Slam Out Loud on Grove | Introduction and Updates

[Suruchi]

Hello Grove members!

Greetings from Slam Out Loud.

This is our first post on this platform.
Going forward we’ll be sharing monthly updates (highlights, learning, challenges) from across our programs, to learn and grow together.

Briefly about us and our work with Climate Action:

[Slam Out Loud](https://slamoutloud.com/) (SOL) is a non-profit that uses the transformative power of the performance and visual arts to help build Creative Confidence (a combination of six 21st-century and socio-emotional skills) in children from disadvantaged communities.

We work with professional artists and e-learning resources to help children build the skills needed to achieve greater life outcomes and create mediums for them to be aware of issues like climate action, gender and social justice - in the hope of creating more positive futures.

The problem
India today is among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, with both low coverage from and low potential to respond to climate risks (ICC, 2021), such as extreme weather conditions and toxic air and water quality.

Continued climate inaction will lead to more negative systemic effects, and children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are already vulnerable, are likely to be the most impacted. The India Climate Collaborative predicts a 35% increase in malnutrition, lower access to safe drinking water, and a 15% fall in income due to crop failure, which could lead to increased school dropout rates for children.

India is among the few countries that have made environmental education compulsory at all levels of formal education. Yet, there remain several issues at the implementation level: lack of teacher training and academic value given to the subject, meaning that the compulsory 2 learning hours per week are often replaced with other subjects; and largely theoretical learning opportunities, which fail to encourage critical thinking and problem solving (GEEP). As a result, children are not equipped to understand how climate-related issues extend beyond the classroom, and therefore how they can act upon them.

Slam Out Loud aims to solve these problems through a scalable intervention that enables children to build climate awareness and take informed steps towards more sustainable living.

Our solution: climate education and social-emotional learning through art
With the support of the Rainmatter Foundation, we have integrated arts-based climate education into our facilitator-led programmes, The Jijivisha Fellowship and Arts For All 2.0. Further, we also plan to add climate awareness metrics in our M&E frameworks to evaluate SEL and report back on data generated through this program.

Our existing work in climate education: Gen eARTh & Artivism For Nature
In collaboration with UK-based organization World’s Largest Lesson, who shared their expertise in creating climate action resources for children, we have created Climate Action curriculum and resources through two packs: Gen eARTh - Creative Climate Action for Young Learners, and Artivism For Nature.

Gen eARTh is a self-paced, self-directed 16-hour course for learners aged 8-14 years. Since the launch of our GeneARTh program in June 2021, we reached 53,880 people across our channels. The content was engaged 3,102 times across these channels (likes, comments, shares).

Artivism For Nature is a one-hour self-paced lesson plan for young learners aged 8-14 years, created in collaboration with World’s Largest Lesson and UNICEF to inspire children to be nature positive.

The resources are available in Hindi, English, and Indian Sign Language. They are hosted on online platforms like DIKSHA, World’s Largest Lesson resources library, and Katha’s 300M platform.

We look forward to learning more about all your achievements and challenges.
Very grateful to be part of this community!

Warmly,
Suruchi
Senior Manager, Partnerships and Development
Slam Out Loud

[Suruchi]

As we near the end of the first year of our partnership with the Rainmatter Foundation, we are super excited to share progress against goals for this year:

Of the 9 milestones, we have successfully accomplished 5 as of Jan 31, and we are in the process of achieving the rest by April 2023.

Summary

1. Goal: 2,000 (children) direct beneficiaries as part of the Arts for All (AFA) Program
   Progress: We have reached 3,200 children under this program
   
   

2. Goal: 1,000 direct beneficiaries as part of The Jijivisha Fellowship (TJF)
   Progress: We have reached 2,878 children through this program

3. Goal: 10,000 indirect beneficiaries of our climate education resources
   Progress: We have reached 5.8+ million students through our resources made available on DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) and DIET (District-level Institute offering Teacher Education program to the Elementary Education) platforms

4. Completed 17 hours of climate education learning in TJF curriculum
   

   

5. Goal: Train 100 teachers and facilitators
   Progress: Trained 54 fellows and 94 teachers, a total of 159 educators.
   

   

6. Will complete 8 hours of climate education learning in AFA curriculum by Feb 28.

7. In process of developing an M&E tool that defines and tracks key climate education metrics

8. Will evaluate 100% of direct beneficiaries (3,000 students) by April 2023.

9. Engage with Rainmatter’s partners for curriculum distribution - we are in conversation with Current Conversation and PRISM in Kerala.

Details:

Goal: Our goal was to reach 1000 children through our flagship program directly – The jijivisha Fellowship, to give access to 17 hours of climate education learning

We have successfully completed the climate curriculum with 2,878 children in low-income schools of Pune and Delhi.

About The Jijivisha Fellowship

This is our high-touch program which places artists into classrooms for a year-long fellowship cycle to help build Creative Confidence (6 SEL skills) in students from underserved communities.

The year-long fellowship cycle ends with platforming opportunities (open mics, performances, exhibitions), designed to enable students to showcase their creativity and learnings.

So far, we have brought The Jijivisha Fellowship to more than 10,500+ children, and 100+ artists, working across Delhi NCR and Pune. 75% of the students growing at least 1 level on SOL’s Creative Confidence scale.

