The Children and Families Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Resource Collection

The Children's Resilience Programme

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, implementing and evaluating the Children’s Resilience Programme and contains the following resources: 1. The booklet Understanding Children’s Wellbeing provides an introduction to psychosocial support, child protection and children’s reactions to difficult events. 2. The Programme Manager’s Handbook guides managers on how to plan, implement and evaluate Children’s Resilience Programmes. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. The Children’s Resilience Programme Monitoring & Evaluation toolkit: These are guidelines for how to monitor and evaluate the Children’s Resilience Programme. They are designed for Project/Programme Managers and other involved and interested staff. To ensure appropriate delivery and quality of the Children’s Resilience Programme the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) System has two functions: 1) to monitor the progress and 2) to monitor and evaluate the outcome of the programme.

I Support My Friends Resource Kit: Equipping Children and Adolescents

This resource kit contains a comprehensive package of tools and resources to best equip children and adolescents in safe and effective peer support, together with adult mentors. It provides guidance and tools for preparing, designing, and implementing training with children and adolescents about how to support a friend in distress building on PFA. The resource kit also includes guidance for appropriate adult supervision to ensure the physical and emotional safety of child and adolescent helpers and the friends they support. The resource kit is comprised of: 1. Theory and Implementation Guide This presents an overview of key concepts and the theoretical foundation of I Support My Friends. It describes the ethical considerations and child-safeguarding actions that need to be in place to protect children’s best interests and their physical and emotional safety. It also outlines the roles and responsibilities and expected skills and competencies of trusted adults who mentor child and adolescent peer supporters. 2. Training Manual This outlines a three-day, step-by-step training package, including case studies, stories and a list of required materials and tools to support the preparation and implementation of the training. 3. Participant’s Workbook This contains the worksheets to be used by participants in the training. 4. Manual for Training of Facilitators and Focal Points (forthcoming) This includes materials to build the capacity of the adult facilitators and Focal Point(s) who will implement the training for children and adolescents. Once field tested, the package will include a training manual, agenda, PowerPoint slides and other guiding materials.

The Toolkit for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings

The Toolkit for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings provides a set of materials to assist managers and facilitators/animators in setting up and implementing quality Child Friendly Spaces (CFS). These resources have at their core the protection of children from harm; the promotion of psychosocial well-being; and the engagement of community and caregiver capacities. The CFS Toolkit contains: 1. Operational Guidance for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings: It summarises key approaches in the protection of children and in the promotion of their psychosocial well-being. It is directed to CFS managers and facilitators/animators. It has four chapters, addressing the following aspects of setting up and implementing a quality CFS: introduction to CFS, setting up a CFS, information for CFS facilitators/animators and working with caregivers and community members. 2. The Activity Catalogue for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings: It provides materials for facilitators and animators responsible for implementing activities in a CFS. It features a wide range of easy-to-use resources, including sessions to open, close and review a programme of activities. It has a set of seven themed workshops which relate to key aspects of children’s psycho-social well-being. These resources provide structured activities that can be used in a sequence over a period of time, but are flexible too so that they can be used as standalone sessions if CFS modalities vary and/or attendance fluctuates. Activities are generally intended for children from 6 up to 18 years, with some additional resources provided in the annexes for activities targeted to younger children, older children and adolescents. 3. Training for Implementers of Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings: This is a three-day training for CFS managers and coordinators that addresses the challenges of setting up and implementing quality CFS in diverse circumstances. Using various case scenarios, participants in the training are exposed to realistic demands and equipped to find practical solutions to challenges faced in the field. The training draws on resources from the Operational Guidance for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings and the Activity Catalogue for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings. 4. Training for Facilitators of Activities for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings: This training manual complements the Training for Implementers of Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings. It provides practical training for facilitators on the Activity Catalogue to support the effective implementation of the structured activities for children in different contexts. Ideally, this should follow on directly from the three-day implementer training.

Improving Learning Environments Together in Emergencies (ILET) Package

This resource is a detailed training package on using assessments for improving learning environments in humanitarian contexts through community participation. ILET empowers communities to improve the quality of the learning environment through a data-driven, participatory, sustainable process of planning and implementing School Improvement Plans. ILET offers a set of easy-to-use data collection tools, real-time analysis, and visualization via a user-friendly web-based platform with both mobile and paper data collection features. Collecting data and sharing results with the communities in a timely manner enforces transparency, increases accountability and ownership and stimulates the creation of local solutions. The ILET package consists of three pillars: 1. Guidance Documents: the Overview Document, Step by Step Guide, Training Manual (including training handouts + training powerpoint) 2. Data Management: Data Management Platform, Data Management Handbook, Data Collection Tools 3. Program Templates: School Findings Cards, School Improvement Plan Poster, in addition to program management templates such as results framework and budget samples.

