Community outreach

It has been nearly 25 years of the Community Outreach Program of ISST. It was in 1984 that the Central Social Welfare Board started supporting the Family Counselling Centre that had been run voluntarily for a few years by ISST. In the late 90’s, the counselling work was reoriented to include women who were facing crisis being part of the ‘family’. Soon the women from the community started highlighting the issues they were facing due to the lack of proper public infrastructure (roads, public toilets, PDS System).The field teams responded and were aided by the Right to Information Act and collective action by women, which then articulated the role of COP as ‘Building the spirit of citizenship’. Subsequently, the centre’s work on public accountability, running a Gender Resource Centre and mobilising domestic workers strengthened their bond with the community.

 

Rising need from the community to provide educational support to the children led to the establishment of the Saathi Centre in 2006 with the support of the Kalyanpuri Police Station. They provided the space which was developed as a safe learning environment for after-school hours. On average, each year, 250 -300 children participate in various programs. A separate space for adolescents was created around 2017 called the Yuva (Young) Saathi Centre.  

 

While there is no escape from supporting children in reaching their age-appropriate learning levels, the main focus of both centres is to focus on socio-emotional learning (SEL) needs. Thus activity based learning, providing opportunities for creative expressions through theatre, songs, stories, poetry, forms the core of what the team offers to children and adolescents. An active link with the community remains the help desk and the community library, which are operated at both the centres to provide guidance on accessing entitlements and making referrals to appropriate services.

Children (3-12 years)

Learning by playing
Remedial Classes
Social-Emotional Learning

Adolescents (13+)

Skill Building & Counseling
Creating Safe Spaces
Promoting Creative Expressions & Critical Mindsets

Women

Exploring Creative Expressions
Leadership Building
Building Confidence and Dignity 

All these activities at Saathi and Yuva Saathi center are planned keeping in mind the Gender Transformative Approach.

Apart from the above mentioned programmatic activities, the centers also provides other resources in the form of 

 

Empowering Youth: Gender and Smartphone Access at Saathi Centre

We hosted an impactful dissemination session at Saathi Centre, engaging 46 young participants (aged 15-22 years) in critical conversations on gender, digital access, and smartphone usage.

The session began with a presentation on key findings from our study, "Gender and Smartphone App Access, Use, and Control Among Youth," uncovering gender disparities in digital access. 🎥 We then screened our short film, 'Beyond the Screen,' sparking insightful discussions on digital realities, online safety, and gendered experiences.

💬 The highlight? An interactive workshop where participants explored two key questions:
📱 Is smartphone access unequal for boys and girls? Why?
📱 How can we ensure equal access to digital technology for all genders?

💡 The discussions brought forward real-life experiences, shedding light on family restrictions, societal norms, and financial barriers that shape digital inclusion. Participants also proposed solutions, emphasizing open conversations with families to build awareness and digital equity.

This session reinforced the importance of digital rights, online accessibility, and gender-inclusive technology policies. A huge thank you to Saathi Centre and all the young participants for their engagement and thoughtful reflections!

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Help Desk

Responding to the needs of the community, the team offers a variety of services at the help desk such as Filing RTI, information on admissions to schools and colleges,helping in filling forms, information on vaccinations, counseling on social, emotional & economic well-being. 

Community Library

The ISST Saathi Centre has been hosting a community library for children, adolescents, women and other members of the community which is being used by them.