Post-pandemic, we are implementing the offline fellowship in Delhi and Pune, impacting ~3,000 children, 54 fellows and 9 partners. As long-term strategic planning, from 2023 onward, the fellowship is going to be full-time, offering a world-class arts education program to our children. In 2023-24 we are expanding the fellowship to Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Goal: Our goal was to directly reach 2000 children through our Arts For All program to give access to 8 hours of climate education learning

We have successfully completed the climate curriculum with 3,200 government school students in Mohali

About Arts for All:

This is our at-scale program which involves training Government school teachers to implement the curriculum built by us. This program utilizes the weekly art classes in the government schools to bring arts based socio-emotional learning with gender and climate-action elements to the classrooms.

In September (2022) we piloted this program under the name Project Avaza in partnership with the Punjab Government. For the ongoing program, we trained 100 government school teachers who are conducting sessions with their students, reaching 3200 children.

We will be executing pilots of this program in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra in the upcoming academic year 2023-24.

Goal: Our goal was to indirectly reach 10,000 children through our climate-change-informed SEL curriculum

We uploaded our content on Punjab Government’s DIKSHA platform, reaching 5.8 million students and 0.2 million teachers. This, along with our successful partnership in Mohali, led district officials in Punjab’s Mansa district to upload and use our content in their DIET program, where so far, ~10,000 students have enrolled in it.

[Suruchi]

Slam Out Loud X Rainmatter Annual Report | 2022-2023
Transforming Arts Education and Socio-Emotional Learning in Indian Classrooms

I. Introduction to Rainmatter X SOL partnership

In 2022, Rainmatter Foundation and SOL entered a 3-year partnership with the following objective:

• Integrate arts-based climate education into Slam Out Loud’s facilitator-led programs: the Jijivisha Fellowship and Arts For All with an aim to solve the problems around the lack of climate education in India.
• Reach 2000 children via Arts for All and 1000 children via the Jijivisha Fellowship in Year 1 to enable children to build climate awareness and take informed steps towards more sustainable living.
• Incorporate 17 hours of climate education learning into the Jijivisha Fellowship and 8 hours into Arts for All.
• Provide end-of-year showcases and platforms for children and facilitators to display their learnings and understanding of climate issues.
• Extend Slam Out Loud’s resources to other organizations in the Rainmatter Foundation ecosystem.

An overarching outcome for both students and facilitators involved in these programs was a clear demonstration of climate-sensitive dispositions and behaviours, such as concern towards the environment, assumption of personal responsibility, motivation, and intention to act.

II. Year 01 Milestones achieved:

1. We impacted 3,200 children (1200 more than committed to for year 01) as our direct beneficiaries under the Arts For All Program (Project Avaza in Mohali, Punjab).

2. We impacted 2,878 children (1878 more than committed to for year 01) as our direct beneficiaries under The Jijivisha Fellowship Program (in Pune and Delhi).
   
   

   

3. Our climate education resources have reached over 5.8 million indirect beneficiaries through Punjab DIKSHA platforms (DIKSHA stands for Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing. It is a National Teacher Platform which is currently being used by teachers and students across the nation to provide school education through distance mode.)
   

   
   
   

4. We completed 17+ and 14+ hours of climate education learning TJF and AFA curriculum respectively.

5. We trained 149 teachers and facilitators – 56 TJF fellows and 93 AFA government school teachers (49 more than the agreed-upon milestone).
   

6. We developed an M&E tool that defines and tracks key climate education metrics - this is currently under review by the Rainmatter Team.

7. We finished evaluating 100% of direct beneficiaries agreed upon as per year one’s milstones, the analysis is underway, and we’ll share key findings from the annual report by June 2023.

III. Climate Action Learning Highlights

1. Implementation of the climate action curriculum:
Number of climate action sessions completed: 12 sessions in TJF Delhi and Pune and 7 sessions in AFA completing 17+ hours and 14+ hours of climate education learning in TJF and AFA respectively.

2. Curriculum sessions with artworks:
Our climate action curriculum uses activities involving different art forms to build awareness and understanding of the impacts of climate change and advocate for climate action. For instance, students were prompted to compose a Haiku in one session, drawing inspiration from nature and advocating for climate action. The picture below captures a student proudly displaying their Haiku. Link to more climate action lessons

IV. Partnerships with Organizations from Rainmatter Ecosystem

1. Current Conservation and Slam Out Loud intiated a conversation to explore a collaboration that includes sharing and promoting each others work on social media, contorbuting to theCC magazine, using CC’s artworks and educational resources in SOL’s curriculum and vice versa, encouraging SOL students to submit articles for CC’s Emerging Voices section, and hosting info kiosks by CC at SOL events.

2. The Habitats Trust: we contributed our climate action resources to a twitter thread put together by The Habitats Trust along with resources from Biome Environmental Trust
   

   

3. We initiated a conversation with the Samagata Foundation to explore possibilities of integrating our at-scale government program with Kerala’s PRISM program. The conversation is ongoing.

V. Outcomes from the programs
1. For students:
A. Growth in creative confidence, specifically the skills of communication, creativity, critical thinking, self-esteem, and empathy;
Through a structured art-based socio-emotional learning program, we have been able to successfully improve the students’ creative confidence skills. They are now more willing to express their opinions, cooperate with their peers, and have gone on to perform at stages like the Kala Ghoda Festival. Bharati from our TJF-Pune program shared, "Performing in front of people at Kala Ghoda for the first time gave me so much confidence; now I am eager for more opportunities like this to showcase my skills. Pari from TJF-Delhi who was hesitant to interact with her peers in the beginning of the program used the pencil sketches she created during Jijivisha sessions as a means to collaborate with her classmates.