Child Protection Sessions for Parents and Caregivers

The Child Protection Sessions for Parents and Caregivers manual is a guide for facilitating child protection sessions for parents and caregivers. These sessions are designed to help parents to better care for their children and to protect them from all forms of violence. These sessions must be conducted by a trained facilitator who can facilitate a discussion on the issues addressed in this manual with parents and caregivers from the community. Each session is divided into section plans that provide the facilitator with guidance on how to conduct the session, plus annexes for each major topic, including tips for facilitators. The annexes contain background information for the facilitator as well as messages for parents that can be given as handouts. Each discussion should ideally be comprised of 10-20 participants.

Connect with Respect: Preventing Gender-Based Violence in Schools

The Connect with Respect Preventing Gender-based Violence in Schools tool has been created to help teachers, school principals and the broader education system to deliver education programmes in early secondary school by providing positive role models, empowering children and youth to have healthy and respectful relationships, and delivering a violence prevention programme within their curriculum in Asia and the Pacific. It is designed for students between 11 and 14 years of age, but can be adapted for use with older students. It provides age-appropriate learning activities on important themes and concepts relating to the prevention of gender-based violence and promotion of respectful relationships. The learning activities are informed by research into effective teaching about gender, violence prevention, and life-skills development and are designed for use in the formal school system; however, they can be modified for use in non-formal education settings, including through community learning or literacy programmes.

PFA for Children II: Dealing with Traumatic Responses in Children.

The PFA for Children II: Dealing with Traumatic Responses in Children training manual provides guidance for staff working with children who are severely affected psychologically by acute crisis. It is not a clinical tool and does not qualify staff to engage in clinical interventions. It is a supplementary training to Save the Children’s Psychological First Aid Training for Child Practitioners (2013), which lays the foundation for providing PFA. In some situations, additional skills to providing comfort and stabilization are needed. PFA II can be used to train such additional skills. It provides advice to staff dealing directly with children who are showing concerning behaviours (beyond what is perceived as common reactions to traumatic events). The training is designed for people who are not trained in mental health, and is based on field experience, research and the latest theories on child trauma, resilience and recovery.

Psychological First Aid Training Manual for Child Practitioners

This Psychological First Aid Training Manual for Child Practitioners is for training people working with children on how to provide Psychological First Aid (PFA). The training aims to build skills for providing physical and emotional comfort by modelling calmness and teaches participants active listening that can be used to encourage children in distress to voice their concerns and needs. It provides information on connecting children in distress to practical assistance through referral networks and information on positive coping strategies. The training also includes a one day training for humanitarian workers on stress management.

Caring for your Child in Crisis Situation

The Caring for your Child in Crisis Situation booklet aims to help parents in crisis situations who are concerned about their children’s wellbeing, to support themselves and their children understand and cope with reactions, manage challenges they may be facing, and how to stay connected as a family. Examples of specific topics are safety, dealing with bereavement, providing warmth and support, giving praise, spending time together and talking, encouraging good behaviour, and dealing with fighting and aggression.

Communicating with Children About Death and Helping Children Cope with Grief

The 'Communicating with children about death and helping children cope with grief' resource provides guidance for adults on communicating with children about death and helping them cope with grief. Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it highlights how children of different ages experience loss and grief, how to talk to them about it and how to help them cope with loss during the pandemic and humanitarian emergencies.

Traditional Games for Child Protection

The Traditional Games for Child Protection manual collates 20 traditional games which are organized by age group, and teach life skills to children to foster resilience and self-protection. It uses the Movement, Games and Sports (MGS) methodology which champions 'learning by doing' and puts child participation at the heart of the learning process. The manual explains the psychosocial and protection related benefits of games for children, highlights the lessons from each game, and provides follow up questions for the children. It was developed for animators, teachers and protection workers.

