A novel strengthening scheme for seismically weak RC frames is developed which utilizes external steel caging to improve flexural/shear strength of columns and Aluminum shear-yielding damper (Al-SYD) device to further enhance lateral strength, stiffness and overall energy dissipation capacity of the frame. The system is experimentally shown to have met the ACI criteria of satisfactory performance with no damage to primary members even upto lateral drift of 3.5%.