Colors of Kindness

Protracted crises and natural disasters have denied an estimated 33 million children who have been forcibly displaced worldwide their childhood and the opportunity to reach their full potential. Per a UNESCO report, more than 888 million children worldwide continue to have their education disrupted. 

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has also disrupted the lives of children around the world. The closures of schools and community centers, in addition to mandatory quarantines, have added stressors to households and interrupted optimal child development. This is especially true for already vulnerable children, including children with disabilities and children living outside of family care, who are at increased risk of infectious disease, and of physical and emotional maltreatment, mental distress, and violence.

The current global health crisis will further negatively impact the emotional well-being of children and their families. Exasperating negative effects on their social, emotional and cognitive development, and creating a deeper marginalization of girls and children with disabilities. This is especially true for marginalized communities, whose psychosocial and emotional wellbeing will be further affected.  

To this effect, social emotional learning (SEL) is particularly important for vulnerable groups as it provides mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). SEL has proven to be a necessary component to educational systems, supporting teachers, caregivers, and their children in a positive and safe learning environment. Learners gain the critical life skills for academic success, and the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century. Our SEL content is designed to holistically reengage both migrant and host community learners to accelerate the learning losses presented by the disruption to their education. To date, our SEL content has been downloaded in 175 countries demonstrating the great need for this form of psychosocial support globally.

Colors of Kindness is an innovative EdTech solution that aims to: 

1. Improve children’s social and emotional skills and wellbeing.

2. Bridge learning losses presented by the disruption to children’s education and preparing them to be ready to learn. 

3. Strengthen the evidence base of social and emotional learning in education in emergencies with practical monitoring and evaluation tools that measure children’s development of skills in relation to their academic performance.

4. Increase access to and engagement with distance learning.

5. Support teacher wellbeing and ease of instruction through guided podcast instruction.  

In light of the ongoing pandemic, the program aims to ease participants’ transition back to school as traditional learning environments reopen by providing digital resources for the social emotional development that is often missing from traditional structures. Colors of Kindness helps children develop the skills necessary to cope with the new and difficult emotions that accompany emergency situations and trauma. 

With great emphasis placed on Access to Learning Environments, Colors of Kindness seeks to provide children in low-resource settings access to social and emotional learning (SEL) content through a learning management system. Colors of Kindness utilizes Learning Equality’s award-winning Kolibri, designed for offline-first teaching and learning and centered around a learning platform with Learning Management System (LMS) functionalities,  providing access to children who would otherwise be left behind given barriers to connectivity and other resources.  

Colors of Kindness is meant to enhance academic outputs and increase integration of the displaced children with the host community by aligning with the national school system. This integration will serve to foster cultural understanding and augment peace education. While it was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is able to be employed to accelerate learning during a transition, or simply enhance learning outputs at any stage of the academic year. It is not meant to replace curriculum, but enhance school programs by adding on an SEL component of 1 hour of instruction a week. The teacher training also supports teachers in incorporating SEL throughout their daily lesson plans to aid in class management.

Colors of Kindness provides SEL content via a weekly podcast episode embedded in a digital workbook. WIth one new episode each week, the podcast is embedded within an interactive digital workbook with visual aids that feature brightly colored geometric creatures. These figures have been designed in a culturally sensitive and gender neutral manner to appeal to global audiences. Each SEL theme was broken down into two-week segments, augmenting the SEL competencies shown on this graph:

Within each week, activities include an opening activity (i.e., a movement or balancing game), breathwork, a main activity (i.e., Emotions Charades or Dream Mapping), an exercise of the week, an emotional check-in using a digital emotional thermometer, and a closing gratitude exercise. Children are also prompted to complete a challenge activity, which aims to give them a task to focus on before returning for the next week’s session. The full list of activities can be found on this Episode Map. 

Colors of Kindness targets primary aged children (6-12) in both formal and nonformal systems. This population includes predominantly displaced children, including migrant and refugee populations, children with disabilities, and out-of-school kids in low-resource settings. Classes also include host community children, as well as a gender inclusive focus on girls. Lastly, teachers are indirect beneficiaries through the support of their wellbeing.

This innovation addresses gaps in learning environments, supporting refugee and host community learners where the Internet is limited, and/or where educators may not have access to play-based learning preparation or learning materials for students. For vulnerable and out-of-school children (OOSC) impacted by the pandemic, there is a critical and urgent need to strengthen cognitive, interpersonal, and emotional skills.

