Watching their children blossom into maturity may be one of the most challenging things a parent goes through. What about the children themselves?
During the June holidays last year, Club Rainbow Singapore (CRS) saw some 12 youth beneficiaries taking part in bonding activities as part of the Youth Engagement Programme.
Coaster-making kits delivered to participants.
That was the first initiative of CRS’ Youth Engagement Programme in 2020, which has covered a career guidance workshop by DBS volunteers, a coaster-making entrepreneurial workshop, and a magic workshop within the same year. Due to the onset of the pandemic, however, all of these planned workshops were shifted online.
The coaster-making entrepreneurial online workshop was facilitated by delivering the required items to the beneficiaries and teaching them online.
The big idea behind this workshop was to help the youths discover their interests while teaching them how to profit from their creative masterpieces. Tips on starting a business and social media marketing were shared with the youths.
Widest smiles, showing off their completed coasters.
“Two of them came down and mentioned that they are really very interested in this and branched out to other products on their own after determining coaster-making wasn’t their strong point,” said Low Guan You, a social worker who was the main facilitator, “the medium doesn’t matter.”
Taking it online did not hinder the effectiveness of these workshops, as evident from the youths’ successful identification of their own interests.
Good relationships formed after end of session.
After having forged new friendships through fruitful interactions, the beneficiaries wanted more. By popular demand, a new group work session, “Catching Up!” was initiated to provide a place for these budding friendships to blossom.
Apart from participants of previous youth engagement sessions, other beneficiaries were also invited to partake in the new session. Participants kept to safe distancing measures, wearing masks and sitting two metres apart, however, this posed no difficulty to communication within the group.
Rather, the objective of fostering communication within a peer support group setting via participating in shared experiences was successfully achieved. This was done not only through collaborative board games with the likes of Exploding Kittens but the discussion of common interests as well.
Taking occasional breaks from the board games, beneficiaries were engaged by staff chit-chatting with them and catching up with their personal lives. In response, they willingly shared bits and pieces of their lives with staff thereafter.
One common identity that brought the beneficiaries to Club Rainbow in the first place, is their chronic medical diagnoses. We believe that a group work setting would create a space for them to express themselves through sharing personal stories where they could relate to one another and feel heard.
“(Youths) are still at the formative stage of their lives, so we want to make sure they’re well supported not just socially but also emotionally and personally,” said Guan You.
Contact us at crscpm@clubrainbow.org to find out how you can support our youth engagements!