Embedded Files
Background information of Hush TeaBar:
Hush TeaBar is an organisation which is run completely by a core team of differently abled persons. This organisation, specifically YoungXHush works with Deaf partners from the community of Deafies and they carry out public/school events to help the next generation of leaders or youths promote community empowerment, inclusion and mental resilience among the youth. These Deaf partners lead participants into a silent space of awareness and reflection, supported by their Hearing facilitators who are people with or in-recovery from mental health conditions.
Background information of the projects / tasks which you were involved in:
Firstly, the project that I am involved in is to work on a proposal to bring a social movement, #YoungXHush into Temasek Junior College. We have to propose a collaboration between Hush TeaBar and TJC to the Head and Deputy Heads (Ms Tan Yi Jie and Ms Thangam) of student wellbeing, hopefully gaining their approval.
Elaboration / record of the activities done:
Flow of report (proposal):
1. About #YoungXHush
2. Unique characteristics of this social movement (includes #YoungXHush experience)
3. Target Audience
4. Proposed scheduling for this workshop
5. Importance of bringing #YoungXHush into TJC
6. What students will gain from this programme
7. Why #YoungXHush? Why not programmes such as Acting Up, Limitless, Over the Rainbow etc.
Flow of presentation:
1. Introduction of Hush TeaBar and the social movement to Ms Tan and Ms Thangam
2. Experience - Go through what participants who attend the programme undergo, with the teachers. In this segment of the presentation, we acted out skits to demonstrate the different types of resilience (Relational, Resource, Rock Bottom).
3. Explaining the importance of the Experience. (Experiential Learning)
4. Why we believe TJC should collaborate with Hush TeaBar (Importance of this social movement)
5. Target audience (group of students who we believe can benefit the most from this programme)
6. Propose scheduling of workshop
Something I would like to elaborate on is Point 2 of our presentation. The Experience that Hush TeaBar goes through includes 3 different parts/zones:
Part 1: #YoungXHush Experience
These are the 4 zones participants will be going through in the 90 minutes program:
Zone 1: Intention
Learn to sign different emotions with our Deaf facilitators. Disconnect to connect.
Zone 2: Hush
Enjoy deep breathing exercises in silence. Engage in reflection and get connected with yourself again. Experience peace and compassion.
Zone 3: Express
Express your emotions as you down an inspiration to future Hushers as a Hush-It-On moodnote.
Zone 4: Share
Share your experience, sign a post-hush emotion.
For Part 1, it is carried out to the entire cohort of students. The purpose of this is to relay the message that being in Silence can be effective way to resolve the struggles that one is facing. This part of the workshop allows student to learn a different way of empathising with those who face Mental Health issues through Experiential learning.
Part 2: Training at Bootcamp
After the experience is over, those who exhibit potential to be peer support leaders will hopefully become #YoungXHush leaders, who will attend a 2 hour boot camp. They will be trained in facilitation skills and learn how to hols safe spaces for their peers by practicing deep listening, caring communication, and accountability. This session will be co-led by the deaf and a hearing trainer.
Part 3: Student Leadership
If the students are keen, and the school is willing, the leaders can move on to organise, manage and lead their own #YoungXHush Circles in their own neighbourhood, school etc. This programme aims to impart the relevant skills to our future generation of leaders such that they are able to positively impact the lives of others through emotional support. Its main goal is to achieve a continuous effect of peer support leaders passing down their skills on how to give the proper support and comfort to those in need.
For Part 2 and 3, only a selected group of students from the cohort will undergo this section of the workshop. These students could be Student councillors, Exco members from PDPs, Care representatives from each class. Thus, Part 2 and 3, it would be conducted in smaller groups.
The below pictures are taken during our presentation. The picture on the left depicts one of us acting out Rock bottom resilience.
Background information of the projects / tasks which you were involved in:
Secondly, another task that I am involved in is to publicise for an open event that is going to take place around the end of February.
Elaboration / record of the activities done:
This workshop is organised by Hush TeaBar and only youths, age 15-35, can participate in this workshop. The aim of this workshop is to help the next generation of leaders or youths promote community empowerment, inclusion and mental resilience among the youth. We came out with a poster and also a cover photo to be posted on Hush TeaBar’s Facebook and Instagram page. Also, we decided to put it on other social media platforms such as Reddit as these platforms are commonly frequented by youths in Singapore.
The photo on the bottom left is our finalised poster. On the right, is finalised cover photo. Both are designed by us.
Across this month of working on the proposal and poster, there is no doubt that we have faced many challenges.
Firstly, for our presentation, one challenge that we faced was to come up with our own skits to demonstrate the different forms of resilience (Relational, Resource, Rock Bottom). This required a huge amount of creativity and we also had to seek help from our Deaf partner in order to ensure the skit makes sense. To make it more challenging, during the acting of the skit, we are not allowed to communicate verbally as this was to allow the audience to learn the different types of resilience in silence (the audience had to wear the ear plugs during the skit).
Secondly, for our poster, one challenge that we faced was that we had to frequently redo and edit our poster according to our mentor’s comments. This is because we had to make the poster most appealing to the youth and also we have to relay all the information about the workshop in one poster.
3 content knowledge / skills learnt
1. Firstly, the most important skill that I feel I have equipped myself with throughout this month is the best or most suitable way to comfort people who face Mental health issues or even when people spill their troubles to you. I have learnt that providing a listening year is the most important instead of trying to comfort the person by saying things such as “you can be stronger than this”, “you should be emotionally or mentally stronger in the future”. Instead, in my opinion, I believe that “thank you for sharing your troubles with me”, “I know how you are feeling right now” could be better options. Empathising with others and putting yourself in the shoes of others is a very important skill to equip yourself with.
2. Secondly, across this month of attachment, one content knowledge I found very insightful is the importance of providing the disabled or even people suffering from Mental health issues with appropriate access needs. An analogy that can be given is for example, a blind person would require grills beside the lift button, a wheelchaired person would require ramps so as to access different platforms, a deaf person would require someone to be able to communicate with them at any form of event or even television show. Similarly, an effective way to help people suffering from Mental health issues is to provide them with their access needs. This would allow them to feel that others are accepting towards them and hopefully, resolve their emotional and mental issues.
3. Thirdly, one of the skills I learnt across this month of attachment and working with Deaf partners was the usage of Deaf sign language. I feel that being able to communicate with the Deaf using sign language is an important skill to have. Just as an analogy that my mentor used, Dr Edwin told us, “when you are trying to relay information to an infant/baby or even another person who does not share a common speaking language as you, the only way you can communicate is through sign language.” Hence, from this experience, I find that knowing Deaf sign language is an interesting skill to equip yourself with.
2 interesting aspects of your learning
1. Firstly, an interesting observation through this month, is that my mentor is very willing to serve and give back to the community even though this job that he does, does not provide him with a high salary or even any company benefits. Regardless, he still has the heart to help others and make the world or society a better place.
2. Secondly, our government has made large steps towards dealing with the mental health crisis in Singapore, and mental health as an issue continues to be discussed in Singaporean government. This reflects that mental health is an issue that affects the growth and development of youths which will affect the non-material standard of living and even the social aspect of citizens’ lives, and hence is relevant to the entire nation.
1 takeaway for life
One takeaway that I find precious and unique would be the ability to learn how to empathise with others, in particular those who suffer from Mental health issues. From this attachment, the skills that I have obtained would allow myself to serve and give back to the community.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse