Happy Schools

Pioneer dance as a creative solution for happiness and well-being in schools

ChezaCheza pioneers dance as a creative solution in schools across Kenya's underserved areas by blending dance movement therapy, SEL, and mindfulness. We identify and train local dancers to facilitate dance sessions for children in schools, alleviating mental health issues, strengthening self-esteem, and fortifying life skills necessary to build resilient communities.

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HundrED 2025

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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED Global Collection 2025

Web presence

2018

Established

1.5K

Children

1

Countries

Target group

Students lower

Updated

August 2024

We strive to shift the educational emphasis from traditional academic achievement to a more holistic development framework, acknowledging the importance of happiness as part of an enabling learning environment. Our mission encompasses breaking barriers to enrich education in marginalized communities by democratising access to quality education for children in hard-to-reach areas.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

ChezaCheza was founded as an innovative solution to the rising mental health issues in communities and schools, resulting in declining student and teacher well-being, rising rates of out-of-school children, school violence, learner disengagement and early school leaving, heavy workloads for teachers and students, and teacher burnout and shortages.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

ChezaCheza effectuates profound changes in students' social and emotional development and overall well-being by integrating Social-Emotional Learning through dance-based activities within the schooling ecosystem. We crafted a unique solution based on our love for dance: combining dance movement therapy with Social-Emotional Learning and mindfulness meditation. ChezaCheza adopts an innovative, community-centric approach whereby it identifies and trains talented local youths from concerned disadvantaged communities to become Dance Educators—equipping them with innovative teaching methods, counselling techniques, and child safety protocols. Our Dance Educators deliver weekly dance sessions while fortifying children's coping strategies, self-esteem and expression, driving the well-being and happiness narrative in a fresh, fun way. They also deliver training to upskill teachers to deliver parts of the ChezaCheza curriculum in their classrooms.

How has it been spreading?

ChezaCheza Dance Foundation has enacted a model that capitalizes on community strength to uplift and support the next generation of learners. To achieve our goal of bringing Social-Emotional Learning benefits to schools and communities, we employ the following tactics:
1. Local Engagement: Our initial step towards achieving scale involves identifying and training local dancers in each community in which we work.
2. Community Mapping: We start our project expansion by mapping new frontier areas. This involves site visits in marginalised urban regions and identifying potential coaches for our programs.
3. Partnerships: We are creating partnerships with schools to integrate our curriculum within their framework — thus making our dance curriculum more accessible within the school.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Reach out to our ChezaCheza team and start the dance journey with us.

Impact & scalability

HundrED Academy Reviews

The Happy Schools initiative can have important impact for students in difficult settings. There is evidence that demonstrates the relationship between the arts, such as dance, and improved mental health, confidence, which can then improve learning as well.

Happy Schools has outlined a systematic approach to scale its impact, including community mapping, school partnerships, and local engagement. This expansion strategy is crucial for replicating the program in different geographic areas and cultural contexts.

- Academy member

Academy review results

Impact

Scalability

Exceptional

High

Moderate

Limited

Insufficient

Exceptional

High

Moderate

Limited

Insufficient

Implementation steps

Mapping new areas for expansion

We start our project by mapping new areas of expansion in marginalised urban communities. This mapping is done by the following criteria:
1. Socioeconomic level of the area
2. Number of primary and secondary schools We conduct multiple site visits in the selected areas, connect with partner organisations, visit schools and identify potential coaches for our program.

Conduct interviews to select top coaches for the program

We then hold multiple interviews to select the top coaches; talented dancers committed and passionate about creating social change in their communities. First, we set out a call for applications, and all coaches who applied go through 3 interview rounds to select the top coaches. All interview questions and scoring mechanisms are standardised to ensure transparency in the recruitment process.

Teacher Training for Dance Educators

Teacher Training to prepare talented youth leaders to become Dance Educators in the ChezaCheza program. The selected educators undergo an intensive 5-day training program focused on Dance Movement Therapy, Social-Emotional Learning, Meditation, basic counselling skills and child safety.

School Outreach

School outreach to identify potential schools for the program
ChezaCheza has a few indicators to select schools:
-Private schools (we do not work with government schools due to regulations)
-Schools located in informal/ marginalised settlements
-Upper primary, class 6 and 7
-The school has limited or no extracurricular activities
-The school has limited funding
-The school has strong school leadership

Weekly therapeutic dance session for one year

Trained youth, called Dance Educators, lead weekly dance sessions with the dance therapy curriculum rooted in Dance Movement Therapy, Social-Emotional Learning and Mindfulness Meditation.

Teacher Training in schools on Social-Emotional Learning and dance

Teachers in the selected schools receive a 2-day training in schools on SEL, well-being and dance. The training has a knowledge component that focuses on building happy schools and explaining why happiness is essential for learning outcomes, classroom behaviour, and the overall school environment. The other day is focused on skills and teaches teachers practical dance/movement exercises that they can incorporate into their classroom.

ChezaCheza Toolkit

The schools receive a ChezaCheza toolkit that supports the implementation of Happy Schools and ensures sustainability afterChezaCheza finalsises the partnership.