The Financial Literacy and Sexual Health (FLASH) Toolkit is designed to improve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of very young and older adolescents by strengthening five transferable life skills:
- Social Skills A set of skills needed to collaborate successfully with others, including respect for others, context appropriate behavior, empathy, tolerance, conflict resolution, and adherence to equitable social norms or ability to change detrimental social norms.
- Higher-order thinking skills These skills are essential for future success in the workplace and in personal settings. They include problem-solving, critical thinking skills, and decision making, all of which are interconnected.
- Self-control Self-control is the capacity to delay gratification, control impulses, manage time effectively, focus attention, and regulate behaviors and stress.
- Positive self-concept This relates to awareness of one’s own strengths and potential. It has emotional, social and cognitive aspects.
- Communication Skills related to the ability to communicate effectively with people of different positions, ages, genders, abilities and backgrounds, as well as to express and interpret ideas.
This curriculum is for very young adolescents aged 10-14 years and combines financial literacy, livelihoods readiness, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-equitable content delivered in a fun and interactive way. It can be used in small groups to support social network and social capital development, build life skills and protective assets, and support reflection and dialogue for transformation of gendered attitudes, behaviors and norms.
How to use this FLASH Toolkit?
This curriculum was written for a global audience, meaning it will need to be adapted to your context and setting before implementation. The adaptation guide contains the instructions and tools you need in order to do this. There is a minimum criterion of what your adaptation should include in order to be called The FLASH Toolkit.
Each session contains a knowledge, skill, and attitudes objective, which are given in the checklists at the beginning of the curriculum. Sessions are designed so that they need minimal resources and can take place in any setting where it is safe for adolescents to gather. Before implementation, administer the pre-test (which can also be adapted) found at the end of this curriculum.
At the end of each session, participants collect a Tool Card, which is an image the size of a playing card. This is for them to keep and bring to future sessions to help remind them of what they have learned so far. Color Cards are used by the group in various sessions to help the facilitator gauge understanding and participation.
You can download this toolkit for free here.