B. Increased ability to identify and analyze climate-related issues and topics such as issues related to our use of natural resources and environmental quality and health, and Nature-Positivity;
The students have started requesting their parents to refrain from using plastic bags when shopping, planting greenery in their local areas, and segregating waste in their homes, and expressing their concerns about the adverse effects of plastic pollution on the environment during sessions.

2. For facilitators:
A. In-depth understanding of arts-based SEL through being given access to resources and training (13-15 hours);
B. Growth in arts-based facilitation, specifically, skills of planning, classroom management, communication, and sensitivity towards student artwork;
C. Increased ability to analyze and explain climate-related issues such as those related to our use of natural resources and environmental quality and health.

VI. Key Learnings
1. The Jijivisha Fellowship:
A. Reduced interaction among fellows: In Pune, as we navigated through a part-time fellowship program with bilingual facilitation of sessions, finding common spaces for learning was a challenge. This reduced interaction between fellows in the cohort. To overcome this we hosted 2 in-person training sessions. We also planned various methods of online engagement
B. Multiple breaks in school schedule: Various school holidays, exam preparation downtime, and Diwali breaks caused gaps in the sessions conducted across classrooms. To overcome these challenges we held online sessions and organized a few extra sessions to make up for those classes and ensure that the student’s learning was not hampered.
C. Limited exposure to the subject of Gender among fellows: Gender as a topic was a new concept for many of our facilitators and students. Initially, there were many apprehensions about introducing and facilitating gender-based topics for students. Our Mid Project Reviews in October and January were designed to address this challenge through critical thinking and reflective group discussions.
D. Lack of Classroom management skills: For initial 2 months, our classes were not well engaged or managed, and our fellows were struggling to meet classroom objectives. One of the main challenges was that many of our fellows were first-time facilitators and lacked understanding of classroom behavior management. To address this challenge, Delhi’s learning manager identified common issues and regularly incorporated Behavior Management and Classroom Management trainings in learning circles. In addition, he worked closely with fellows who needed more support, conducting intensive one-on-one conversations to identify specific solutions to their challenges. This reflected significantly in facilitation, and fellows began meeting most of the learning outcomes in the classroom.

2. Project Avaza (Arts For All):
A. Challenge: Low participation from the teachers at the beginning of the program.
Mitigation: Conducting support calls and classroom visits.
Due to administrative work, teachers were not consistent with conducting the sessions. For the first 2 months, only 30% of teachers were conducting the sessions.In order to motivate them to take the session and address their challenges, the SOL team provided them with online support through phone calls and offline support through school visits. We reached out to approximately 10 teachers daily and addressed their concerns to help them conduct the sessions smoothly.With the help of our calling strategy, we increased the implementation rate in such a way that by the end of the program, more than 70% of teachers completed till session 8.

B. Challenge: Sessions exceeding the time dedicated to art periods in classrooms.
Mitigation: We promptly responde to the feedback by creating shorter versions of the sessions and conducting demo sessions to help teachers.
The teachers shared that it takes more than one period (40 mins) for them to conduct the sessions as the lesson plan contains many activities which are not feasible to be completed within one period. To solve this problem, a shorter version of the curriculum was created, which could be completed within one period. To aid in time management during the sessions, a demo session was conducted during the mid-program training where the complete process of conducting a session was enacted. This helped teachers visualize an effective way of conducting the class within the given period.

C. Challenge: Reduced motivation of the teachers.
Mitigation: Innovative incentives and rewards for teachers.
To encourage teachers to conduct sessions, we provided them with incentives such as the star of the week badges, social media recognition for winning art contests, and mid-program training certification. This boosted their motivation and enthusiasm, and they became more active in seeking help from SOL to solve problems. Furthermore, they began to share their experiences and their students’ artwork in WhatsApp groups.

VII. Stories of change:

1. The students have started requesting their parents to refrain from using plastic bags when shopping, planting greenery in their local areas, and segregating waste in their homes, and expressing their concerns about the adverse effects of plastic pollution on the environment during sessions.

2. Students are now thinking of eco-friendly approaches to celebrate their favorite festivals. The image below displays students designing an eco-friendly firecracker brand that does not cause air and noise pollution and can be recycled. The sessions have helped them understand the impact of pollution on the environment and have enabled them to think critically of alternatives for the future.
   

   

3. During the end-of-program showcases, we observed that students have gained a deep understanding of climate change and are able to express their views on the theme through different art forms such as theatre, poetry, storytelling, and visual arts. The below pictures display a group of 5th graders performing a skit to deliver the ill effects of climate change and defining climate action heroes for their classmates.

4. In Punjab, teachers have shared that students are exhibiting a greater awareness of their environment and surroundings following exposure to stories related to climate change, often taking action in response. More than ten schools have shared that their students are now cleaning their classrooms at the end of each day, and many are also helping to clean their homes. Students at GSSS Kurali created a skit independently on the life stories of environmental activists Greta and Gaura Devi, demonstrating a sense of agency. Their skit not only portrayed the lives of these inspirational women but also conveyed an important message about the significance of women raising their voices for social issues as they are equally affected.
   
   

Students also identified specific activities in their region that contr[image]ibute to climate change, such as stubble burning and wastage of water in fields and homes. They expressed these ideas using local forms of art, like kavishiri, giddha and nukkad natak, which reflected the unique and locally-rooted nature of their performances.

