SKILLZ COVID-19 RESPONSE Curriculum

Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is an adolescent health organisation that leverages the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilise at-risk youth in developing countries. Anticipating that the pandemic will exacerbate acute health challenges that are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity for adolescents, in March 2020, GRS and its team of curriculum advisors rapidly designed a sport-based tool for coaches, educators, and parents to use in facilitating fun, simple, and effective sessions with young people (ages 10-19).

The curriculum aims to increase comprehensive knowledge on COVID-19, promote healthy behaviours such as proper handwashing, provide skills for mental well-being during stressful times, and dispel common myths about the disease. It takes the form of a series of 3 "practices" that can be completed in 30 minutes or fewer. The following principles guide this curriculum:

• Open-source: The curriculum is openly available to organisations, schools, teams, businesses, and governments seeking to provide information on COVID-19 and promote healthy behaviours to stop the spread of the virus.
• Evidence-based: This curriculum applies the GRS curriculum methodology, which has been refined through 17 years of research.
• Modular: Activities can be integrated as an additional layer to supplement existing youth programming or as a standalone resource.
• Adaptable: Each activity can be adapted based on age/comfort/experience of participants.
• Flexible: The curriculum can be used for in-person delivery if possible or for remote interaction with young people (see also the remote guide, available at the URL below).
• Common rituals and structure: Each session follows a similar format, including a consistent introduction, activity, and closing ritual where participants explore ways to integrate healthy behaviours into their lives.
• Supportive: GRS has a range of evidence-based programmatic resources and technical assistance services available to organisations working with adolescents worldwide. Please send an email to partnerships@grassrootsoccer.org to learn more.

The updated version (2.0) includes information on masks, updates on physical distancing guidelines, links to activity videos, activities to support decision-making and explain how to address misinformation, links to an evaluation survey, and several other revisions.