The initial ten-week test phase of Colors of Kindness in Bangladesh showed a 16.5% increase in childrens’ SEL competencies. The program successfully influenced learning outcomes, and 99% of caregivers reported their child’s mood had improved after completing the program. In addition, all the teachers indicated that this program was beneficial for both the children and themselves. Given the short nature of the pilot, such a remarkable change was a strong indicator of the potential success of a longer term program. Since this initial test, Colors of Kindness is now running a second pilot in Greece in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Greece and 6 NGOs. This iteration is being evaluated by the EASEL Lab of Harvard University to understand the impact and efficacy of the program, and has already demonstrated strong indicators while only on Week 5 of instruction. 

We are proud to have a diverse team of members from all over the world. The varying experiences and backgrounds they bring enrich our organization as well as the work we do. Most of our team members have direct service experience working within displaced populations and underserved communities. Most importantly, our local implementation is always conducted in partnership with local organizations that consist of staff that are members of the community we wish to serve. Local partners are involved in every stage of the project: from pre planning to implementation to evaluation. Their input and perspectives are vital to the success of the project within the local context. The feedback of students, teachers, and caregivers is also welcomed through regular assessments and ongoing contact from which we can continue to deliver the intervention as best fit for the community. This feedback loop also strengthens future iterations of content production to ensure it adequately meets the needs. Lastly, each iteration of Colors of Kindness is adapted to the community and learners targeted through language as well as cultural considerations.

Furthermore, our innovative team have demonstrated their experience and track record in design, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation of a creative approach to education in refugee contexts. The leadership level is made up of professionals in fields such as business, government, marketing, tech, law, and finance. Their skills are not only pertinent to scale, but are ideal in building strong connections and partnerships for sustainable growth. The design team includes  expert communicators that synthesize complex ideas into fun and novel content that learners enjoy. They also have a deep understanding of human behavior and child development. The team’s core competencies include, but are not limited to their creativity, incorporation of holistic methodology, and ability to contextualize across varying cultures. These skills have all proven effective in implementation of programs in Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Uganda, and Bangladesh. 

Our initial barrier was a lack of evidence-based findings. The Colors pilot was conducted as an emergency response with M&E tools created to fit the rapid deployment. Lack of funding then prohibited a proper study from being undertaken, until a foundation funded an evidence base study in Greece.

Secondly, Amal Alliance is an 100% voluntarily run organization with a lean team of 4 volunteers (including their full-time unpaid CEO). While there is a vast pool of experts that comprise their Board & Advisory Board, there is no permanent staff. With the growing demand for SEL programs, the lack of capacity has inhibited our growth. In order to scale, funding for a core management team is needed.   

Lastly, we have seen that 75% of our content is universal, but 25% requires a critical contextualization, localization, and alignment to community needs. These variations require funding for needs assessments and localization. With support from MIT Solve, our partnership would generate tremendous impact through the implementation of Colors across various settings. Together we would ensure children grow to be creative, lifelong learners, and learn to adapt with the growing challenges of our times. 

The Colors of Kindness program targets a largely overlooked area: socio-emotional and mental wellbeing. It differentiates from other actors as it is void of licensing fees since it is a quality open educational resource for education in emergencies. The program’s hybrid model can also be uniquely implemented in both formal and informal settings, showing improvement not only in wellbeing, but in academic outputs and accelerated learning. In addition, the intuitive design and accessible socio-emotional learning content allow for a trauma-informed approach that is easy to implement for teachers regardless of whether or not they have advanced degrees in the fields of psychology, social work, and the like.  

The innovative delivery of audio instruction via podcast has garnered numerous awards for this EdTech solution to pandemic, and post-pandemic instruction. It is easy to adopt and implement while maintaining a culturally inclusive approach. Released under creative commons licensing (CC-BY-NC-ND-International 4.0), the open-source nature of the solution has enabled education actors to adopt the program.  The workbook adaptation alone has been downloaded in 175 countries, and an estimated 170,000 beneficiaries have benefitted from the content. We are in talks with UNICEF’s Microsoft Learning Passport to upload it to their library, which will exponentially grow our impact as NGOs include it in their programming. 

In the next year we plan to scale the solution. The Ministry of Education of Greece has already indicated they wish to grow the solution to cover 14,000 schools and 300 camps by September 2020. With pilots running in Uganda, this will also open the roads for future opportunities within the country and in Africa. Lastly, we are in early conversations with the Ministry of Education of Guyana and the Inter-Development Bank to implement such a model in Guyana.