VIII. Testimonials

1. Video testimonial from Sania Saifi (Delhi Jijivisha Fellow, 2022-23)
2. Video testimonial from Bharti’s (TJF Pune) father recorded at a classroom-level year-end showcase

IX. Platforming Opportunities for the SOL Students and fellows

1. We partnered with Dasra for their Youth Ke Bol initiative, where 2 fellows from 22-23 batch – Sania Saifi and Maria Kandekar, and 2 alumni students – Saloni and Chanda, performed their pieces on September 26, 2022. The event was organised on World Contraception Day at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
2. Three of our Delhi Jijivisha students performed at UNICEF World Children’s Day celebration that took place at Delhi’s Thyagraj Stadium in November 2022.
3. Bhumi, a TJF Pune fellow, designed and facilitated a poetry workshop representing SOL at the Learning Planet Festival (LPF), an event dedicated to celebrating education and lifelong learning organized by the Learning Planet Alliance. Two of our students performed in the poetry workshop at LPF.
4. In January 2023, three students from TJF - Delhi performed at an open mic organized by Pravah.
5. Marking SOL’s debut at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2023, four students from Delhi and Pune performed at the festival in February 2023.
6. To celebrate the International Women’s Day 2023, two students Anushka and Afreen and a TJF fellow Tanya’s performance poetry was featured on Kommune’s Instagram in March 2023. Watch their performances here: link
7. In Apri 2023, SOL alumni Supriya and Muskan created and performed a commissioned performance in collaboration with Manzil Mystic for SVP Delhi’s annual event.

​​X. Organisational Updates

1. Curriculum Advisory Board formation: In September, we announced our curriculum advisory board, which comprises experts, arts educators, artists, and our very own students and SOL team members.
   
   
   

2. More SOLmates: We are growing! Since August last year to now we have grown into a team of 22 people! We have onboarded teammates in Communications, Partnerships, Curriculum, Programs, and People & Culture teams.

3. In October 2022, for Jigyasa’s work at SOL, she received the ‘Innovator of the Year’ Award at last year’s HundrED Innovation Summit! Catch a glimpse into the summit here.
   

4. Not only that but in addition to being in the HundrED Global Collection this year, we’re one of the four innovations on the planet that have been selected to become part of the HundrED Hall of Fame

5. In March 2023, we received the Children’s Champion Award from the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights in the Arts category.
   

6. In April 2023, Slam Out Loud was featured by CNBC-TV18 as the first in their 2023 line-up of the ‘Changing India’ series of organisations creating impact.
   Youtube
   Instagram

XI. Way Forward and Milestones for 2023-24

1. At Slam Out Loud we are inching closer toward our ambitious goal of meaningfully impacting lives of 25 Million children by 2025 from low income communities through our gender and climate action informed arts-based SEL interventions.
2. From this year, TJF will be a full-time fellowship, expanding to two more new geographies, implemented in the 4 cities of Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru, impacting 3,750 children and 15 fellows.
3. With our at-scale program – Arts for All – we’ll be be piloting in 2 new Indian states of Maharashtra and Haryana, along with entering year 02 in Punjab, training ~300 government teachers across 300 schools, educating ~15,000 children enrolled in low-income government schools.

With the Rainmatter Foundation, we have laid out our year 02 milestones (subject to changed) as follows:

1. 15,000 of direct beneficiaries
2. 10,00,000 of indirect beneficiaries
3. Content: a. Refine curriculum resources as per pilot evaluation. b. Curriculum distribution through mid touch intervention
4. Training: a. Refine teacher skilling modules as per pilot evaluation. b. Create ToT model to execute training in a cascaded model. c.Train 500 teachers and facilitators to implement the program
5. Advocacy: a. Release a whitepaper on the impact of climate action learning through art on students. b. Host 1 end-of year thought leadership event.
6. Monitoring & Evaluations: a. Refine M&E tool as per pilot evaluation. b. Evaluate at least 50% of direct beneficiaries.

Artworks by students

– end of report –

[Namrata]

Hello Grove member!

I’m writing to share some exciting updates from Slam Out Loud that have happened in May 2023. I hope you enjoy reading them!

1 Arts for All

Project Avaza:

• In May 2023, we organised Kala Sath, our first-ever showcase in Punjab and were honoured to host the Hon’ble Education Minister of Punjab, Mr Harjot Singh Bains at the event. The three-hour showcase featuring performances by school children was the culmination of Project Avaza, a year-long programme aimed at training 100 teachers who in turn could foster Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Creative Confidence in 3,000 students from government schools in the state.

The children performed folk dances, recited poems, and performed theatrical acts on topics related to gender inequality and climate change.

Hon’ble Education Minister of Punjab, Mr Harjot Singh Bains, addressing the audience

• In the first 15 days of opening Schools of Eminence (SOE), the Government of Punjab organised special lectures for students and SOL had the opportunity to facilitate art lessons for them. Khushi, our project associate, led the facilitation session that was broadcast across all SOE schools in the state.

Project Abhivyakti:

• This is a project under Arts for All in Maharashtra, similar to Project Avaza. It is a year-long pilot programme that focuses on developing the skills of self esteem, creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration and on building awareness on climate change, and gender sensitivity through an art-based curriculum for grade 6 students from Chandrapur and Bhiwandi.
• Following the field study conducted in the districts of Chandrapur and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, our curriculum team has been working on the first leg of the curriculum design for the new academic year. We will have 12 lessons, 3 each on topics of SEL, climate action and gender. 8 lessons will be developed in the first phase of curriculum development with the lessons being contextualised to the context of Maharashtra.

