MHPSS and EIE Toolkit

Mainstreaming Psychosocial Care and Support within the Education Sector for School Communities Working with Children and Families Affected by HIV and AIDS, Poverty and Conflict

This document contains guidance and practical steps for integrating psychosocial care and support within the education sector. It is for educators, and also for community workers, caregivers, parents, youth and children and psychosocial and mental health practitioners. It highlights the importance of creating caring supportive environments in schools, and was written with a particular focus on school communities working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, poverty and conflict. It contains chapters on: understanding psychosocial wellbeing; understanding psychosocial care and support in education; practical steps, guiding principles, tools and approaches for mainstreaming psychosocial support in schools; and guidance on addressing specific psychosocial issues.

Learning and Wellbeing in Emergencies: Resource Kit

The ‘Learning & Wellbeing in Emergencies’ toolkit (LWiE) focuses on building and measuring early foundational literacy skills, alongside social emotional learning, in emergency contexts with a particular focus on community engagement as a key support for children. The toolkit includes: an introduction to proposal development and advocacy; community action for initial non-formal education or informal learning; teacher training to support teachers/facilitators; learner assessment tools; and a comprehensive community action component to support literacy and well-being in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

Fun, Safe, Inclusive. A Half Day Module on Facilitation Skills

This manual can be used across sectors for programmes at all levels. It can be used as a stand-alone training tool or as part of a comprehensive training on psychosocial and resilience-promoting activities for children, adults and families. The module focuses on facilitation skills promoting fun, safety and inclusion. It draws on new insights about the importance of play from neuroscience, giving ideas for activities designed to alleviate the long-term impact of toxic stress on children’s brains and development.

Explore SEL

This online resource is designed to help navigate the sometimes complex field of SEL. It provides information and tools that summarize and connect the major SEL frameworks and skills, to support transparency and informed decision-making. It aims to give more clarity and practical tools to decision-makers working to address their schools’ and districts’ particular needs. It also intends to help educators, organizations, and policymakers identify common ground in SEL frameworks and make judgments about what is distinct about any particular framework. With that knowledge, schools can make more informed and targeted decisions about their approach to social and emotional learning.

Skills for Life: Life Skills and Psychosocial Support for Children and Youth in Emergencies - Trainer Guide

This detailed guide contains training plans both for a training of trainers and a teacher training for using the Skills for Life programme with children and youth. It was developed for teachers with limited English skills who may have to translate into a mother tongue or Arabic. It links to the Skills for Life for Children - Teacher Guide (see Linked Resources section).

INEE Background Paper on Psychosocial Support and Social and Emotional Learning for Children and Youth in Emergency Settings

This paper clarifies relevant terminologies and approaches relating to psychosocial well-being and social and emotional learning (SEL) in education in crisis-affected contexts, and explores how psychosocial support (PSS) and social and emotional learning relate to one another. The paper includes various considerations for training, supervision, and well-being, as well as tips and guidance on adopting a gender perspective. It includes an overview of the impact of conflict and natural disasters on children’s well-being, and the related risk factors and impact of toxic stress on brain development. The target audiences for this paper are education practitioners, academics, and policy-makers working in education in emergencies and protracted crises and the various sections include references to specific entry points for each.

The Children's Resilience Programme: Psychosocial support in and out of schools

The Children’s Resilience Programme aims to: improve cooperation and peaceful interaction between children; improve the motivation to play, problem solving and positive attitude to others; enhance positive expectations to the future; enhance impulse control; and enhance capacity and awareness about self-protection and protection of peers. It uses a nonclinical psychosocial and protection methodology that focuses on children’s positive coping and resilience. It comprises 8-16 structured workshops for children aged 10-16 years old. The programme can be implemented for children in and out of school, during or after disasters, in situations of armed conflict, for children affected by HIV, or as part of preventative social work. It is designed to be implemented by the same one or two facilitators once or twice a week with the same group of children. ### This resource kit provides guidance for designing and implementing the Children’s Resilience Programme and contains the following resources: - The booklet *Understanding Children’s Wellbeing* provides an introduction to psychosocial support, child protection and children’s reactions to difficult events. - The *Programme Manager’s Handbook* guides managers on how to plan, implement and evaluate Children’s Resilience Programmes. - The *Facilitator Handbook 1: Getting Started* consists of an introduction to the Children’s Resilience Programme, the first 5 workshops for the children, three additional workshops and two options to use to end a workshop track, as well as the guide for meetings with parents and caregivers. - The *Facilitator Handbook 2: Workshop* tracks consists of four workshop tracks that are concerned with Protection against abuse and exploitation, Children affected by armed conflict, Children affected by disaster and Children affected by HIV or AIDS.

