ENABLING GIRL CHILDREN FROM LOW INCOME BACKGROUNDS WITH IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH AND LEARNING OUTCOMES:

This project is intended to benefit girl children who are currently enrolled in KGBV schools in Telangana - the girls are from low income backgrounds, and have been severely affected by school closures due to COVID-19

The key objectives of this project are:

• To enable children with adequate social-emotional skills and mental health which directly impacts self-esteem and confidence.
• To improve the emotional and mental health of the students which directly affects the ability to be resilient and cope with challenges 
• To train teachers to identify and support mental health challenges in the students.
• To counsel the parents and caregivers to nurture their child and support girls in their education.

As part of this program, the following key activities are conducted during the course of the year:

• We do this through a whole-school approach, and our program provides structured support and inputs in the following ways:
• Empowering teachers through development and mentoring
• Enabling teachers to translate this in the classroom through the structured  and age-specific Social-Emotional curriculum for students (6-15 years)
• Capacity building of school administrators to create conducive learning environments through SEL practices
• Engaging parents to nurture and bring positive home environments through SEL
• Progress of both teachers and children is carefully documented and evaluated using a set of established tools and frameworks, the programs demonstrated that close to 66% of all children enrolled showed improvements in Social and Emotional Learning over the baseline. 

Since 2016, we have implemented the program in 525 unaided and Government schools, directly impacting 2700 teachers, 1,30,000 students, and 50,000 parents.

1. Our program ‘acSELerate’ is the only SEL based program in India that effectively integrates a systemic, multi-stakeholder approach to social-emotional learning
2. Expertise is in program design, curriculum development, teacher training, implementation and assessment of social-emotional learning (SEL) and life skills in school environments.
3. In a country, where many people across socio - economic strata think twice before investing in a girl child, we are proving that empowering a girl child can transform lives for the better. We are focused on enabling better outcomes for girl children through the approach of Social-Emotional learning

Learning Curve Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 with the aim of enabling children from under-resourced backgrounds to be emotionally balanced, socially responsible, and make informed choices.

Our acSELerate program provides Social-Emotional Learning to students (age 8-15 years) through all the key stakeholders including the teacher, school administration, and parents. 

As part of this program, the following key activities are conducted during the course of the year:

• Workshops to train teachers on their social-emotional skills
• Providing teachers with teaching material, curriculum on SEL, lesson plans, and engagement toolkit
• Monthly visits to schools to support teachers in the classrooms
• Training workshops for school administrators on building conducive learning environments
• Conducting parent awareness workshops on child behavior and how to create nurturing environments at home
• Providing parents with progress reports on their child’s social-emotional skills

Since 2016, our program has been implemented in 525 public schools in Telangana, impacting 1.3 lakh students, 2,700 teachers and 50,000 parents.

The impact of our work has been demonstrably proven through the following metrics:

• Over 45% of teachers showed a one-level improvement in their social-emotional skills 
• Over 65% of students showed a one-level improvement in their social-emotional skills
• 74% of participating schools showed an improvement in their school environment
• Close to 70% of parents reported improvements in their children’s social-emotional skills
• The program showed a 28% improvement in classroom engagement over 1 yearSchool administrators reported higher levels of engagement between teachers, students and parents