Community Needs

Experiencing transitions can disrupt a youth’s routine and can be very difficult — even traumatic — for some youths, for instance, intensifying parental conflict and stress (Annie, 2022). It is during this time that family functionality could influence the youth’s ability to deal with situational stress (Olson et al., 1989).

 

The absence of one parent can lead to the child having diminished self-esteem due to inadequate attention and advice from their only parent (Smith, 2020), which can severely hinder their emotional and psychological growth. Erikson’s stages of development indicate that youths are at a stage of discovering their identity, where they are inseparable from their network of relationships and are influenced heavily by their family across developmental stages. Identity formation is an important process during the stage of adolescence, where the majority of the development occurs and continues throughout life (Erikson, 1950; Luyckx et al., 2005; Schwartz et al., 2011).

 

Youths from single-parent families may also experience low levels of confidence and sociability (Children’sbureau, 2018). Thus, parental absence may further disrupt the identity formation of a youth and directly affect their socio-emotional development. Without the self-awareness of who they are and what they have, youths from single-parent families will be lost as to where to go in life.

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Market Gaps (Self-Discovery)

Many youth social service agencies have mentoring programmes and self-discovery as one of their topics but few have the relevant resources specifically created for youths from single-parent families.

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Intended Solution (Self-Discovery)

Develop a fun and intuitive Lifeline Handbook that guides youths from single-parent families to identify their strengths and catalyse their self-discovery journey. Our Lifeline Handbook beta launch gave us the opportunity to test run our handbook and receive valuable feedback from twelve youths from single-parent families which enabled us to revise the content and design of the handbook.

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Market Gaps (Misconceptions of YSPFs)

Many youths and adults we surveyed during our primary research phase were unaware of the real needs of youths from single-parent families. Instead they assumed their needs based on what they knew about these youths (eg. lack of financial stability due to single income).

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Intended Solution (Misconceptions of YSPFs)
Develop a social media advocacy campaign to shift the public's perspective of youths from single-parent families as capable individuals. Include a six-part video series documenting the lives of these youths, shedding light onto some common misconceptions and gaining perspectives from youth workers who have years of experience working closely with these youths.