Step by Step Toolkit Promoting Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in Children and Teens

The Step by Step toolkit equips teachers with resources that can help their students better understand and manage their emotions, thoughts, impulses and behaviors; form and sustain positive relationships; and make the most out of life by making responsible decisions and pursuing meaningful goals. The Step by Step framework focuses on six core life skills for children aged 6 to17: self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, positive communication, determination, and responsible decision-making. It consists of Teacher Guides and Student Workbooks for each grade and offers a series of practical lessons and support materials designed to be implemented in the classroom by the teacher. Lessons are based on a carefully chosen developmental perspective of middle childhood and adolescence, to fit the characteristics and needs of each age group or grade. For further information please go to the Linked Resources section.

Skills for Life for Children: Life Skills and Psychosocial Support for Children in Emergencies – Teacher Guide for Children

This is a detailed handbook for teaching life skills and psychosocial support to children and youth in emergencies. It contains modules on: psychosocial well-being; peace and conflict resolution; protection; and health. It includes information on how to use the toolkit, the methods used, group management, teachers support, a teacher’s code of conduct and a psychosocial checklist. It links to the Skills for Life - Trainer Guide (see Linked Resources section).

Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support: Facilitating Psychosocial Wellbeing and Social and Emotional Learning

The purpose of thisGuidance Note is to clarify the importance of supporting the psychosocial wellbeing of children and youth, and to offer specific strategies for how to incorporate psychosocial support (PSS) into education responses. This resource addresses a gap in the tools that are currently available to educators and professionals operating in emergency and crisis contexts, providing PSS guidance that is specifically oriented to the education sector. It encourages more intentional and consistent implementation of practical, good-quality psychosocial interventions on the education frontlines by teachers, education administrators, counsellors, and other education personnel. The content is also useful for those working in related sectors, including protection, child protection, mental and public health, and others.

Psychosocial support for UNRWA schools: a conceptual framework’ UNRWA-2016

The Framework aims to guide Counsellors and educators to apply the inclusive approach to holistic, comprehensive, rights-based, child centered, child-friendly and enabling psychosocial support, within UNRWA’s education system. It is intended to help School Counsellors and educators foster inclusive working environments by helping them to better understand the psychosocial needs and wellbeing of the children. Practical examples of psychosocial support at the classroom level are included in the document.

The Youth Resilience Programme: Psychosocial support in and out of school

The Youth Resilience Programme aims to help young people to: resume normal, routine activities during or in the aftermath of crisis events; have strong personal and social skills to adapt to and cope with adversities; feel good about themselves and confident in their own abilities; make good and safe life choices; be more social and act as role models to other children and young people; trust others and feel comfortable about sharing feelings and thoughts; seek help from others when needed and have stronger awareness about who can help; and solve problems without violence. It uses a nonclinical psychosocial and protection methodology and is framed within the complex interaction of individual and social factors that facilitate resilience. The heart of the programme is a series of 8-16 structured workshops for young individuals aged ~14 and above designed to be implemented once or twice a week. ### The resource kit contains: - *Theory and Programmatic Guide* - This provides a detailed overview of key concepts and the theoretical background and reviews approaches and methodologies for implementing the programme. - *Facilitator’s handbook 1: Life Skills Workshops for Youth* - This gives detailed instructions for facilitators for each workshop, including the objective of the session, the timing for activities and the materials required. - *Facilitator’s handbook 2: Parents and Caregivers Meetings* - This gives instructions for facilitating meetings with parents and caregivers, providing them with updates and enhancing parents’ and caregivers’ understanding and skills to support their children’s wellbeing and protection. Additionally a Guidance Note summarising key aspects of the Youth Resilience Programme and a Questionnaire to assess ‘readiness’ and identify what preparatory actions are necessary can be found at the resource document section.

Coping with Changes: Social-Emotional Learning Through Play

This course helps you explore the practical and emotional challenges facing children and discover learning through play and stress management strategies that can help. It will also let you consider the potential long term effects of crises on a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. It consists of four topics: Foundations of learning through play, Importance of MHPSS/SEL in crisis, Adult wellbeing, Age sensitive SEL knowledge and activities, and coping with changes and transitions.

