Reflections

Group Dynamics & Facilitation | Project Management | Development across the Lifespan

"As the captain of my team, I am extremely proud and grateful for each and every one of my crewmates for investing their time, energy, and effort in the lives of youths from single-parent families. Throughout this voyage, we reminded ourselves that beyond just striving for academic excellence and viewing this as a project, we wanted to shift our perspective towards seeing this as an opportunity to serve and learn from these youths. It was such an unforgettable and valuable experience investing in relationships that matter. Ahoy!"

Captain Keanne

How did our research/data/survey help us?

Surveying youths from single-parent families about their level of understanding and view towards self-discovery, we were better able to create relevant content for our handbook.
Reviewing how youths from single-parent families rank areas of concern in their lives, we were better equipped as facilitators to know their common pain points when leading group discussions.
Surveying youths and adults on their view of youths from single-parent families, we were able to create content on our social media pages to debunk their common misconceptions of these youths, we were also able to identify gaps in their understanding of youths from single-parent families which guided us in documenting the lives of these youths through our video series.

AREAS THAT WENT WELL

Secured a partner organisation (ACCESS Singapore) very early on in the planning stage
- We reached out to ACCESS in the month of September and received a quick reply on 11 September 2022 to meet and discuss the potential progress in our partnership with the person-in-charge of external communications in ACCESS, Claudia Selvakumar
- After introducing our project vision and mission and getting to know about ACCESS and their programme plan, we found an opportunity for partnership coming as volunteers under ACCESS to help in their programme execution, while we were able to hone our group dynamics and facilitation skills working with youths from various schools. During these engagements, we interacted with youths from single-parent families and learned more about their lives, enabling us to gain some insights while developing our Lifeline Handbook.
Seized as many developmental opportunities given to us by ACCESS and NP
Received feedback from ACCESS Programme Head, Praveen, regarding the relevance and impact of our Lifeline Handbook content
Engaged a professional activity book designer to design our Lifeline Handbook pro-bono
Hitting our target of twelves youths from single-parent families for our Lifeline Handbook Beta Launch with New Life Community Services
Adapted well to last minute adjustments to engagement session's programme flow - switch event dates and chapters so had to inform guest speakers
Acted swiftly on the feedback given on our first engagement session on 6th January 2023 (Friday) and implemented them on our second engagement session on 9th January 2023 (Monday)
Chief Facilitator managed time of the engagement sessions well - discerned appropriately which activities to cut short and which to extend to achieve the session's objectives
Facilitators adapted well to the needs of our youths
Was clear in giving instructions and able to engage the youths during the sessions