East African Girls' Leadership Summit (EAGLS)

My Process

Initial Planning

I had several conversations with the CAI team about their needs and the needs of the youth leaders who would be attending. It was crucial that I understand their goals to design a program that would be effective in building leadership skills. One important requirement was that the curriculum needed self explanatory because the summit would be run by mentors and I would not be able to provide guidance during the event.

I reviewed past summits and materials available on the Sauti ya Dada (SYD) program which is a requirement for attending the summit to assess what had been done and generate ideas which could build on past experiences while being new.

Objectives

I outlined the program by day, setting specific objectives for each day based on themes:

• Day 1 - Introduction, Community Building, and Reflections on SYD

• Day 2 - CAPs Showcase and Collaboration

• Day 3 - Climate Change and Advocacy Skills

• Day 4 - Field Trip to Nairobi to meet climate change leaders

• Day 5 - Reflect on EAGLS and next steps

Including daily activities which would run throughout the entire program, like the art wall and secret sisters. 

Next I broke each day into blocks and began to design activities which would achieve the goals for each day. Some activities were requested by the CAI team, like the CAPs showcase, others were my own creations Climate Justice Youth Leaders showcase which highlighted other young girls who were advocates for causes in their communities.​

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Design

I wrote the program to be easily accessible for anyone to pick up and implement by organizing each activity in a standard format, with a description of the activity, goals, materials, and step by step instructions which showed what the facilitator needed to DO, SAY, and ASK at each point. I also included a numbering system so it was clear what activity each material was required for, with the first digit being the day and the second being the order of the activity for that day.

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Resources were limited at the venue, so it was crucial to ensure that no activities relied on materials that would not be available. For example, I suggested doing the Spaghetti Tower Challenge as a collaborative teambuilding and creative thinking activity. But the CAI team made it clear they didn't like to use food as materials because it be wasteful. So I redesigned the activity to use common building materials such as newspaper to make the activity appropriate for the circumstance.

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In addition to the Facilitator's Manual, I also created two supplementary program documents: a workbook and an appendix. The workbook, provided to all participants, contained activities and served as a personal journal for tracking their progress throughout the summit. Participants would be able to take it home with them at the end as a record of their journey. The appendix contained all the supplemental materials used during the summit, including pictures, handouts, worksheets, and other resources.​​

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Feedback & Revision

As part of the design process, we held several discussions to review the first drafts and gather feedback. These conversations proved to be incredibly productive, as the CAI team had deeper insights into the attendees' needs, which were invaluable in refining the course. For instance, I initially created a showcase featuring young women, like Greta Thunberg, who were advocating for climate change globally. However, the CAI team pointed out that using international examples might not resonate with the participants. They recommended focusing on African youth leaders instead. Following this guidance, I conducted further research and discovered numerous relevant examples, which made the activity far more meaningful and connected to the participants' own experiences.

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Final Submission

After several rounds of feedback and revision, the final curriculum was submitted to CAI with a Facilitators' Guide (102 pages), Workbook (38 pages), and Appendix (43 pages). The EAGLS summit took place in Jan. 2023.