2. The Jijivisha Fellowship 2023-24
   
   

A snapshot from the open mic for fellows

We have onboarded our new cohort of Jijivisha Fellows and are thrilled to embark on a journey of learning and discovery with 17 talented, committed and enthusiastic professionals! On June 3, we invited them to a Zoom open mic evening, where everyone got to know each other better and discover each other’s talents. Continuing this momentum, a 6-day residential induction is currently taking place in Pune.

The induction sessions are designed to ensure the fellows are aligned with the vision of Slam Out Loud, have clarity about their roles, and the confidence in their responsibilities. Fellows will be trained to design lesson plans, manage children in the classroom, and plan art-based facilitation.

• Here’s the status of MoUs with school partners across 4 cities:
  • 100% - MoUs have been signed with all our partner schools in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore
  • Pune: 70% of MoUs have been signed

3. Organisational Updates

3.1. Hyvää päivää from Helsinki: Celebrating a Special Showcase

Our collaboration with the Government of Finland and Karviaistien Koulu, a special school for students in Helsinki, culminated in an end-of-programme showcase on May 9. Children participated in reflection sessions, interacted with each other’s artworks, played games, and created a warm space for community sharing.

This collaboration was part of the HundrED Tailor-Made project. Earlier in 2022, we visited the school to understand their curriculum requirements and were inspired to design a contextual arts-based curriculum that was implemented by their teachers.

Lasse Leponiemi, Executive Director and Co-Founder, HundrED, captures the spirit of this project when he says: “Art is a universal language. Through this experiment, we saw how the Slam Out Loud program contributed to the learning of both, the teachers and students, and how education innovations can be adapted to different contexts when we allow co-creation and co-agency with different stakeholders.”

Pictures from the Helsinki School showcase

3.2. We onboarded three SOLmates!

• Khushi Khurana, Associate & Creative Producer, Programmes, Panchkula has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication/Media Studies and a Diploma in School Psychology. Before joining SOL, Khushi was a Teach for India fellow in Pune, where she taught students in grades 6 and 7 at a government school.
• Mohini Pandey, Senior Manager, Curriculum has been an educator for 11 years, working on the ground with children and exploring different possibilities of bringing in SEL in Maths, English, and Science.
• Kalyani Dadmal, Program lead for AFA project in Chandrapur, Maharashtra has done a lot of work on SEL in her fellowship with Learning Companions and has an in-depth understanding of working with nomadic communities.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a link to a Zoom workshop on Spoken Word Poetry by Ankita Shah that was conducted in June as part of ‘I Have A Voice Festival,’ which is hosted by Slam Out Loud in collaboration with Monde par la main (Give A Hand Foundation) in association with the Cartwheel Initiative. Scroll ahead to the 1 hour 32 minute mark to see a magical performance on ‘I Believe’.

We hope these programme and organisation-wide insights were interesting and lent you further context about our progress. We would love to hear from you, so please share your feedback or questions.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the day!

[Mari]

Thanks for sharing, Namrata.
Who are the fellows for Bangalore, and which schools are they placed in?

[Namrata]

Hi Marisha!

We have partnered with 5 schools in Bangalore which are low-income private schools where students have limited to no access to Art Education. The schools are Ashoka Shishu Vihara, B. M. English School, Elite High School, Mount Everest English School, and Green Capital Public School. While most partner schools are English medium, they need support to offer a well-rounded holistic education.

The fellows are mapped to one or two schools and spend their entire week in the school during school hours delivering an arts-based SEL curriculum integrated with a gender-just and climate-action lens. Apart from teaching, they organize well-being circles for the teachers of their respective schools, engagement with parents, workshops, and community development initiatives, keeping the student at the center of it all.

We have 3 fellows from Bangalore, they are passionate young individuals with a Psychology or Social Studies background with expertise in at least one art form be it theatre, painting, writing, storytelling, music, dance, etc.

Check out these posts to get to know our fellows better!

• Slam Out Loud on Instagram: "Introducing The Jijivisha Fellowship batch of 2023-24: Part 1 🚀 United by a shared vision of bringing the power of artistic education to children across India, this exceptional group of individuals is ready to embark on a transformative journey of learning and impact🦋🫶🏽 @bottle.of.her.perfume @tomatopickle @extrovertmind @snehaa_gala @vanshika_aggarwal369"
• Slam Out Loud on Instagram: ""Being on ground, working with young creatives and exercising the power of imagination together" - Nivea Shetty on what she's most looking forward to as our Jijivisha Fellow this year. Introducing The Jijivisha Fellowship batch of 2023-24: Part 2. From Chennai to Delhi and Thane to Kolkata, our fellows come with diverse experiences and perspectives. They are bound by one passion: being change makers that bring the power of arts and Creative Confidence to children across India. Join us in welcoming the Jijivisha Fellowship cohort of 2023-24 👉 Swipe to learn what they're most excited about!"
• Slam Out Loud on Instagram: "".. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Bratati Manna shares the line she lives by 🥨 Introducing the Jijivisha Fellowship Batch of 2023-24: Part 3! 🐳 👉Swipe to know about the words that drive our fellows to become changemakers and bring the power of expressive arts and SEL to children across India."

[Namrata]

Hi team!

I’m writing to share exciting updates from June. I hope they give you a better understanding of Slam Out Loud’s progress this year. We remain steadfastly committed to our goal: to transform the arts period in school into a space of learning, delight and growth for children.

1. The Jijivisha Fellowship (TJF)

Our 2023-24 batch of Jijivisha fellows had their week-long induction and training residential programme in June at Flame University, Pune. The objective was to set the tone for the full-time fellowship with sessions designed to ensure they are aligned with the vision of Slam Out Loud, have clarity about their roles, and have the confidence to carry out their responsibilities within the classrooms and engage with the larger community.

