Give Young People a #ChanceToThrive

 This is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who came out of her comfort zone and created a safe space for herself and her friends to open up and communicate freely.

Shafiya is a 14-year-old girl studying in 9th std at Florida English School.

 She has been part of the Dream a Dream After School Life Skills program for six years through the Creative Arts Programme. She belongs to a middle-class family. Her father works as a helper in a steel factory, and her mother is a housewife. She has four elder brothers; two brothers have completed their graduation and are taking care of the farming in their hometown, one brother is pursuing 2nd PUC, and one more brother is pursuing his B com.

Shafiya was a reserved girl who was very quiet during the session; she mingled with only a close circle of friends, was possessive of who her friends spent time with, and expected a lot of attention from her friends.

In one session, the Facilitator noticed that Shafiya was very interested in drawing; she was so involved in her drawing that she concentrated on the picture even when her friends disturbed her.

This observation helped the Facilitator understand her interests; later, the Facilitator tried to observe her group involvement during a few sessions. The Facilitator felt that Shafiya had the potential to be a leader with proper guidance. But her lack of confidence was inhabiting her to work on this.

To bring out her leadership skills in Shafiya, the Facilitator gave her the chance to lead the group with ideas of drawing. In one session, she was excited and tried to demonstrate a few easy designs to the group. At the end of the session, she said she liked the session and was excited to lead the group.

In the next session, the Facilitator divided the group and put Shafiya and her friends in different groups. Shafiya revolted immediately and refused to join a group that did not have her friends; the Facilitator asked her to give it a try as she had so many design ideas she wanted to share, and everybody in the class would benefit from it.

Shafiya was unhappy and sat in the group silently; the activity required Shafiya to be blindfolded and her group to give her the instructions to complete the drawing at hand; this activity got Shafiya talking to start asking questions and the following instruction from the group. As a group, they could complete the picture blindfolded and won.

In the reflection circle, Shafiya shared, "I am happy that I agreed to do the activity with a group that didn't have my friends for the first time. I learned that I had so much to learn from others in my class and that just being with my friends stopped my learning".

From the next session, she started involving herself with any group regardless of where her friends were.

To push Shafiya to the next level where her art and leadership skills could shine, the Facilitator got her to join the Art for resilience event. The event looked to create a forum for young people where they can meet other young people from our different partner schools and present their artwork and share ideas.

Shafiya was wholly involved in the event, and she enjoyed herself with the young people from the different schools. She did not hesitate when it was her chance to lead a new group. She tried to mingle with the opposite gender, and she stated her opinion boldly in the reflection circle without fear.

After this event, the Facilitator asked Shafiya to share her experience with the Art for resilience event and the learnings.

Shafiya, with great pride, shared her experience. Later in the session, she started creating a safe space for her friends to share in the group.

For Shafiya, thriving is her ability to come out from her comfort zone to interact and facilitate conversation, work on her leadership skills, and create a safe space for her friends to open up and communicate.

This transformation was possible because of the Life Skills program conducted by Dream a Dream's After School Life Skills program at our partner schools.

About Dream a Dream

Started in 1999, Dream a Dream is a recognized, award-winning, registered charitable trust empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in the 21stCentury across India. Currently, we work with 10,000 young people a year through our two innovation labs–AfterSchoolLifeSkillsProgramandCareerConnectProgram,based in Bangalore. We have trained more than 35,000 teachers/educators from six states and have impacted over 1.5 million children through strategic partnerships with state governments in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Karnataka, and Jharkhand. We work on a strong collaborative approach with local charities, corporates, volunteers, governments, expert consultants, and national and international strategic partners.

With the Delhi Government on the Happiness Curriculum, our project was selected as a 2021 WISEAwards winner! Together with six other projects from across the globe, we are recognized by the WorldInnovation Summit for Education for providing innovative & impactful solutions to global education challenges.

DreamaDreamwasrecognizedinthetop50last-milerespondersforCovid-19inIndiabyWorldEconomicForum. Wearealsohumbledtobe supported by MackenzieScottamong 286globalempoweringorganizations that the world needs to hear about, and we are delighted that in 2021 Dream a Dream has been a Great Place to Work-Certified™. For the third time in a row, HundrED’s annual Global Collection has recognized our work as one of the leading innovations in K12 education. Over the last 20 years, Dream a Dream has helped close to a million children develop the life skills to thrive through our award-winning approach. Youcanreadmore about us here.

A brief introduction to our program

AFTER SCHOOL LIFE SKILLS PROGRAM

In our After School Life Skills Programme, we use creative arts and football as mediums to engage and develop critical life skills among young people between the ages of 8 to 15 years. This program is an innovation lab where new approaches to life skills development are introduced, demonstrated, documented, evaluated, and fed back into a larger framework for reimagining learning for young people in the country.

To measure the improvements in life skills amongst young people, we use the Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS*).

