Youth Resource Cells [YRC] is our flagship programme that runs in eight diverse locations, from urban slums to remote villages in West Bengal, India. We have over 100 clusters serving 2000 children.
The YRC Programme is a long-term partnership with marginalised young people to build a sustainable, community-based approach to social transformation, with a focus on Gender Equity and Child Rights.
The programme continues to grow in response to emerging needs. An average participant spends 12-15 years within the YRC system, discovering oneself, challenging harmful social norms, and leading change.
Every young member moves back and forth through the stages as they grow within the YRC.
Belong
Heal
Explore
Confront
Lead
The YRC curriculum has evolved over the years to help young people develop SHINE values:
Self worth and agency, Human rights awareness and resilience, Integrity, Non-Violence and Empathy.
SHINE values are developed through 12 themes that are explored weekly through a series of participatory methods in three age appropriate clusters; for 6-9, 10-13, 14-17+ year olds.
Young People go through an intensive leadership journey to create youth groups (cells) in their respective communities.
Each Youth Resource Cell has its own core team which manages programmes in their own locations. The core team comprises founder leaders and mentors who are part of a regular training programme. Senior Leaders from each YRC come together centrally as the YRC Federation. They manage and support different programmes for all groups.
The first set of YRCs was set up in 2008.
Apprenticeship and regular training of trainers for children, junior and senior mentors.
Weekly sessions with children and adolescents tracking warning signs, exploring values, skills and rights.
Regular Mothers Support Groups, Parent Child Bonding workshops, Father Engagements and Home Visits.
Regular tracking and following up on individual cases
Building healing skills for young people and parents. Intensive individual and group processes using a range of therapies including compassionate enquiry, trauma healing, mindfulness, music, movement and art.
Formal Karate training for selected Mentors, and regular fitness sessions run by mentors in their respective communities.
Need based intensive daily services for vulnerable children from 6-18 years.
Weekly sessions and special workshops on Gender, Sexuality and Relationship skills for adolescent girls 12+.
Boys Support Groups, and Camps on Power, Masculinity and Sexuality for adolescent boys 14-18 years.
Workshops, Camps and action projects promoting inclusion.
Remedial classes for 6-13-year olds ensuring that every child is able to read fluently.
Career Guidance, Skill Building, Livelihood Training and Placement.
Youth Resource Cells are built on the foundational values of solidarity, equality and inclusion. The programme is dedicated to healing and developing the inner resources of young people through their formative years; building Self-esteem, Integrity, Empathy, Non-Violence and Critical Thinking skills.
Shifting deep-rooted harmful social norms require open, deep and meaningful conversations; dialogues in an environment of non-judgment and empathy. Listening, negotiation, imagining change, these are necessary ingredients of transformational dialogue.
The YRC programme is run by young people for young people. Peer leaders or Mentors go through intensive and continuous capacity building to become facilitators, mentors, peer counsellors, social investigators, voices of encouragement and support. Peer facilitation is supported by pictorial games that promote dialogue.
The older youth leaders set the agenda for change in their community and drive the transformation from within. Social transformation needs a generation of young people who evolve into empathetic, compassionate leaders.
Social norm change requires a critical mass for new attitudes to become the norm, and Community Ownership is necessary for the critical mass to form. The YRC process strives to unlock the enormous potential and access the hidden reserves of Love and Compassion in the Collective Consciousness.
Children, Adolescents, Youth, Parents are organized as support groups that meet at fixed, regular intervals. They support each other, and work cohesively to claim their rights, strengthen communities and sustain change.
photo: Ranita Roy
“I grew up amidst pure violence. Women in my family were beaten black and blue by my father, brothers, uncles. But I have managed transform all the men in my family, one by one, even though it took me nearly a decade.
It all started on my 10th birthday, when my mother boldly brought me to a YRC meeting; it was the best gift I’d ever received. For the first time, I shared my pain, and everyone sat with their arms around me and said 'We are with you in this struggle'. I’d never felt so supported.
I am a senior mentor today, and I have the words and the tools to push for change, with empathy as well as firmness. I say strip away these ideas that have been passed down to you, and you’ll see who we really are."
photo: Ranita Roy
“My mother attempted suicide when I was little. She was hospitalised, and I was shifted to my grandparents. Then my father, a taxi driver, died. My mother moved in with my grandparents, and I was shifted to a hostel. The hostel experience was unbearable, it left me feeling deeply unwanted and angry.
I joined the YRC when I was 13. In a couple of years I was invited to take charge of a cluster, but it was hard. When young people didn’t listen, I would be enraged and often wanted to give it all up. But my Didis motivated me.
A few years later, my mother suffered serious mental illness, and I struggled to keep balance. It was a dark phase and I went into a shell. The group and the counsellor guided me for two years. I realised that this was my family too, where I had unconditional support. Gradually my relationships and communication improved vastly.
Today I look after a group of troubled girls. I feel a responsibility to share the gifts I have received. One life isn’t enough to make the change I want. If I could live another seven lives, I’d spend them all like this: empowering other girls to become free, independent, dreamers."