I was attached to #YoungXHush, which is one of Hush Tea Bar's movements. This program's objective is to help the next generation of leaders promote community empowerment, inclusion and mental resilience among the youth. The workshop aims to impart the relevant skills to the future generation of leaders such that they are able to positively impact the lives of others through emotional support.

Our Task:

We were tasked to propose a #YoungXHush (YXH) session for our school, as well as to create a digital poster to publicize the next open session YXH will be organizing for the Youths aged 15-35. I personally felt excited and glad that I was able to work with Dr Edwin and HTB’s YXH, as I see the meaning in their aims to spread the importance of mental wellness and self-care through the use of silence, in hopes to improve the mental health scene in Singapore. Their use of the deaf to help in their work also brings in the importance of inclusivity, among the many other valuable lessons they give the youths who attend their sessions. Their workshops that bring across these messages are also very engaging and leave lasting impressions on participants, which is effective in helping those juggling with mental health issues.

This is a detailed list of the steps we took in completing our task, including the challenges faced and learning points:

1. Decide on who to present the idea to (e.g. HOD of Student Wellbeing)

a. We went onto the TJ website to find out which teachers were in-charge of student well-being. We found Ms Wong Ying Ying (HOD of Student well-being), and decided on her to be our contact person regarding this proposal.

2. Email the teacher we have decided on

a. We emailed Ms Wong to inform her of our WOW! Programme and our objective to bring #YXH to TJC, and asked her for a convenient time to have our presentation

3. Confirm if he/she is available for a presentation

a. She informed us that she would not be free on the week of the 30^th January, but told us she has informed her deputy heads (Ms Thangam and Ms Tan) would go on her behalf, and we decided on 31^st January, 2-3pm for our presentation.

b. While we were emailing back and forth, I learnt that people tend to take a longer time to respond using email as compared to messaging on Whatsapp, as people do not check their emails as often as they check their messages. Hence, we must include all the crucial information we need to convey to the other party in evey email, so that we can communicate in the most efficient way.

4. Draft a proposal for the school to hold a YXH session in school (incl. date, time, target audience, how it will benefit the students)

a. We did the proposal as a group, and went through many times of editing. We also met up with Dr Edwin to go through with him the points we have come up with, and also put in the information Dr Edwin provided us with.

5. Let Dr Edwin vet the proposal and give comments

a. We edited the proposal again after our meeting with Dr Edwin and sent him the final draft to comment on.

6. Send the final draft of the proposal to the teacher we have chosen

a. We edited one final time after referring to Dr Edwin’s comments and sent them to Ms Thangam and Ms Tan via email, along with a reminder of the presentation date, time and location.

7. Prepare slides and script for our presentation, and practise the skits

a. We created slides with pictures from HTB’s previous YXH sessions and wrote a short script, informing the audience about the benefits YXH will bring to TJcians, the target audience and the possible scheduling of the workshop.

b. We also did data analysis, where we went through all the survey responses Dr Edwin has collated from surveys for participants to take after every YXH session in various schools. We categorised the open-ended answers the students gave regarding their takeaways from the experience as well as feedback that they have provided, and used the statistics we have obtained for our presentation.

c. Since we wanted to incorporate the YXH experience into our presentation, we decided to let the teachers go through a short, condensed version of Stage 1 of the YXH workshop, Experience. We had to make props (boards) for the skit and had to decide on the order of the teaching of sign language and skits on the 3 resilience we want to inform the teachers about.

8. Have rehearsals for our presentation

a. We practiced on our own, and also rehearsed with our peers as the audience, and gathered their feedback.

9. Make a digital poster that YH can use for their publicity for the next open session.

a. Since YXH holds open session of the YXH Experience for the Youths, we were tasked with making digital posters and finding out sources where we can publicise the event.

The Products:

The knowledge/skills that i learnt:

As I worked closely with the deaf and those suffering/suffered from mental health issues, I learnt that self-care is very important, and that we all play a part in helping those in need, starting from educating ourselves on the appropriate methods to express care and concern for them. This starts from giving them space and asking them if they require assistance, and letting them say 'no' to situations they do not feel comfortable in.

I also learnt the importance of inclusivity. When we talk about inclusivity, we often think about the disabled, like the blind, deaf, or those being discriminated against. However, we should always remember that everyone needs to feel included and feel they are in a safe space, and that starts from me. I should always be sensitive and attentive to my peers when interacting with them, and be aware of the emotions they feel.

1 takeaway for life

I learnt about the concept of access needs, which is needs specific to a person tht needs to be fulfilled in order for that individual to feel safe and included, and for them to function effectively. Everyone has access needs, like how the deaf need sign language, and how some people concentrate better when they doodle. Making clear everyones' access needs before working on a project together can be vital in ensuring that the process of working together is pleasant and effective.