who are already participating in their Child Centre programme?

3. Sample answers: Use tools or activities in the Adolescent Kit to…

• Consult with older children and adolescents about the kind of activities they would like to participate in, or skills and knowledge they would like to gain during their time at the Child Centres.
• Try to find out where older adolescents (15-18 years) and adolescent girls are in the camp, and why they don’t come to the Child Centres; then use the guidance in the Adolescent Kit to find ways to reach out to them.
• Organise children and adolescents into groups or circles using the Adolescent Circles approach.
• Introduce more structured sessions for groups of girls and boys at set times during the Child Centres’ opening hours (for example, using the session steps outlined in the Programme facilitation resources).
• Introduce a mix of activities including games, projects, or arts using the Activity guides in the Adolescent Kit
• Consider moving some of the activities physically outside the Child Centres
• Help adolescents to develop competencies – skills, knowledge and attitudes – that can help them to improve their psychosocial wellbeing, learning and connection with their communities, through their activities together at the Child Centres
• Other? Brainstorm other ways that the Adolescent Kit could strengthen work with girls and boys at the Child Centres.