Creative Assets and Program Content Guide Launched
The Adolescent Girl and Creativity Network (AGCN) has launched a Creative Assets and Program Content Guide commissioned by the Population Council. This guide includes thirteen creative assets and fifty activities – program content – to build social and emotional learning, mitigate and manage trauma, and promote healing for adolescent girls.
What was asked in developing this guide was: What are the essential assets pertinent to the most at-risk girls and how can they be built through creative techniques and activities? This guide provides a practitioner response to this question. Our very own Program Director Christina Mallie edited the publication and the work was produced by many other collaborating partners including Souljourn Yoga, Momentom Collective, Mindleaps, Batonga Foundation, Chords of Peace, KIOO Project, and Too Young To Wed.
What exactly is an “asset”? An asset is a form of knowledge, skill, and/or resource that is either internal or external. Specific to adolescent girls, assets can mediate risks for girls and help them to function, survive and thrive in their economic and social environments. Assets can protect adolescent girls from potential threats and open up more opportunities in her life. The assets listed in this guide fall under 4 broad categories: human/health, social, economic, and cognitive with the additions of creative assets and others.
The final list of the 13 Creative Assets formulated by the AGCN are as follows and highlight what girls can gain from engaging in creativity:
1. Know how to recognize/identify emotions in herself and others
2. Know how to express feelings with and without words
3. Know how to self-soothe
4. Know how to gain understanding of herself, her relationships, and her experiences
5. Know that making mistakes is an opportunity to learn
6. Be able to imagine and express herself in a different role than what is socially assigned
7. Know how to tell a story
8. Know that she has things in common with others in her community
9. Know how to establish a safe space for her to be creative
10. Know how to establish a safe space for a group
11. Know how to occupy, hold and defend space physically socially and psychologically
12. Know that social media and culture often represent women and girls in ways that can be harmful to her health
13. Be able to identify what beauty means to her
“What are the essential assets pertinent to the most at-risk girls and how can they be built through creative techniques and activities? This guide provides a practitioner response to this question. ”
As of 2020, the Population Council has worked with over 100 partners in 43 countries to reach girls in higher concentrations with significant results. The Council’s efforts have helped to shape policies and programs of nongovernmental organizations, international agencies, and governments around the world to improve girls’ lives. Since 2015 Colors of Connection has been integrating Population Council’s programming tools into our work with adolescent girls including the Girl Roster, and the Building Assets Toolkit. We’re excited to be working in partnership with the Population Council going forward and to contribute a creative perspective to their resources for adolescent girls.
The guide is available for free download at: https://knowledgecommons.popcouncil.org/departments_sbsr-pgy/1073/
Related Posts
