Empower Vulnerable Young People with Life Skills

Dear Co-dreamers,

We are happy to inform you that The Life Skills Assessment Scale has been developed by Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Fiona Kennedy from the UK who have been working together with Dream A Dream over the past five years to develop and publish a standardized and reliable impact measure for Dream A Dream’s Life Skills programmes for children from vulnerable backgrounds.  

With this report I would want to share with you the story of Seema (name changed), from the words of our Life Skills Facilitator followed by a few highlights of Dream A Dream programme

The Challenge: Seema is a 12 year old girl studying in the 6th grade at Shama Vidya Shaala, a school for children from vulnerable backgrounds. Seema has been part of the Dream Life Skills through Football Programme since August 2012.

According to the facilitator, Seema is a simple and well-spoken girl. She is regular participant and enjoys learning football and the various activities at the session. She is an active participant and encourages other participants to more attentive and positive in the sessions.

During one of the sessions that was themed around Communication and Building Relationships, the facilitator makes the following observation. “We started with a game of Handball. Seema was very enthusiastic and started off with lots of energy and excitement. In about 20-minutes, Seema seems to have lost interest in the activity and I didn’t notice that she had gone out of the group and sitting in one corner. When I noticed her missing, I realized she had stopped playing and went ahead to find out what happened. Seema shared that she was not getting the ball even though she tried and started weeping.”

The Change:  The facilitator heard and validated her. At the end of the session, during reflection time, Seema shared how she felt unseen with the rest of her team-mates. He used that as an opportunity to also share a similar story from his life when I felt unseen and alone and everyone seemed to understand. Seema felt reassured and that story helped her feel positive about life.”

In Seema’s own words, “I like playing in the team especially playing against friends gives lots of confidence. I enjoy sessions because I get to play. By coming for football sessions I was able to perform well in my social studies, earlier I used to be poor in this subject after speaking to you (facilitator) and hearing to your story made biggest impact to do well in social studies and got good marks. Session makes it even more special by sports as a group.”

The Dream Power:  At Dream A Dream, our work with young people stands on the belief that when we engage with young people with care and empathy, they respond and learn. In above instance, the facilitator, created a safe space for Seema to share how she felt, the facilitator validated and acknowledged her emotions, built a personal connection with her and used this experience to share a personal story from her own life. In all this, the facilitator was deeply committed to helping Seema develop her Life Skills and feel seen and heard.

Organization and Programme Updates and Highlights

• Received Educasport World Forum Award for ‘New Skills of Sports Instructions’ at Paris.
• Launched second Dream Connect Center in KR Puram, Bangalore.
• Organized ‘Soiree de Smiles’ – Dream A Dream’s first exclusive fundraising evening as part of Unlock Smiles Campaign.
• A visit by Goals for Girls from USA. Organized a coaching clinic and friendly tournament involving 42 girls from Dream A Dream and 20 girls from Goals for Girls team.
• Participated in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014 on January 19^th 2014. 16 people ran supporting Dream A Dream.
• Successfully facilitated a large scale volunteering workshop for close to 150 representatives from NGOs and CSR units of companies at the IBM Corporate Service Corps conference in Bangalore.
• Nandan Nilekani had a dialogue with graduates and facilitators at Dream A Dream and wrote a blog at http://www.nandannilekani.in/blog/5-dream-a-dream
• Girish Ronald, a Dream Graduate was featured in an article by The Alternative at http://thealternative.in/inclusivity/spocial-revolution-finding-a-home/
• Engaged 5119 young people through our life skills programmes. 1987 in Life Skills through Sports and 3132 through our Like Skills through Creative Arts programmes.
• A total of 2408 boys and 2711 girls are participating in the programmes with healthy 54% girls.
• Engaged 1809 young people in various skill development and career development courses in the Dream Connect programme
• Launched a Second Technology equipped Dream Connect Center in K R Puram, Bangalore in December 2013 with a capacity to engage 2000 young people a year. The Center was inaugurated by Mr. Rudramuni, Country Head, Dell India
• Engaged 488 young people conducting 14 outdoor experiential camps.
• Job placements provided for 17 Dream Connect graduates.
• Engaged 447 teachers/NGO workers through our Teacher Development Programme.
• Trained 95 adult volunteers in Dream mentoring programme.
• Engaged 1,831 volunteers clocking 19,231 hours.

Please scroll down to see a few pictures from the programme. We look forward for your continued support and an enduring relationship.

With Gratitude,