Education India Project #3754

Empower Vulnerable Young People with Life Skills

by Dream A Dream

Empower Vulnerable Young People with Life Skills

Project Report | Oct 24, 2019
"I feel incredibly happy, having joined Dream a Dream!"says Neha

By Vishal Talreja | Co-Founder

Young people celebrating World Music Day

Neha is a 14-year-old girl, studying in South End School. Her father has his own business while her mother is a home maker. One of her sisters is married and stays with her husband’s family while the other sister is studying in PES College. Being the youngest in her family, Neha always had her way and she never cared enough to be disciplined, always prone to doing whatever she liked, whenever she liked.

Even though she was playing football, through Dream a Dream’s After School Life Skills Programme, she wasn’t really very interested and had great difficulty in following instructions, ending up disturbing sessions. The other students were always complaining to the facilitator about how she refused to listen to them, making it difficult to work together as a cohesive team. Having observed her for a number of sessions, the facilitator realised that Neha was weak in certain life skills and decided to select her for ‘Play for Change’. This is an annual event, designed for students who need a little more help in developing life skills. 5 boys and 5 girls from each school where Dream a Dream hold these sessions are invited to participate. The facilitator would soon see how this event would shape Neha not only into a strong team player but also a leader!

Neha reminisces about how she felt when she first attended the event, “I saw so many children like me and I was immediately scared of how I would interact with them. I was always very silent, even with my own classmates so I was even more anxious about how I would interact with these completely new students.” The facilitators there divided the group of students into smaller teams and Neha was in a team with 6 boys and 4 girls. Absolutely uncomfortable with new people, she decided to remain silent and not speak at all, while the other students were sharing and talking about strategies to win. The facilitators kept encouraging everyone to participate and that gave her a little bit of courage. After a short while, she decided to speak and share her opinion and ideas on how they should all play and communicate with each other during the game. Following her ideas, her team went forward and played the match, drawing with the other team, with two goals each. Neha began to instruct her team members and before she knew it, she was evolving into a leader, developing skills of working together as a team, while giving instructions and following them herself. She learnt how to work together as a team, and when they won their 3^rd match, she was ecstatic! When asked what she learnt from this event, she says, “Team-work! I learnt how to communicate, coordinate, discuss with each other, focus and mainly how to keep encouraging each other to keep going!”

The Neha that returned from the ‘Play for Change’ event was someone entirely different! The facilitator began to notice how she started coming in earlier for the sessions. The After School Life Skills Programme, through the medium of football usually begins with a check-in question, where the students share how they’re feeling and the facilitator gets a pulse on their moods. Neha began initiating forming a circle for this activity on her own, interacting with the other students which was completely new. The facilitator also observed how she started taking the lead on many activities, without him pushing her to do any of this. He began to respond to her change by praising her about her positive changes in behaviour and attitude.

Neha’s close friend, Meghanna also noticed how her friend who hardly interacted with anyone began taking initiative to make friends, taking leadership and initiative in activities and also becoming responsible at home. She feels that this happened after Neha attended the ‘Play for Change’ event, organised by Dream a Dream. Her teacher, having observed her evolution, said, “Neha has learnt discipline, leadership and how to support others in the school. All of this is because she got an opportunity in Dream a Dream’s After School Life Skills Programme.”

Neha looks back at her journey and says, “I feel incredibly happy, having joined Dream a Dream’s Life Skills Programme! I have changed a lot and learnt a lot about being a leader, taking responsibility for my actions and solving problems as a team. My concentration has improved, not only during the sessions but even at home when I study and help my mother with some household chores.”

Empowered with these life skills, Neha is hoping to join the army where she will use her discipline and hard work in serving the country!

Cluster level football tournament

Satish representing India at Homeless World Cup'19

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Aug 2, 2019
An own goal we are proud of - August Newsletter

By Vishal Talreja | Co-founder, Dream a Dream

Satish Proud of His Own Goal

After failing his class 10 examinations, Satish dropped out of the low-cost private school he was attending in Bengaluru, disillusioned and unmotivated. The only thing that saved the teenager from giving up on his future altogether was his passion for football.

Satish was just 12 when he first became acquainted with the beautiful game as part of Dream a Dream’s after school life skills programme. Eight years later, the 20-year-old is representing India in the Homeless World Cup currently underway (July 27 - August 3) in Cardiff, Wales.

This football tournament, with its own set of rules, has been part of the global sports calendar since 2002, drawing crowds of 80,000 and watched by millions online around the world. The Indian team will be one of over 50 others comprising hand-picked individuals from communities in adversity.