Highlights from the Program 

• 3000 mask and 20 (5 liters) can of sanitizer have been distributed in 20 partner schools to support them in sanitizing the classrooms and ensure a smooth reopening of schools and resumption of our Life Skill interventions.
• A Focused group conducted a discussion with 30 people made up of 10 principals, ten teachers, and ten parents. The objective of the meeting was to understand their preparedness to reopen the school for young people and, at the same time, equip them to take appropriate safety measures and follow safety protocols by hearing the insights shared by all the participants.
• The British Council invites collaborative proposals for arts and culture projects from recipients of the Connections Through Culture India-Wales and India-Northern Ireland grants scheme for the India-UK Together program. We have selected nine young people from our program to be representatives of Dream a Dream and share India's Art and culture.
• Dream a Dream organized Life Skills day after two years of the pandemic. Over 80 students from 20 different schools participated and engaged in fun and colorful activities like cooking without fire, theatre, standup comedy, reels, poetry reading, story illustration, and football juggling drills.
• The After School Life Skill Development Program launched The Smile Magazine, a magazine designed and co-created with children from schools.
• Dream a Dream organized Graduation day for over 900 young people from 20 partner schools who completed their life skills journey with us and are empowered to make and be the change! Young people enjoyed their day witnessing different cultural programs and sharing their stories and journey with Dream a Dream.

Testimonials from the Programme

 "We received financial support when my father lost his job at the factory. The solidarity support helped us pay our rent; we received support at the right time, which helped us the staff from Dream a Dream kept calling us and asking us about our welfare".

-Shashikala After School Programme

 "Dream a Dream is supporting us a lot. In the previous lockdown through the program, we used to get the nutrition kit, and they conducted sessions for us even in the hard times, which was helpful for us and kept us positive. Even during this lockdown, when we felt depressed as Covid was affecting many people in the state, we were terrified to move out to work. When our family was not getting support, even for ration cards, we asked for the support of Dream a Dream. I thank Dream a Dream for this support".

-Ruquiya  from the Florida English school

"I have worked as a yoga teacher at Siri and Vishnu school. The impact of covid-19 has been hard on the education system; without any income during the lockdown, no way of feeding the family, and continuous pressure from my son's college to pay the fee, it was a tough time for us. Dream a Dream offered to provide us financial support every month till schools reopened and the situation improved. The financial assistance protected my family from so many problems".   

-          Shobha Teacher at Siri and Vishnu School   

 All pictures attached are related to the updates/ highlights given above and shared with the young people's consent.

Priyanka C comes from a family of 3 and is currently pursuing her PUC 2nd year. She has been a part of Dream a Dream for the past 3 years. This year has been a very tough year for Priyanka, she lost her father due to COVID-19 which was a huge shock to her family as her father was the sole breadwinner of the family and Priyanka was very attached to her father as she depended on him to make most of her life choices for her and her family. With her mother not in the state of mind to manage the family Priyanka had to rise to the occasion and handle the responsibilities of the household and become the decision-maker of the family. Priyanka is passionate to become a doctor, it’s been her childhood dream to become a doctor and serve her country and people. As there are many death cases in India due to COVID-19. It’s due to a lack of knowledge about the disease. She has seen her own father dying due to COVID-19. 

She has taken a special interest in spreading awareness about Covid-19 by which she feels she can contribute to saving many lives.

Priyanka’s Testimonial on receiving the scholarship: “Dream a Dream organization has helped me to continue my studies by providing me a scholarship at a time when my family was struggling, and I had doubts about how I’ll continue my education. They not only provided financial support but also supported me emotionally which helped me become stronger and made me pursue my goals with renewed hope and enthusiasm”.

Dream a Dream is a registered, charitable trust empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in the 21st century. Currently, we work with 10,000 young people a year through our two innovation labs – After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programme, have trained over 9,828 teachers/educators from six states and including 19 districts in Karnataka impacting over 2,45,700 children and have impacted over 1 million children through strategic partnerships with state governments in Delhi and Jharkhand. We work on a strong collaborative approach with local charities, corporates, volunteers, governments, expert consultants, and a host of national and international strategic partners. Over the last 20 years, Dream a Dream has helped close to a million children overcome adversity via life skills.  

Our project the Happiness Curriculum, conceptualized and executed in partnership with the Delhi Government, has been selected among the 2021 WISE Awards finalists! We are one of 12 global innovative educational projects to be selected. It further validates our belief that the core purpose of education is to help every child learn to be happy, help others be happy, and learn to Thrive.

Dream a Dream was also the proud winner of the ‘Football for Good Award’ at the 2020 World Football Summit (WFS), presented by Common Goal. For the third time in a row, HundrED’s annual Global Collection has recognized our work as one of the leading innovations in K12 education. Over the last 20 years, Dream a Dream has helped close to a million children develop the life skills to thrive through our award-winning approach.

AFTER SCHOOL LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMME

In our After School Life Skills Programme, we use creative arts and football as mediums to engage and develop critical life skills among young people between the ages of 8 to 15 years. This programme is an innovation lab where new approaches to life skills development are introduced, demonstrated, documented, evaluated, and fed back into a larger framework for re-imagining learning for young people in the country. To measure the improvements in life skills amongst the young people, we use the Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS*).

*The LSAS is the first standardized impact measurement tool in the world to measure improvement in life skills among disadvantaged children.