A snapshot from the Jijivisha Fellowship induction

Some highlights from the induction:

• Show vs. Tell: Every session/learning for fellows was demonstrated through experiential activities, instead of simply talking about it. For example, when we explained to them how students with varying learning levels and needs could be catered to within the same classroom, we facilitated a classroom demo instead of just giving them a breakdown of strategies.
• Data-backed decision-making: While we collected feedback from fellows for every session, we also took the time to analyse their feedback and incorporate changes into our plan for the next day. For example: On day 1, fellows said they would like more outdoor time, movement-based activities, and opportunities to interact with fellows from other cities. We managed to tweak our program the very next day. A learning for us through this process has been that feedback incorporation needs to be visible to the stakeholder in order for them to take the process of sharing their feedback seriously.
• Transferring routines and procedures to fellows: We established certain routines like beginning all post-break sessions with energizers, starting our days with centering exercises, and doing end-of-day recaps. Since these were routines repeated every day, by day 3, we could bring fellows in to facilitate these routines. This helped them understand how they could set expectations in their classrooms and eventually transition to be student-led.

Feedback from the fellows on the induction training.

2. Arts for All

Project Avaza:

• We partnered with the Government of Punjab and shared arts-based SEL content for the summer camps, which took place over 2 weeks for grades 6 to 8

Punjab school students with their artwork created during summer camps

Project Abhivyakti:

This is a project under Arts for All in Maharashtra, similar to Project Avaza. It is a year-long pilot programme that focuses on developing the skills of curiosity, analytical thinking, imagination, participation, emotional awareness, and teamwork and on building awareness on climate change, and gender sensitivity through an art-based curriculum for grade 6 students from Chandrapur and Bhiwandi.

The curriculum for project Abhivyakti is designed, reviewed and translated into Hindi and Marathi. The curriculum has 12 lessons, 4 each on topics of SEL, climate action and gender. 8 lessons are created in the first phase of curriculum development and are designed to align within the local context of the state for instance incorporating Maharashtrian art form called Warli in the sessions and addressing the issues faced in the region. I will attach the curriculum in this email and would love to hear your thoughts on it!

3. Organisational Updates

SOL team came together for a mid-year retreat: Alongside the induction and training sessions in Pune, the entire team came together for a mid-year retreat. Being a remote-first organisation, many of us met each other for the first time. Over strategic discussions and brainstorming sessions, we made a roadmap for the second half of 2023 and set some audacious goals.

SOLmates going places!

Self-development and training have always been a core part of our endeavour to centre SEL at the workplace and we actively look for opportunities, fellowships, and capacity building workshops that our teams can participate in. Khushi Khurana, Jade Fernandez, and Akashdeep Kaur, our Senior Programmes Associates, have been selected for Ummeed’s School Inclusion Training Program 2023. The training will focus on understanding how children with varied needs can be supported to explore their potential within academic and social contexts.

Vibhor, our Senior Associate for Communications and Outreach, led a workshop on effective communication for the Women Works Programme wing of Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) on June 30. The three-hour workshop was designed with the goal of building effective listening skills, empathy, and trust among the women entrepreneur fellows.

New SOLmates in the team:

In June, we welcomed two new SOLmates to our team. Kalyani Dadmal who will be leading Arts for All - Maharashtra in Chandrapur, while Rahul Rai will be heading Arts for All - Maharashtra in Bhiwandi.

Finally, I want to leave you with this beautiful explainer video on the gender spectrum that we crafted in June to celebrate Pride Month. We would love to hear from you, so please share your feedback or questions.

Warmly,
Namrata

[Namrata]

Hi team!

I hope you are well. I’m back with updates from Slam Out Loud from the month of July.

Hope you enjoy reading them!

Arts for All:

Arts for All is our at-scale systemic program that involves training teachers to implement contextual arts-based SEL curriculum in collaboration with state governments. We have established partnerships with the Punjab, Maharashtra and Haryana governments.

Project Abhivyakti | Arts for All - Maharashtra

We conducted a two day induction for our AFA program in Chandrapur and Bhiwandi last month. The sessions were designed to introduce the program to teachers, train them to build safe spaces for children to express themselves, and illustrate the significance of building SEL through arts. 100% of the teachers attended the induction and we received a notable 90% and 71% Net Promoter Score (NPS) in Bhiwandi and Chandrapur respectively.

Feedback from the teachers on induction session

Pictures from the induction

The Jijivisha Fellowship (TJF)

Our high-touch program that places artists into classrooms for a year-long full time fellowship who will conduct arts based socio-emotional learning sessions integrated with climate action lens. The fellows are given objectives around socio-emotional learning and climate action for every quarter, and they plan and execute the lessons with the guidance of the city managers.

Commencement of classes:

The Jijivisha fellows started their classes on July 10th and have completed sessions focused on the first three objectives around socio-emotional learning. These objectives included the students introducing themselves through an artform, defining norms to create a safe space in the classroom and identifying and labeling the emotions they feel.

Learning Circles:

Fellows will engage in monthly learning circles that are spaces for upskilling, and peer learning as they share their classroom experiences and are exposed to various immersive arts workshops. These are enabling and nurturing spaces for fellows to develop the technical skills needed to strengthen their sessions and to reflect on their journey to help them gain clarity on their career aspirations. The fellows had the first learning circle (LC) in July.

