Voices From The Ground: Reimagining Working With Adolescents

PRIA, together with Martha Farrell Foundation and 10to19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative organised the first learning circle in a three-part series that explores adolescent health access, intervention and scale from the perspective of civil society.

The learning circle, held on July 15, 2021, was titled ‘The voices from the ground: reimagining working with adolescents’. The objective of organising the session was to enable intra-civil society conversations around revising existing strategies of working with adolescents and also to learn from each other regarding best practices adopted by organisations to adapt to post-pandemic environment. The resultant discussions would enable co-creation of a sustainable roadmap for civil society organisations, that work directly or indirectly with adolescents.

The following questions were discussed by the participants during the learning circle:

1. During the pandemic, what strategies did you adopt to deliver interventions or implement adolescent health programs? Has the arrival of pandemic forced you to depart from existing models of interventions? 
2. What modifications or innovations have you integrated into your strategy, as opposed to preceding years while working on adolescent health? 

The learning circle began with thematic exploration of adolescent health by a five-member panel that discussed the ways in which their respective organisations had worked with adolescents, post pandemic.

Each session covering a particular theme was led by an expert:

• Sexual and Reproductive Health—Dr. Indrani Bhattacharjee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Child in Need Institute (CINI)
• Nutrition—Dr. Rama Shyam, Programme Director, Empowerment, Health & Sexuality of Adolescents (EHSAS), SNEHA 
• Mental Health—Rhea Sharma, Intervention Director, Sangath  
• Violence and Safety—Nandita Bhatt, Director, Martha Farrell Foundation
• Child Marriage—Srabonti Ghosh, Team lead, Aangan Trust

The LC saw attendance from 23 participants, from different organisations across the country, working on adolescent health, some of which were Observer Research Foundation, Population Foundation of India, Sangath, Girl effect, Unnati, Oxfam, UNFPA, MAMTA, and Sehreeti.

1. While working with adolescents, community advocacy, civil society partnerships and capacity building are the strategies that work best, if sustainable outcomes are to be seen as part of interventions.
   
   
2. Use of digital spaces and how we negotiate with the owners of the spaces, be it parents, schools, communities matter a lot.
   
   
3. Promoting inclusivity within the overall program design and intervention is key to achieving the program objectives. Organisations working with adolescents, especially at the level of communities must strive to reduce the power differential.