Supporting and Responding to Forcibly Displaced Children: Training Module for Child Helpline Counsellors

The Supporting and Responding to Forcibly Displaced Children Training Module for Child Helpline Counsellors aims to enhance child helpline counsellors’ knowledge and support for children on the move, specifically those who have been forcibly displaced. By taking this module, child helpline counsellors will be able to follow a child’s journey from pre-flight, during flight and after flight while learning about the key concepts and issues associated with each phase of the flight. Case studies and self-reflection exercises are also found throughout the training module along with a final assessment to help child helpline counsellors evaluate their knowledge and contemplate on the key concepts, case stories and programmes they previously studied.

Working with Children and Their Environment: Manual of Psychosocial Skills

The 'Working with children and their environment: Manual of psychosocial skills' aims at improving the overall wellbeing of children through strengthening the psychosocial skills of the adults in charge, all the while passing on effective methods and tools (games and creative activities) for working with children. Depending on the need, it is targeted at animators, teachers, social workers, educators, professional delegates, heads of mission, project coordinators or school directors, as well as ministries of education and social affairs. The manual contains 18 modules divided into two parts according to four fields of skills. Part 1 for a ‘psychosocial approach’ deals with managing oneself, one's relationships with others, and in groups and is directed at people who want to improve their personal and social skills. Part 2 for ‘psychosocial intervention’ deals with managing activities and games and is aimed more specifically at those in charge of activities with groups of children and who want to improve their methodological and technical skills. To respond to the needs of these different target groups, it is possible to organize long training courses (two weeks or more) or training ‘à la carte’ (short one, or two-day workshops). In any case, for people in direct contact with children, setting up individual coaching in the field is essential to help with the acquisition and practice of the new concepts.

Stress Busters

Stress Busters is an activity resource developed to address stressful situations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a collection of six simple drama based relaxation exercises that an adult can engage in with a child or a group of children to help them relax and release muscle tension from possible exposure to stress.

Parenting on the Move: Program for empowerment and promoting the development of competencies of parents of children up to 12 years of age, in situations of migrations and refugeehood Package

The Parenting on the Move (PoM) programme package has been developed to support families to provide the necessary conditions for well-being, resilience, and education of children up to 12 years of age, in situations of migration/refugeehood. The programme has three components: parent workshops, family workshops (led by trained moderators), and materials for activities that parents and children can engage in, in a family setting. It can be implemented by moderators (activists, experts, students) trained for its implementation. The moderators need to have the knowledge of the programme’s thematic fields, experience in facilitating group work with adults and group work with adults and children together, and also need to have empathy and developed communication skills. As a programme package, PoM provides a comprehensive framework for implementation through a) training of the facilitators of the workshops; b) mentoring through the implementation; c) monitoring and evaluation. The programme package consists of: • Moderator’s handbook with workshop program • Material for the families: “POM NOTES TO GO” and “POM GAMES TO GO”, • Handbook for trainers and mentors.

Training in Psychological First Aid Module 3: PFA for Children

The Psychological First Aid Module 3: PFA for Children is for training people working with children on how to provide Psychological First Aid (PFA). The training has been developed for staff and volunteers working with psychosocial support for children and those providing direct care and support to children and their caregivers in distress, such as nurses, teachers, social workers, health volunteers, ambulance workers or other first responders. The activities take between eight to nine hours and can be run in one long day or over one-and-a-half days. This manual is part of the PFA kit developed by IFRC in 2018.

Mourning for a Loved One When You Cannot Attend Funeral Services

The Mourning for a Loved One When you Cannot Attend Funeral Services information sheet presents ideas for how to help adults and children to cope with the grief of a significant loss despite not being able to attend a funeral. It also provides ideas how people can have memorial services for the deceased person. There are suggestions for different activities to do with children of different ages. This information sheet can be used caregivers and others supporting children cope with grief.

Coping with Changes: Social-Emotional Learning Through Play

Coping with Changes: Social-Emotional Learning Through Play is an online course on how to provide playful and engaging social emotional learning (SEL) support to children. It was developed due to the disruption in children's lives due to COVID-19 but can be used in any settings where children experience high levels of stress. Course participants explore the practical and emotional challenges children face and explore the concept of 'learning through play' and stress management strategies that can help. The course also considers the potential long term effects of crises on a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. This is an interactive course and at every step of the course, learners can meet other learners, share their ideas and join in active discussions in the comments. This course is primarily designed for primary caregivers and teachers of young people. The course is also revelant for culture and social workers, artists, and humanitarian workers. Examples of topics in the course are: - Foundations of Learning through Play  - Importance of MHPSS / SEL in Crisis  - Adult Wellbeing   - Age sensitive SEL knowledge and activities - Coping with Changes and Transitions

Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Frontliner Getting Started Learning Package

The CPHA (Child Protection in Humanitarian Action) Frontliners' Getting Started Learning Package is a resource package that has been developed to rapidly onboard new team members in the wake of a new emergency or crisis and aims to ensure that frontline workers are introduced to the minimum competencies to work in a safe, effective, accountable, and professional way with children, families, and communities. It includes a facilitator's guide, a participant handbook and a self-assessment tool and has been designed to be delivered in modules through both face-to-face and remote facilitation. In face-to-face settings, the content can be covered in three consecutive days or the modules can be split over more weeks depending on availability. In remotely facilitated settings, it is recommend to deliver the course in a series of half-day sessions. This learning package has been developed primarily for team managers/coordinators to be able to facilitate a learning process with their frontline teams. External facilitators might also deliver this training if they are adequately familiar with the organisation’s systems and programmes. It is envisioned for the learning package to go through a contextualisation process prior to its use.

How You Can Support Your Child During Bombing?

This tip sheet, developed by the Child Protection Global Protection Cluster, provides advice on how to support children during bombings. It contains tips for parents and caregivers on providing emotional support, and ensuring stress reduction and physical safety for children during active bombings. It is a simple sheet that can be printed and shared with parents and caregivers.

Safe Healing and Learning Spaces Toolkit

The SHLS Toolkit provides frontline humanitarian staff with practical implementation guidance, adaptable sample tools, comprehensive training materials, and scripted instructional content needed to initiate an SHLS in an emergency setting. Resources are provided for a 9-month program, and applicable in both rural and urban areas, based on locally-defined needs and priorities. The content is holistic, including tools for social-emotional learning, reading and math, and parenting support. Materials are open source, user-friendly and designed for managers and facilitators in the form of structured yet adaptable training and learning content. The tools are evidence-based and practitioner-tested, developed bythe IRC’s in-house technical experts, field tested with displaced communitiesand frontline staff in Nigeria, Chad and Iraq, and refined through feedbackfrom academic and peer reviewers.

Fun, Safe, Inclusive: A Half-Day Training Module on Facilitating Skills

The Fun, Safe, Inclusive manual is a half-day training module on facilitation skills that can be used across sectors, for programmes at all levels, to provide a short training on facilitating programmes for children. 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.

Including Children with Disabilities in Humanitarian Settings

The Including Children with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action pack consists of six guidance booklets that aim to strengthen the inclusion of children and women with disabilities, and their families, in emergency preparedness, response and early recovery, and recovery and reconstruction. This series of booklets provides insight into the situation of children with disabilities in humanitarian contexts, highlights the ways in which they are excluded from humanitarian action, and offers practical actions and tips to better include children and adolescents with disabilities in all stages of humanitarian action. The booklets were created in response to UNICEF colleagues in the field expressing a need for a practical resource to guide their work. The information and recommendations are based on evidence and good practices gathered from literature and field staff experiences. The six booklets on how to include children and adolescents with disabilities in humanitarian programmes focus on: 1) general guidance; 2) child protection; 3) education; 4) health and HIV/AIDS; 5) nutrition; 6) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Child Safe Programming and Safeguarding in Interim Centres

The Child Safe Programming and Safeguarding in Interim Centres outlines some of the potential safeguarding risks children face in Interim Care Centres. The guidance note identifies three main ways that children can be harmed: by people, by programmes and processes, and by the physical environment. The guidance note provides information on safeguarding from sexual exploitation abuse and harassment (SEAH), and other risks to children's well-being including neglect, emotional abuse and unsafe environments. There are also suggestions for how these risks can be mitigated to ensure that children are as safe as possible.

General Support Group Curriculum

The General Support Group Curriculum. developed by the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility, is a guidance and orientation package focusing on support group interventions for children, adolescents, and families who require basic emotional and practical support to address psychosocial challenges that disrupt their sense of safety, security, and hope. Support groups can help group members to process difficult memories and grieve multiple losses as needed for full psychosocial recovery and stabilization. There is emphasis on encouraging mutual support among group members and linking with wider community supports. This guidance can be used as a basis for training and orienting resource persons who will work with children in small groups. The approach used integrates the IASC pyramid layer three of interventions into child protection activities.

