Give Children Wings to their Dreams

             Lavanya is a 22-year-old who comes from a single-parent family; being the eldest, Lavanya always carried on her shoulders the responsibility of supporting her family economically.

 Lavanya lost her father a few years back, and the family is still coping with losing their primary breadwinner; her mother is a tailor who stitches from home.

Lavanya started her journey with Dream a Dream 3 years back when she joined the Life Skill Development Programme at the KR Puram Career Connect Center; Lavanya was pursuing her degree when she joined the sessions at Career Connect.

 Over the past two years after losing her father, Lavanya always wanted to contribute to her family and help her family grow financially. Her main intention in joining the sessions at the Career Connect program was to build her skills to get a job to support her family.

 Lavanya shares, "I used to see my mother struggle to support the family every day." Although I was studying, I wanted to support her by taking a part-time job. There was nobody to guide me on how I could study and have a part-time job simultaneously; this was when a friend in college spoke to me about the Career Connect Centre at KR Puram. She told me that I would be able to get the guidance I need from their programs at the center".

 Lavanya joined the Basic Computer life skill development session. She thought that having basic computer skills would help her gain a part-time job; after completing 25 days of the program, Lavanya started applying for part-time roles but could not get placed in a job.

 Dejected, Lavanya gave up and concentrated only on her studies while the thought of supporting her family always lingered in her mind.

 Lavanya, as a hobby, used to stay back and help her mother with tailoring. She always kept herself updated with the latest fashion trends and designs. Lavanya used to post her fashion designs on social media platforms. Her facilitator came across her work and reached out to her.

 Lavanya shares, "I always loved tailoring and designing clothes. It was a hobby that I cultivated at a very young age. I keep following Instagram for the latest designs and trends. I used to experiment with the designs I had seen and make new outfits and post them on Instagram. My facilitators reached out to me after seeing my post on Instagram. She asked me to come to the center as they wanted to discuss some ideas with me, I was very nervous, but I agreed to meet my facilitators to discuss the ideas they had for me".

 A nervous and anxious Lavyana turned up at the Career Connect Centre to meet her facilitators; the facilitators spoke to her about the skill development program and the Fund my project initiatives that are part of the Career Connect program offerings. The Skill Development Programme allows young people to explore a skill and take that skill to the next level, while the Fund my project initiative helps young people invest in the skills and buy equipment that will help them kick start a business.

 Lavanya knew which skill she wanted to explore; she joined the skill development program in fashion designing and worked on perfecting her tailoring and designing skills; soon, she started teaching other young people how to design and stitch.

 Lavanya took Skill Development classes for other young people and started earning; she started investing this money in her mother's tailoring; at the same time, she joined the Fund my project initiative, where she equipped herself with entrepreneurship skills.

 Slowly Lavanya's design started becoming popular, and she started attracting more clients and orders; she started going into the customization of clothing and designs. 

 Under the Fund my project initiative, she applied for a scholarship to expand her business and build her small boutique; she received scholarship support of Rs 25,000 from Dream a Dream to invest in her company.

 Lavanya came to the Career Connect Programme hoping to build skills that would get her a part-time job in an MNC, but what she received from the program was twofold. She was able to convert her hobby into a skill; she perfected this skill and later invested in this skill that would one day help he open up her boutique and support her family.

Dream a Dream

 Started in1999,Dream a Dream is a recognized,award-winning,registered charitable trust empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity andthrive in the 21st century across India. Currently, we work with 10,000 young people a year throughour two innovation labs – After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programme based in Bangalore,have trained over 35,000 teachers/educators from six states andhave 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 localcharities, corporates, volunteers, governments, expert consultants, and a host of national and internationalstrategicpartners.

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

Dream a Dream was recognized in the top 50 last-mile responders for Covid-19 in India by World Economic Forum. We are also humbled to be supported by Mackenzie Scott among 286 globalempowering organizations 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™. Dream a Dream was also the proud winner of the 'FootballforGoodAward' at the 2020 WorldFootballSummit(WFS), presented by Common Goal. For the third time in a row, HundrED's annual Global Collection has recognized our work as one of theleading innovations in K12 education. Over the last 20 years, Dream a Dream has helped close to amillion children develop the life skills to thrive through our award-winning approach. You can readmore aboutus here.

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 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*).

*The LSAS is the first standardized impact measurement tool 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. We deliver the programs from two learning centers basedinBangalore.5,000  youngpeopleare engaged in this program every year.

This program aims to provide a support system to young people at a crucial age when making critical life choices, particularly in choosing their careers. The Career Connect Centres engage in long-term tracking of more than 7,000 program graduates to ascertain their progress on a careerpath.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. The After School Life Skills Development Programme launched The Smile Magazine, a magazine designed and co-created with children from schools.
4. 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.
5. Dream a Dream organized 'Celebrating You,' an annual event to acknowledge and celebrate young people graduating from the Career Connect Programme. Over 200 young people participated and shared their inspiring stories of thriving and their journey with Dream a Dream.

Testimonials from young people

" The workshop helped me understand the importance of nutrition, what is healthy and what is unhealthy to eat; it also spoke about how to eat on time and what kind of health issues may occur if we do not follow a healthy diet. It was a beneficial session for me as I want to become a good sports player."

-    Naveen, 14 years old, Stella Mary School

"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