The objectives of the first LC were to help fellows be able to develop a sense of connection with self and the group, share about their values and beliefs, create a culture plan for their classes and create and design a plan for themselves for Open Mic.

Few Highlights from classrooms:

• Transforming students’ perspective around arts: In Delhi, students were initially hesitant to share their artwork with the fellows because they thought their artworks were not good enough. Gradually the fellows have been able to change the narrative and help students view every art piece as being unique and beautiful in its own way. Now, students have begun to confidently embrace their creations.
• Creating safe spaces in classes: In Pune, the new school partners, the students have made The Jijivisha Classroom their safe haven of expression with students trying out new art forms of storytelling, poetry, and origami.
• ‘Cockroach Courage’ | Exploring fresh perspectives of students: The Jijivisha sessions unveil the fresh points of view of students. A Jijivisha student from Mumbai drew a cockroach as her spirit animal. She drew this parallel to symbolize her resilience drawing from the cockroach’s enduring presence over time.
• Engagement with School Leaders (SL): In Bangalore, the fellows interact with the SLs, teachers and other staff to understand the school culture better. They have also observed other classes and helped school teachers try out new practices in class. The fellows have also had other teachers and fellows from other organisations observe their classes to share their learnings.

Organizational updates

Instagram Live with Green Humour

On July 20, Jigyasa engaged in a freewheeling chat with the creator of Green Humour, Rohan Chakravarty. They talked about his journey as an illustrator and cartoonist, climate change and advocacy through arts.

Climate change forms a core aspect of our arts-based SEL curriculum and instills confidence and empathy in children to become changemakers in their climate action journey.

You can watch a recording of the IG Live here.

Curriculum Advisory Board Graduation Meet:

On July 28, we held an online Graduation Meet for members of our first Curriculum Advisory Board (CAB). With experts Matthew Farber, Richard Crooks, Dr. Penny Hay, art educators Ankita Anand, Dr. Neha Saini, Kanika Parwal, artist O’Hara Hale, SOL alumni Muskan Tanwani, Jyoti Singh, Supriya Kumari, and SOL team members Shriya Vaidya, Umaima Ehtasham, and Jigyasa Labroo, the CAB was instrumental in enabling us to craft an impactful arts-based SEL curriculum.

A Snapshot from the graduation meet

Meet our new SOLmates:

• Joti Kohli, Senior Manager, Partnerships and Development has 30+ years of experience in the education domain both in India and Internationally and has been engaged with fundraising and partnerships in India for the past 4.5 years and brings a wealth of knowledge to the team.

• Charlene Judith Pereira, Associate - Founder’s Office, has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Psychology and Journalism. She pursued a Bhumi fellowship, focusing on whole school transformation in Chennai’s government schools. Her holistic approach integrates education and creativity, driven by the belief in knowledge’s transformative influence.

• Arushi Bhardwaj, Associate, Finance and Admin is a CA final student and has experience in working with CA firms as well as in the social sector and is interested in bringing enhanced financial organization and impact to the social sector.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a poem that one of the teachers from Chandrapur, Amrita Jivane wrote as part of a session during AFA induction where they mapped their journey as a teacher through poetry.

शिक्षक म्हणून माझा प्रवास सप्त रंगाचा वाटतो.
या प्रवासाचा आभास बासुरीतून निघणार्या सात सुरांसारखा वाटतो.
हा प्रवास इंद्रधनुष्यासारखा रंगमयी जाणवतो.
हा प्रवास मातसेच झ्यासाठी संगीत्मयी सात सुरांचे मिलन वाटतो .
संगीताने जसे मन प्रफुल्ल्ती होते तसेच आनंददायी वातावणात मन प्रफुल्लीत करण्याचे मी एक स्त्रोत आहे.
मी एक शिक्षक आहे.

My journey as a teacher feels like seven colors.
This journey has left an impression similar to the seven notes played on a flute.
This Journey is full of vibrant colors, like a rainbow.
A medley of seven songs seems to best describe this journey.
Just like music can bring joy to one’s thoughts, I can bring joy to one’s mind.
I’m a teacher.

Warmly,
Namrata

[Namrata]

Hi team!

I hope you are having a wonderful day. I’m excited to share updates from Slam Out Loud from the month of August!

Hope you enjoy reading them.

Arts for All:

Arts for All is our at-scale systemic program that involves training teachers to implement contextual arts-based SEL curriculum in collaboration with state governments. We have established partnerships with the Punjab, Maharashtra, and Haryana governments.

Project Abhivyakti | Arts for All - Maharashtra

• Teachers have started classes by following the provided lesson flow, incorporating grounding exercises and energizers they learned during their induction training. 74% of students from Bhiwandi and 88% of students from Chandrapur have completed the beginning of program assessments.

• Students are able to broadly articulate the purpose of what they are studying. For example, when our team member spoke to a child after a lesson on creating zentangles, children shared that drawing zentangles helps them feel calmer

• Students feel high excitement for SOL lessons and there is an increase in class participation.

• The team has introduced the star of the week award for teachers. This award identifies high-performing teachers and appreciates them. This has led to an increase in motivation and we have seen lesson completion numbers going up, teachers sharing more highlights from their classrooms.

Challenge:

• Many schools in Maharashtra are single-teacher schools, leading to teachers who are overworked by both teaching and admin work. To assist them, we’re exploring various approaches, including initiatives like the “Star of the Week” award and offering additional support, to help them manage their classrooms more effectively.
• The Maharashtra government had recently assigned teachers to conduct surveys in their villages and tehsils. This led to teachers being absent to schools for several weeks which caused delays in the completion of assessments and beginning of lessons, especially in Chandrapur.