Chosen for his speed, behaviour on the pitch and great technique, Satish says: “If you fail in exams and drop out of school, people will look down on you. I wanted one chance to prove that I can work hard to achieve my goals. Reaching where I am today, despite family apprehensions, has been a big achievement. It is a big honour for me to represent my country.”

Fun and Games

Most often it is difficult for outsiders to understand what it is we do, till they get their hands - and feet - dirty!

Volunteers from our partner organisation Standard Chartered GBS recently participated in one of our After School Football Life Skills sessions and experienced what the children do. Responses from a few of them are telling:

“The activities done today were really helpful in bringing energy to the children and volunteers. It also provided the chance for the student to know about corporate culture and areas to look at to build careers.”

“I felt I was back to my childhood!”

“It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm in the children and how open they were to interact with us. I got reminded of my school days.”

Project Thrive Goes Live

Our end goal has always been to see the young people who engage in our programmes thrive. But what does thriving look like? How do we know if our life skills programmes have had that desired impact?

To better understand the behavioural and social indicators of ‘thriving’ - and its nuances - among young people disadvantaged by adversity, we commissioned a research study which has just been published and can be viewed here.

It proves what we have believed all along - that life skills indeed are the essential ingredients for thriving.

Satish at the Homeless World Cup

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Jun 21, 2019
"There has been a positive change in my life"....says Prakruthi

By Vishal Talreja | Co-founder

Tree Planting at Graduation Day 2019

"There has been a positive change in my life and I can use the knowledge that I learned from the After School Life Skills Programme to lead small games, manage team members, and make decisions on my own and not just follow others. I have also learned how to respect others while they are talking in the group and I feel very happy that Dream a Dream has given me this opportunity." - Prakruthi C

Prakruthi C is from Mount Everest School. She is 16 year- old and in the 9th standard. She has been a part of Dream a Dream's After School Life Skills Programmes since 2012. Her father is a mechanic and her mother is a housewife.

At the start of the programme, Prakruthi showed many signs of anger. However, after attending regular sessions it was gradually decreasing. The facilitator of the batch noticed this and identified certain activities that created a space for her to express herself control her anger.

In one particular activity called 'Wrong Behaviour', young participants shared their understanding of what kinds of wrong behaviours are there and some examples of them. During that session, Prakruthi shared her feelings about how making others feel sad can be a wrong behaviour. At that point, the facilitator asked her why she thought that was wrong and she said reflected on a few incidents in the past where she made others feel sad and that it made her feel guilty. The next day, Prakruthi asked the facilitator if she is a bad person. The facilitator asked her what all she likes about herself and she began to reflect again and go deeper. Over the next few sessions, she reflected more on that and came up with great new ideas to control her anger and be happy around others.

The facilitator asked her what challenges she experienced and how she overcame them. She said that every time anyone puts her down her instantaneous reaction is anger. She said that she used to find it difficult to share anything during reflection circles, but one day she saw one of her friends sharing and enjoying the process. She realised that she wanted to feel the same way and enjoy the session too. The facilitator then began to encourage her to share more during reflection circles. During one of these sessions, she said that she does not get a chance to play in any of the activities and small games because she feels everyone puts her down and does not give her an opportunity, which is why she is silent during sessions. After sharing this, the facilitator asked her to lead the team while playing the next football match. She led the team very well and started to display more confidence, and gradually started motivating herself during the life skills sessions.

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 using a creative life skills approach.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 7,700 teachers/educators from 206 partners impacting over 1,92,500 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.

Dream a Dream has been recognized and awarded for innovation, transparency and accountability over the years by Ashoka, Global Development Network, Harvard, Rockefeller Foundation, Resource Alliance and others.

Three years ago, we unveiled our five-year strategic plan, which outlined our vision for 2016-21. Since 2016, we have continually invested in research & advocacy to build momentum around our vision of equipping young people from vulnerable backgrounds with life skills. The journey so far has been very exciting, and we believe we are on the right path. With this report we would like to share some key highlights from FY 2018-19 as we move closer to our 2021 vision.

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*).

Impact of our After-School Life Skills Programme:

Overall enrolment in the programme for the FY2018-19 was 5,658 students.
Total of 3,275 students opted for Creative Arts and 2,383 opted for Football.
The programme achieved a healthy balance in terms of gender participation where 48.63% participants were female.
The average attendance rate was 89% and the average retention rate was 94%.
96.8% of the tracked participants were more focused and willing to complete studies and achieve their Dream goals.
96.9 % of the participants had an end line score above norms and thus improved their skills to deal with challenges.
96% of the participants have seen a positive change after 2 years of reengagement.

As always “Thank you for your generous contribution and giving our young people #aChanceToThrive!”

Young People participated in Community Cup

Young people celebrating YOU at Career Connect

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