In 5 years, we would love to see over 1 million children benefiting from the program. We strongly believe that Colors of Kindness will complement the efforts of educational stakeholders to provide the foundational skills children need to be resilient, reach their full potential, and flourish. We wish to see governments adopting SEL programming into the formal system as a module similar to math or science for children to thrive in the global job market. 

We also plan to stay true to our core by providing education opportunities for those left behind, children who do not have access to formal schooling. This social enterprise modality will ensure equitable and inclusive education for all.

Assessment tools specific to Colors were initially developed with UNHCR and NYU Global Ties as part of UNHCR’s Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA). Data from the initial test in Bangladesh showed a 16.5% increase in SEL competency amongst the children, and 99% of caregivers reported that their child’s mood had improved only after 10 weeks. For the subsequent iteration in Greece, Amal Alliance partnered with the EASEL Lab of Harvard Graduate School of Education to enhance and validate the M&E tools, and establish a scalable, evidence-based model.

The SEL Assessment tools include:

1. Pre- and post-program Teacher Background Questionnaire

2. Pre- and post-program Teacher Student Questionnaire

3. Pre- and post-program Student Questionnaire

4. Weekly Student Emotions Thermometer

5. Weekly Teacher Implementation Log

Our social change goal envisions (SEL) as an integral component to academic structures. SEL will serve as a tool to bridge learning losses for children whose education has been disrupted. We believe that children need to learn these foundational skills in order to build resilience, achieve optimal  wellbeing, and reach their full potential. This is especially true for marginalized communities that have suffered from trauma and toxic stress, causing adverse effects to their mental health, cognitive, and emotional development.

Outcome 1. To increase the social and emotional skills of refugee and host community children. Grow a comprehensive program for refugee children ready for larger take-up/rollout that helps children learn coping mechanisms, build their resilience, foster mental health, and improve their social and emotional wellbeing.

Output 1.1 Supporting wellbeing of children and teachers/caregivers through classroom based training cycles. 

• Activity 1.1.1 Training of teachers/facilitators in a holistic educational approach and fundamentals of SEL.
• Activity 1.1.2 Through the training manual and curriculum, the content addresses emotional regulation through breathwork, yoga, exercises, art therapy, and games.

Output 1.2 Produce child focused curriculum that improves 5 SEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills.

• Activity 1.2.1 Providing holistic programming that is trauma informed and is specific to social and emotional development.
• Activity 1.2.2 Engage in different activities that enhance SEL competencies.

Output 1.3 Apply an M&E framework to evaluate the efficacy of the program and monitor the improvement of SEL competencies.

• Activity 1.3.1 Teachers, parents, and children fill out pre- and post- surveys to measure change.
• Activity 1.3.2 Children participate in taking their emotional temperature each week with the emotions thermometer.

Output 1.4 Produce 1 publication/case study showing an evidence based model of integrating SEL components into formal and informal academic settings. [Launch report just prior to UN General Assembly or during for greater impact]

• Activity 1.4.1 Analyze M&E data points to create a research based study
• Activity 1.4.2 Disseminate and share findings across humanitarian actors
• Activity 1.4.3. Present on webinars, events, and other platforms to share with the community of practice.

Outcome 2. Influence the mindset of governments and communities to consider integrating SEL for quality learning.

Output 2.1 Planning and implementation of 1 advocacy campaign with research based findings.

• Activity 2.1.1 Building contacts and networks to strategically influence public institutions 
• Activity 2.1.2 Work with partner organizations, such as UNHCR or UNICEF, to present and promote our findings to their global networks through platforms or events.
• Activity 2.1.3 Parallel to the UN General Assembly, present findings at a side event or panel.

Output 2.2 Building a scalable model that introduces and demonstrates SEL in an innovative way that complements national school systems. This add-on approach does not require governments to change pre existing curriculum, but supplement with this unique component. 

• Activity 2.2.1 Designing the pilot with scale in mind for easy replication.
• Activity 2.2.2 Advance our government and local partnerships for further scale.
• Activity 2.2.3 Sharing best practices of our innovative application and approach to integrating SEL.

Output 2.3 Measuring children's’ development of social and emotional competencies, wellbeing, and their relation to their academic performance.

• Activity 2.3.1 Through pre- and post- surveys, as well as a baseline assessment for academic standing, we can gather data to compare our findings.