Comfort, Listen, Empower:Psycholgical FIrst Aid for Children During a Crisis

The Comfort, Listen, Empower:Psycholgical FIrst Aid for Children During a Crisis resource set is developed by Save the Children Sweden's Centre for Support and Treatment. It includes includes a guide on Psychologocal First Aid and a leaflet to give parents and one to give to children. It focuses on how adults can support children after critical incidents and during emergencies affecting society as a whole, both in the initial emergency phase and some time after. It refers to difficult events that affect many children – for example terrorist attacks, forest fires, collapse of buildings, or a shooting where many are injured or otherwise affected. It has guidance on what to do first, how to promote a feeling of security, a feeling of calm, a sense of belonging, a feeling of self-confidence, trust in society and promote a sense of hope.

UNICEF Innovations: Adolescent Kit

Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation is a package of guidance, tools and supplies to support country programmes to reach and engage adolescents ages 10-18 affected by conflict and other 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, experiment, solve real problems, and explore new ideas. 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 the Adolescent Circles approach, which involves 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 work together. It draws from good programmatic approaches in psychosocial support, life skills education, 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, 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.

The Resilience Programme for Young Men: A Psychosocial Handbook

The Resilience Programme for Young Men: A psychosocial handbook is a resource for programme managers and trainers in providing psychosocial support for young men living in vulnerable or unstable situations. The handbook provides guidance on managing psychosocial support programmes and sets out a two-day training workshop with psychosocial activities specifically designed for young men living in difficult conditions. The activity catalogue suggesting relevant activities can complement the handbook but also be used separately. It includes guidance for programme managers on integrating resilience building into a variety of youth programmes.

"Journey of Life" Community Workshops to Support Caregivers and Children in Need

The Journey of Life community workshops to support caregivers and children in need' is designed for communities wishing to support children in need and their caregivers. Using picture codes, personal testimonies and role plays, the workshops stimulate reflection, dialogue and action among participants. By taking them through their own life journey they are better able to understand the problems facing children in their care and in their community. Pictures and posters, a core feature of the resource, are designed to facilitate dialogue. Resource mapping and action plans provide communities with an opportunity to identify their capacities and begin to act on their collective responsibility towards these children. The Journey of Life comes with a variety of M&E tools, including forms for committee information, individual attitudinal changes, household changes, and workshop evaluations. GUIDES FOR PARTICIPANTS Main Workshop: Community Implementation Guide (includes Action Workshops 1, 2 and 3 on community parenting, supporting grieving children and teaching life skills to children) Action Workshops 4–7 at synergos.org Action Workshop 8: Ending human trafficking Action Workshop 9: Protecting our children from abuse GUIDES FOR FACILITATORS Main Workshop: Facilitator Training Guide (includes Action Workshops 1, 2 and 3 on community parenting, supporting grieving children and teaching life skills to children) Action Workshops 4-7 at synergos.org Action Workshop 8: Ending human trafficking Action Workshop 9: Protecting our children from abuse MONITORING AND EVALUATION CRS also aided in providing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools to help facilitators measure the change in attitudes and actions by the people who participated in their ""Journey of Life"" workshops. Though the workshops are designed for groups who work on child trafficking and child labor issues, the tools below can be adapted for other settings as well.

Ethical Research Involving Children

This Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC project) is an international project motivated by a shared international concern that the human dignity of children is honoured, and that their rights and well-being are respected in all research, regardless of context. To help meet this aim, the compendium acts as a tool to generate critical thinking, reflective dialogue and ethical decision-making, and to contribute to improved research practice with children across different disciplines, theoretical and methodological standpoints, and international contexts. Emphasis is placed on the need for a reflexive approach to research ethics that fosters dynamic, respectful relationships between researchers, children, families, communities, research organizations, and other stakeholders. Hence, the content of this ERIC compendium moves beyond prescriptive approaches to encourage a more critical engagement with ethical issues and contemporary research practices across the multiple sectors and national/international contexts in which these take place. ERIC has been developed to support all researchers, individuals and organizations who are involved in research that is undertaken with, or potentially impacts on, children. This includes researchers, all members of any research team, research organizations, other stakeholders and research ethics review committees.

The Nine Basic Requirements for Meaningful and Ethical Children’s Participation

The Nine Basic Requirements for Meaningful and Ethical Child Participation provides guidance on how to have meaningful child participation safely and ethically. This is a key tool for ensuring quality child participation in any initiative with children. It is presented in an easy-to-read colorful format and includes checklists and simple tools for easy access and use. They help to improve quality across global programs, advocacy, and campaigns. Further, they help ensure children’s voices are heard and respected.