Learning Collaborative Essential Resources

Social norms are the often unspoken “rules” that govern behaviors and practices within societies. Similarly, gender norms are informal rules that govern behaviors and practices based on gender identities. Social norms matter because they influence people’s behavior, can perpetuate harmful health practices and reinforce gender and other inequities. The Learning Collaborative to Advance Normative Change is a network of experts committed to facilitating collaboration between organizations and individuals to advance our understanding of how social norms positively affect adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.

To accomplish this, we have identified Learning Collaborative resources, along with external resources, to help programmers identify and understand the influence of social norms. These resources address four phases in which to consider norms in your programs: orientation, formative, design and implementation.