About the Project
Gram Vikas and Social Shapes Foundation are collaborating on a project to pilot the Vikalp program of Social Shapes Foundation.
Choices (Vikalp) is a privilege accessible to few. But in today’s day and age of information and technology, sky should be the limit for all.
Vikalp is a direct engagement program with children and young adults between 10 and 24 years of age from low-income families. Notwithstanding their social and economic context, children begin to weave dreams and build meaningful hopes and desires to create an emotionally and economically successful life as they develop cognition and move beyond early childhood years. However, in absence of the right support system, these aspirations may fizzle out soon.
Vikalp will work to influence the Aspirations Ecosystem of its target beneficiaries to enable enhanced educational and employment outcomes for them.
With equal focus on both intrinsic (self-confidence, self-esteem and efficacy, socio-emotional awareness) and external (role models, inspiration, guidance and parent engagement) levers, the program will be delivered in three stages:
o Explore – Freedom and Learning to question – Focus on building attention spans, sense of self-confidence, knowledge on current affairs, global awareness, socio-emotional awareness and support with fundamental education.
o Seek – Finding answers – At this stage the ability to aspire improves, skills and ability start to match with interests and focus is sharpened.
o Build – identifying pathways – Support in showing clear pathways to reach desired goal, mentorship and financial and technical training guidance.
The modules in each of the above stages will be delivered to children in a village at their doorstep, or a common area in the village.
The pilot is a 12-month long project based in Jharsuguda District, Odisha. It comprises of preparatory phase (3 months), pilot phase (6 months), and analysis and reporting phase (3 months). The objective of this pilot is to implement minimum 2 modules of the “Vikalp” program with 100 youth from low income rural households for a period of 6-months to validate the design and efficacy of the program, and gather evidence and learnings to improve and scale the program.
The program aims to assess:
 The concept of learning group and its suitability as an engagement platform
 Entire Vikalp program design and methodology
 Training modules for youth and how to modify it as per the actual needs; which modules to
include and exclude – plan phased introduction of modules based on relevance
 Drivers of aspirations, understand the levers of aspirations ecosystem more clearly to
contribute to the Aspirations Index
Job description
Responsibilities
The Technical Project Associate will work close with the project leadership and Director of Social Shapes Foundation. They will be responsible for conducting and managing research, data collection,module content and delivery design, and overall execution of the program.
- Work closely with Social Shapes Foundation and Gram Vikas to coordinate activities between the two organizations
- Manage and supervise effective and accurate data-collection during the FGDs, synthesize findings, create reports and present findings to the leadership team
- Support content development for the modules, assessment tools and other engagement activities, and ideate innovative and context-appropriate delivery methods
- Support in developing training materials and conducting trainings for all field staff
- Supervise module delivery by the Learning Group Officers (LGOs), first-level conflict resolution and problem solving
- Track and ensure timely and quality execution of all activities
- Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly progress reports, or as and when asked Preferred experience and skills
- Master’s Degree in areas of business management, rural management, social work, economics, or other social studies, OR, Bachelor’s degree from a Tier-1 institute in social sciences or arts, with at least 2 years of work experience in research, project operations,content development, or monitoring and evaluation
- Interested in psychological and cultural impact studies with reference to children and youth education and livelihoods
- Comfortable in learning and exploring new technologies and digital tools
- Proficient in social and economic research
- Proficient in oral and written communication
- Comfortable with using MS Office
- Proficient in English and Oriya and comfortable in Hindi
- Willing to work and stay in rural areas
Duration
1 month probation (March 2021), followed by 12 months contract (April 2021 to March 2022)
Location
The role is based out of District Jharsuguda, Odisha.
Compensation
Probation period: INR 10,000/-
Contract period: INR 15,000/- per month
Suitable accommodation for the entire duration of the project will be provided.