Picture from AFA Maharashtra classrooms

The Jijivisha Fellowship (TJF)

Our high-touch program places professionals from different backgrounds such as art, psychology, and professionals trained in art therapy into classrooms for a year-long full-time fellowship who conduct arts-based socio-emotional learning sessions integrated with a climate action lens. The fellows are given objectives around socio-emotional learning and climate action for every quarter, and they plan and execute the lessons with the guidance of the city managers.

All four city (Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore) fellows have successfully designed and facilitated sessions covering the first five objectives outlined in the Curriculum Resource Guide. In August, class objectives primarily centered on emphasizing the importance of seeking help, recognizing the support networks within their homes, schools, and communities, and cultivating gratitude. The objectives also included learning about self and understanding one’s identity, strengths, and areas for growth.

Highlights from classes:

Creative approaches to classroom management:

• In Pune, in the classrooms of two of our schools, Anjali English School and Danyansagar and Kotwal School, the use of Call and Response to capture students’ attention has brought a new element to learning. This has been a game-changer in gaining students’ attention and engaging them in the sessions.
• One of Delhi’s fellows, Priyanjali, faced challenges with her class 5 students in managing their energy and behavior. In response, she introduced a solution: a Student Jobs and Cards System. These roles fostered a sense of ownership and responsibility among the students. They began helping each other, seeking support, and diligently following tasks. Additionally, Priyanjali implemented a card system featuring yellow, red, and black cards. If students didn’t listen to warnings, a yellow card served as an initial reminder, followed by a red card. With the black card, the student took a short break to think about their actions before rejoining the group. This creative approach aimed not to punish but to help students take responsibility for their behavior.

Creating safe spaces for children:

• In Mumbai, the students have started opening up to the fellows and sharing about their lives, personal experiences, and feelings. The Jijivisha fellowship aims to establish safe spaces where students can freely express themselves for emotional well-being, and students across the schools have been able to do that due to their rapport and trust with the fellows.

Open mics in classrooms:

• Class-level open mic sessions were held in Bangalore and Delhi. These mini-open mics serve as a precursor to the city-level open mic event scheduled for September 16th. We witnessed captivating poetry recitations, dance performances, and compelling stories, among other forms of expression during the class-level open mics. Notably, many initially reserved students ended up performing, some even participating multiple times with different groups.

Exploring different art forms:

• The fellows incorporated art forms like origami, poetry, and storytelling to achieve objectives such as identifying our support system and expressing gratitude. This introduced diversity beyond visual arts (drawing) in their classrooms, significantly increasing the involvement of the students in the sessions.

Participating in the ‘Gratitude Flight’ Activity, Students Craft Origami Birds to Show Appreciation for their Support System, Recognizing that, like birds, they too rely on this support to soar in life

Organizational updates

SOLmates going places!

• Jigyasa Labroo has been selected as a 2023 Echoing Green Fellow!

Selected from a global pool of nearly 2,000 applicants, Jigyasa is one of the 20 Fellows who represent the cutting edge of social innovation and transformative justice. Leaders in this cohort are driving systemic social change across ten countries and four continents including countries like Argentina, Cameroon, India, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, and the United States.

• 3 of our SOLmates - Naman, Sanea, and Rahul have been selected in the 2023 Potential Sustainability Warriors cohort from among applicants representing 53 countries, recognized for their dedication to sustainability. The program’s purpose is to empower participants to become more effective leaders in an ever-changing world through the adoption of positive life habits rooted in 25 years of research in positive psychology and neuroscience, and to expand their global network of fellow Sustainability Warriors, fostering connections for inspiration, opportunity sharing, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Aditi Ganguly, Program Manager at Slam Out Loud, was selected for and attended a conference as part of The Net Zero Fellowship by The School of Policy and Governance. The Net Zero fellowship is an exclusive programme for 100 emerging political and public leaders in India which facilitates a deeper understanding of India’s position and plans for tackling climate change. This invite-only fellowship introduced participants to the issues and pathways to a low carbon or Net Zero economy covering climate change basics, its impact, and ways to address it.
• Charlene Judith attended and facilitated a session at the conference - ‘Justice for Peace ’ organised by Seagull Foundation, centered around the theme “Justice for Peace,” aimed to help teachers to teach history from an inclusive and politically sensitive perspective. She facilitated a workshop that revolved around being inclusive in a classroom, as a teacher and a facilitator.

Nikhil Taneja, the founder of Yuvaa and a mentor for the Jijivisha fellows visited our classroom:

Nikhil Taneja, the founder of Yuvaa and a mentor for The Jijivisha Fellowship cohort in 2023, recently visited a Jijivisha class at Rishi Valmiki Eco School in Mumbai. During his visit, Nikhil engaged with students, teachers, and fellows. The purpose of his visit was to connect with the fellows, discuss their fellowship experiences, share insights from his leadership at Yuvaa, gain an understanding of the children’s context, and the importance of art in the lives of children.

New SOLmate in the team!

Natasha Chandhock (they/she), Associate- Graphic Design and Copywriting has a Master’s in Social Design and a Bachelor’s in Communication Design. They have previously worked as a publication/book cover designer and have pursued the ReFrame Arts Genderalities Fellowship 2.0 where they created an arts-based disability and queer justice project. They truly believe in the transformative power of art as a medium and in advocating for social inclusion through the arts.

Wishing you a great weekend ahead!