Colors of Kindness includes a podcast embedded in a digital workbook designed on H5P. H5P  is an open-source content collaboration framework based on JavaScript that aims to make it easy for everyone to create, share and reuse interactive HTML5 content. This digital workbook provides for interoperability as it can be uploaded to any LMS platform or wordpress site. The podcast itself has also been delivered on WhatsApp for support to the teacher. Given our work in contexts with low to no connectivity, we collaborate with Learning Equality to use their award winning educational offline platform, Kolibri. We have piloted Colors of Kindness through Kolibri in Greece, and will be introducing a novel adaptation of Kolibri including their platform and a collection of resources including our content in Uganda. 

Colors is considered to be an inclusive education model that both protects and promotes the wellbeing of girls and boys. Through consultations with girls, boys, female teachers, parents, local implementing organizations, education clusters, and stakeholders, Amal Alliance uses a participatory approach during the planning, implementation, monitoring, and feedback phases. 

For learners at highest risk of exclusion, such as those with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, Amal Alliance advocates for system-wide reforms and additional planning measures to ensure programming is both gender- and disability-responsive. Colors can be implemented in both formal and informal settings and will ensure that girls and boys -- including those hardest to reach and those living with disabilities -- can safely access not just academic instruction, but also SEL. 

Amal aligns a quality-focused approach to ensure that all girls and boys with disabilities in emergency and crisis settings have access to inclusive quality education. Amal Alliance’s disability-inclusive model incorporates safe and integrated service delivery that strengthens the capacity of local actors to use inclusive methods and tools that help deliver mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). 

Colors’ delivery mechanism is gender empowering, providing unique opportunities for girls to partake in classes that oftentimes are culturally reserved for boys. The teacher training mechanism is also designed to provide professional development opportunities for female instructors.

Internally, we are fortunate as an organization to have a diverse representation of a multitude of ethnicities, races, genders, orientations, and abilities reflected in not only our staff but both our executive and advisory boards as well. This diversity is at Amal Alliance’s core and also embodies the type of ideals and community we aim to achieve as well as support through our work.

Amal Alliance is a US based 501c3 nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established to provide four pillars of support to displaced and disenfranchised children. We add value to these populations through pillars including 1) social emotional learning, 2) psychosocial support, 3) early childhood development, and 4) peace education. With the pandemic disrupting education at large, the organization was uniquely placed to leverage their expertise in education in emergencies to serve out of school children. This vision led to the creation of Colors of Kindness, and the notion of a high quality open education resource. The organization collaborates with NGOs and governments alike from MoEs to ensure sustainability for relevant contexts.

Studying the available business models to attract funding, we believe a combination of different models will be most beneficial to long-term sustainability. While certain aspects of Colors of Kindness will be released under a creative commons license to facilitate scale, other related services will be available at an additional cost. These could include teacher training, professional development courses on SEL, consultation services, ongoing technical assistance, and the monitoring and evaluation framework. Therefore, a combination of a business-to-business (B2B), licensing, and open resource model would make most sense. This would allow us to offer our programming to governments and other NGOs. We can tailor our services to meet their needs, such as providing our content in a specific language or format, as well as secure funding for further content development of open educational resources. 

Currently Amal Alliance is an 100% voluntary run organization, which receives grants for project based implementation. While this model ensures all grants go directly to the project at hand, funding for permanent staff is needed for sustainability. As the demand and need continues to grow, unrestricted funding to cover hiring a team to manage the global operations is imperative. Also, while content has been created it is important to continuously update it after receiving feedback from participants, and translating and localizing it to fit various regions and contexts. To do so, content development staff is needed to keep material actualized. To secure funding for this, we hope to raise investment capital, and adquire service contracts or multi-year grant funding from governments. Disney had also suggested we turn the Colors of Kindness blobs into plush toys to generate income through purchase.

As winners of the Humanitarian Education Accelerator COVID 19 Challenge, UNHCR & IDEO.org were the initial funders to create Colors of Kindness as an Education in Emergencies (EiE) prototype. Porticus later funded the evidence base pilot to ensure the prototype could be scalable. Education Cannot Wait has committed funds for advocacy efforts in 2022 to dissipate findings and promote system change. Through alternate funding, a new innovative project, Flying Colors, will be launching in Uganda mid-2022 in partnership with Learning Equality. Flying Colors will bring together playful, academic, and social-emotional learning in a blended learning model to support out of school and vulnerable refugee and host community learners in the Palabek Refugee Settlement. Various law firms including Davis Polk and Eversheds and Sutherland have provided pro-bono legal assistance to set the foundation of legal structures. All Good Work Foundation provides us with an in-kind office grant to ensure we have access to a co-working space. Lastly, DisneyVoluntEARS has provided in-kind support on marketing strategies.