CAREER CONNECT PROGRAMME

The Career Connect Programme equips 15 to 21-year-olds with information, skills, and access to opportunities to make a healthy transition to adulthood. We conduct career awareness workshops, short-term modules in English, communication skills, money management, and career guidance, and provide access to internships, scholarships, vocational training, and jobs. The programme is delivered in two learning centres, basedinBangalore.5,000youngpeopleare engaged in this programme every year.

The goal of this programme is also to provide a support system to young people at a crucial age when they are making critical life choices, particularly, in choosing their careers. The Career Connect Centres engage in long-term tracking of more than 7,000 programme graduates to ascertain their progress on a career path.

Covid Relief Support During the Covid-19 2nd Wave

As the 2^nd COVID -19 wave crippled India and chaos surged, Dream a Dream formed a core team to respond swiftly to the emerging needs of young people and their communities. In a matter of a week, the team that had over decades worked on life skills related interventions pivoted towards relief related interventions. In the month of February, for starters, the team ensured that the Career Connect Centres and the After School Life Skills programs moved online completely as COVID- 19 positive cases were on the rise. However, what did come as a surprise was the magnitude of the problem, the team was shocked and overwhelmed with the kind of requests that started to pour in. The team had 300-400 requests flooding in every day that meant that they had to work and respond quickly on everything from the medical requirements, medical awareness, ration, food, emotional and mental health, learning kits, solidarity fund for teachers and young people apart from looking at requests for device support and scholarships. Once the situation started to improve the team also organized a vaccination drive to create awareness on the safety of the vaccine.

Highlights from the Programme

1)      Responding to Medical requests: We built a strong team dedicated to responding to medical crises and also building awareness among young people when it comes to Covid-19. We helped young people and their families with medical support, hospital beds, oxygen support, covid tests and vaccinations. 514 young people have received medical support while 1193 young people have received covid-19 awareness.

2)      Distributing Ration Kits to help families:  The team was also concurrently distributing ration kits to young people, parents and teachers in the communities as well. Given that many of the young people’s parents lost their jobs because of extended lockdowns coupled with the fact that even teachers had not been paid salaries for months together, the teams understood that there were survival-related challenges, where both young people and teachers were struggling to make ends meet. We supported 22249 young people and teachers with ration support.

3)      Young People needed Emotional Support: As the situation worsened, the team on the ground understood that it was critical to continue to extend emotional support as well. Young people were experiencing emotional and mental strain because of different reasons, some because exams were cancelled, others because of the lack of awareness about COVID-19, a few had also taken on additional responsibilities of family, lack of medical care. For some, their existing adversities had further heightened, for others, they suddenly had become decision-makers in their families, quite a few of them had to deal with the emotional turmoil within their families and some were facing economic pressure because of the loss of jobs. The Dream a Dream’s emotional support group for young people primarily focused on ensuring that the young people had someone to listen and help validate their emotions. 877 young people received emotional support from the team.

4)     No child’s learning is left behind due to digital divide and internet support:  with majority of learning going digital many young people started missing out on education as they did not have devices to attend their class to address this we have started to provide devices. We supported 332 young people with devices to continue education and provided support for internet data to 97 young people.

5)      Providing Livelihood support: with many of the young people’s parents having lost their livelihood they struggled to make ends meet like paying rent etc; most teachers are struggling with their income being cut which has made survival difficult. 1369 young people have received financial support 844 teachers have received financial support. 

 6)      The After School Life Programme hosted a well-being meet with our after school life skills partners consisting of government and low-cost schools. This was to create space to share and listen in to their journey in this difficult time with the disruption caused by the 2nd #COVID19 wave.

 7)      Our Young people from Pragna School were given an opportunity to attend the "Task at Green Gurukula Challenge" which is a National level competition online. It is a competition for young people to engage students and young people during this difficult time across India. Our facilitators are playing a big role in mentoring and coaching young people to show their best in the competition.

8)      30 of our staff are training to become first responders in a crisis situation for young people; the training is facilitated by Because You which is an organization specialising in mental health.

 9)      We have started building a strong network of placement partners that will address the placement need of young people during this challenging time; 60 young people have been successfully placed.

 10)      We are conducting an online campaign to source more employers for young people in our programmes.

 11)      With the 2^nd wave we saw that there is a huge demand from young people for emotional support and mentoring.  We have trained 13 mentors and have provided mentoring support to 26 young people.

 12)       We conducted a vaccination drive for 767 young people, teachers and family at our community centres.

 13)      Government has announced to reopen schools from 6^th grade to 10^th grade from August. We had partners meet to understand the pros and cons of kick-starting the programme. All schools agreed to start the Offline Session from the 1st week of September.

 14)      We kick-started the enrolment of young people in the program and at the same time are preparing ourselves to deliver blended sessions to young people.

Testimonials from the Programme:

 “I never thought I could learn football online; with schools closed and not being able to meet my friends. The online football sessions kept me active and happy it helped me make more friends, built my confidence and my communication skill. I was able to express myself to others when I was feeling alone, and my facilitator listened to everything and comforted me which made me feel happy”- Ajay R 13 years old After School Life Skill Programme Graduate