Social-Emotional Learning Intervention

The Social-Emotional Learning Intervention is a component of IRC’s Safe Healing and Learning Space package. It contains: - *Social-Emotional Learning Intervention: Trainer’s Manual* - The Trainer’s Manual contains four parts: information for the trainer to understand the content and prepare for the training; scripted SEL training sessions; training resources; and SEL training handouts. - *Social-Emotional Learning Intervention: Trainee’s Handbook* - The Trainee’s Handbook contains all of the handouts needed for the SEL training. It can also serve as a reference when implementing the SEL Intervention in a Safe Healing and Learning Space. - *Social Emotional Learning Intervention: Lesson Plan Bank* - The Lesson Plan bank contains 36 daily and 24 weekly lesson plans to deliver explicit SEL instruction. - *Social Emotional Learning Intervention: Games Bank* - The Games Bank contains 62 games to reinforce SEL competencies.

Move on & Engage

This resource kit consists of a curriculum of 20 sessions to improve the self and collective efficacy of children and youth (12 to 20 years old), to address issues in their environment that concern them, including family, school and community, and to strengthen their psychosocial resilience. The curriculum is divided into two parts. One part - MOVE - contains six sessions dedicated to strengthening trust, cooperation, communication, emotional management, creative thinking and responsibility. A second part - ENGAGE - supports adolescents and youths to explore the concept of well-being, identify their main challenge, and select one or two main challenges they would like to tackle through a youth led action. The core documents included in this resource kit are: the Move on & Engage Youth Curriculum, the Move on & Engage Methodology Guidance, the Move on & Engage Facilitator Orientation Manual and the Move on & Engage M&E Toolkit.

Basic PSS in Education: A Training Manual for Teachers and Other Stakeholders

This 3-day psychosocial support (PSS) for teachers and other stakeholders aims to assist people working in the education sector to support the psychosocial wellbeing of pupils in classrooms and the wider school environment. This manual provides teachers with some basic tools and skills to be able to offer psychosocial support to distressed children (or their parents or colleagues). Tools further aim to enable teachers to explore creative ways to help children to reduce stress, foster resilience and coping, build supportive relationships and possibly prevent short- and long-term psychological problems.

Social and Emotional Skills Activity Toolkit

This resource presents a collection of cards to help you to help children to develop their psycho-social skills. These skills play a vital role in helping children and people to build resilience so that they can respond positively to the shocks and stresses that we may meet in our lives. The activities are organised according to themes: ’Where are we now?’, ‘Getting On and Falling Out’, ‘Going for Goals,’ ‘Good To Be Me’, ‘Relationships’ and ‘Changes’. They also indicate suggested age levels.

The Psychosocial Care and Protection of Children in Emergencies: Teacher Training Manual

In order to strengthen efforts to promote psychosocial support within educational programming in emergencies, these teacher-training materials were developed to promote greater understanding of the psychosocial impact of emergencies on learners and knowledge of effective responses. The materials are oriented towards experienced teachers who already possess strong teaching skills. Shortened or modified versions of the training should be developed to meet the differing needs and capabilities of education personnel other than skilled teachers.

The Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation

This resource kit is a detailed package of guidance, tools, and activities to support adolescents aged 10-18, especially those who are affected by humanitarian crises. It aims to bring about positive change in adolescents’ lives through arts and innovation. The activities offer adolescents the chance to express themselves, experiment, solve real problems, and explore new ideas. In the process, they develop key competencies and new skills that help them to cope with stressful circumstances, build healthy relationships, and engage positively with their communities. The resource kit draws from good programmatic approaches in psychosocial support, life skills education, child protection, social cohesion and peacebuilding. It can be used by anyone involved in managing programmes or working directly with adolescents in humanitarian and vulnerable development contexts, including staff across different sectors, teachers, Child Friendly Space facilitators, youth facilitators and community volunteers. All or part of the Kit can be integrated into programmes for adolescents in areas such as child protection, education and youth development. It includes an Activity Box with detailed step by step guidance to activities (in English and Arabic), energizer cards and inspiration cards, and guides for planning and facilitating sessions which can be found at the Resource Documents section.

Colors of Kindness

Colors of Kindness is an education-in-emergencies adaptation for the Rainbow of Education. Using social and emotional learning materials delivered via podcast, this EdTech solution seeks to address the disruption of education due to global crises. The program aims to enhance the wellbeing of teachers and children, social inclusion, and equitable access to holistic education for all children.

Psychosocial Support for Education in Emergencies – Training and Resource Package for Teachers and Counsellors

The aim of this training and resource package is to equip teachers and counsellors with basic skills for supporting the psychosocial well-being of children affected by conflict and emergencies. It covers the following topics: key concepts and principles of psychosocial support; how do children react to a crisis situation; the role of teachers in promoting the psychosocial well-being of students; how to discuss a crisis with children; activities for improved learning and recovery; how to manage challenging behaviour and maintain positive discipline; identifying and assisting children who may need more advanced support; and teachers’ well-being. It includes: a manual for training sessions; training activities; teacher handouts; and classroom activities.

Adolescent Girls Toolkit Iraq

The Adolescent Girls Toolkit for Iraq is a collection of learning sessions and tools designed to empower adolescent girls from IDP, Refugee and Host communities in Iraq to address key issues on life skills, Reproductive Health, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Financial Education. The Toolkit supports implementing partners to set up girl-friendly spaces and carry out girl-focused needs assessments and plan interventions. It contains sections on: reaching adolescent girls - community participation; setting up a programme - outreach; facilitation techniques; GBV case management; how to use the girls’ curriculum; and a detailed outline of the parts of the girls’ curriculum itself covering trust building, life skills, reproductive health, safety, financial education and leadership. It also contains sessions to be used with mothers of adolescent girls, and end sections with icebreakers and games, monitoring tools and a list of further resources. An overview of tools included in different sections is given on page 8-9.

Working with Children and their Environment: Manual of Psychosocial Skills

This manual aims at improving the overall wellbeing of children through strengthening the psychosocial skills of the adults working with them. Part One contains training modules for developing a psychosocial approach, comprising nine personal and social skills, fundamental for any adult helping vulnerable children, whatever the field of intervention may be. The second part is about managing psychosocial activities and games and includes specific methodological and technical skills for facilitators setting up psychosocial activities with children. Assessment indicators are suggested for each of these skills. The Annexes contain further training tools and follow up tools.

The SAFE (Supporting Adolescents and their Families in Emergencies) Resource Package

Supporting Adolescents and their Families in Emergencies (SAFE) is a protection and psychosocial support program model to strengthen the capacity of front-line actors so that adolescent girls and boys (ages 10-19) are safer, more supported, and equipped with positive coping strategies in acute emergencies. It aims to make adolescent girls and boys more visible and heard in the first phase of an emergency response. It is designed around two pillars: (1) Working directly with adolescent girls and boys to provide them with essential health and safety information, encourage participation and develop social and emotional skills, strengthen relationships, and connect them with available support services; and, (2) Contributing to a safe and supportive environment for adolescent girls and boys through working with female and male caregivers to develop their knowledge of how to protect and support adolescents, and collaborate with the community, other sectors and service providers to increase awareness of the needs and interests of adolescents. The SAFE Resource Package includes a practical, field-friendly Overview and Implementation Guide, that accompanies the package of detailed facilitator training manuals and three tailored curricula – for adolescent girls, for adolescent boys, and for caregivers.

Creating Healing Classrooms: A Multimedia Teacher Training Resource

This resource contains materials for facilitating teacher training in the ‘healing classrooms’ concept and concrete teaching techniques. The purpose of the workshop is to provide teachers with knowledge and skills related to student well-being and specific teaching techniques and strategies that they can use to promote student well-being, and create ‘healing classrooms.’

Say and Play: A Tool for Young Children and Those Who Care for Them

“Say and Play” is an interactive tool designed for orphans and vulnerable children from three to six years old and those who care for them, including parents, caregivers, early child development teachers, home-based care teams and all those who take an interest in the welfare of young children. The tool supports adults to learn about young children’s experiences and views, and encourages children to express themselves naturally through games and stories. By improving communication, Say and Play creates a dialogue between adults and vulnerable young children in need of services or a hand to hold. It uses pictures, stories and games to help children talk about their lives. Through these activities, it guides adults to identify and support the emotional and social needs of children. Say and Play has five objectives: to better understand young children and their needs; to improve communication between adults and children; to strengthen the parent–child relationship; to increase children’s participation - to help them express opinions and make decisions about matters that affect their lives; and to link young children to relevant health, educational and psychological services.

Facilitator’s Guide for Psychosocial Support Activities with Children, Adolescents, and their Parents & Caregivers

This manual contains a series of psychosocial activities for facilitators in Child Protection and Education programs, or in other community situations, to use with children. The first part gives instructions for facilitators. The following sections contain activities for different age groups: children aged 5-7, children/adolescents aged 8-12, and adolescents aged 13-17. The final section provides activities for working with parents and other caregivers to support children.

Creating Healing Classrooms: Tools for Teachers and Teacher Educators – For Field Testing

This document is a collection of some of the tools and ideas behind the innovations in teacher support and development that have been created and piloted through the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Healing Classrooms Initiative. It is intended to serve as a resource for IRC staff working to improve their programs related to teacher support and development. It will also be relevant to education programme and policy makers in other agencies and organizations.

Psychosocial Support Recreational Activities Resource Guide

This guide contains details of recreational resource activities for teachers, counsellors and community members to use with children and youth living in challenging contexts. The resources are organised in three themes: strengthening personal skills, strengthening peer support skills and strengthening awareness of students as active participants in their community.

Safe Healing and Learning Space Toolkit

The Safe Healing and Learning Space Toolkit provides frontline humanitarian staff with practical implementation guidance, adaptable sample tools, comprehensive training materials, and scripted instructional content. Resources are provided for a 9-month program, and are applicable in both rural and urban areas, based on locally-defined needs and priorities. This toolkit was developed to help child protection and education teams facilitate spaces in emergencies where children can learn, grow, and feel safe. The toolkit prepares practitioners to set up a Safe Healing and Learning Space (SHLS) and includes targeted training to deliver: social and emotional learning; foundational academic skills - reading and maths; and promote positive parenting. The SHLS Approach overview component contains a *Manager’s Guide*, providing step-by-step guidance and adaptable tools for education and child-protection professionals to set up, monitor and evaluate the implementation of an SHLS in an emergency context. It also contains a *Foundational Training Trainer’s Manual and Trainee’s Handbook*. The Social and Emotional Learning component contains a *Trainer’s Manual, Trainee Handbook, Lesson Plan Bank and Games Bank*. The Parenting Skills component contains a *Trainer’s Manual, Curriculum for Caregivers of Children and Curriculum for Caregivers of Adolescents*. For further details of the Reading and Maths components and additional resources see the full package. Some components are available on the site in: Arabic, Dari, French, Greek, Pashtu.

Improving Well-being Through Education: Integrating Community Based Psychosocial Support into Education in Emergencies

This document describes the use of the Community Based approach to Psychosocial Support in educational settings and presents FCA’s experiences in improving well-being through education in various countries. It offers practical examples on how access to education and wellbeing of children and youth can be improved during conflicts by involving communities.

INEE PSS-SEL Training Module

This module outlines 3 hours of training activities and materials related to psychosocial support (PSS) and social and emotional learning (SEL) in emergency contexts. It includes supplementary activities to further understanding of PSS-SEL concepts, for an extended duration of 5 hours. The Facilitator Guide provides the materials, facilitator notes (including main ideas and activity instructions), and a suggested script for the accompanying presentation.

Psychosocial Support and Social Emotional Learning

This online, video-based, short course covers the following: the definitions of and differences between PSS and SEL; PSS and SEL frameworks as developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), and the International Rescue Committee (IRC); Why to consider PSS and SEL in EiCC contexts and examples of PSS and SEL in actions; Why contextualizing is important; Best Practices; and Methods of Assessments.

Handbook for Teachers

This handbook was developed by AVSI to support teachers in the Kitgum and Pader Districts in Uganda under the Psycho Social Support Program (PSSP), in their work with children in their schools. It is useful for teachers in other communities as well, especially in adopting a psychosocial approach to teaching and engaging with children. The handbook covers 3 main areas: understanding yourself and others, understanding children and how teachers can help, and topics for further understanding. There is an accompanying Training Manual for Teachers (see Linked Resources section).

Training Manual for Teachers

This handbook was developed by AVSI to support teachers in the Kitgum and Pader Districts in Uganda under the Psycho Social Support Program (PSSP), in their work with children in their schools. It is useful for teachers in other communities as well, especially in adopting a psychosocial approach to teaching and engaging with children. The handbook covers 3 main areas: understanding yourself and others, understanding children and how teachers can help, and topics for further understanding. There is an accompanying Training Manual for Teachers (see Linked Resources section).