What’s Your Take – Youth Edition: Working with Youths to Improve Mental Health and Cyber Wellness Efforts
Last Updated: 23 Jan 2021
1. Thirty-five youths, aged 16 to 25, have collaborated with the Ministry of Education (MOE) on projects to improve mental health and cyber wellness among youths, arising from MOE’s ‘What’s Your Take – Youth Edition’ (WYT-YE) engagement series. The participants presented their prototypes to Minister of State for Education Ms Sun Xueling on Saturday, 23 January at MOE.
2. Ms Sun Xueling said: “I am heartened to see many students passionately contributing their time and effort over the past year to help bolster mental health and cyber wellness awareness in schools and in the community. Many of them shared their personal experiences and provided heartfelt suggestions. Their ideas covered a wide genre of mediums and spoke to fellow youths. Promoting mental health and cyber wellness is a collective effort that needs a multi-faceted approach. I hope to continue to work with students and stakeholders to elevate the understanding of mental health and encourage those amongst us to seek help when in need.”
3. The WYT-YE series which ran from May 2020 to January 2021, aimed to provide a platform for youths to gain a greater understanding of education-related policies and issues, as well as exchange views with one another. Part of the Singapore Together Movement and aligned with ongoing efforts in the Youth Mental Well-being Network1, it encouraged youths to develop and implement ground-up initiatives to improve learning experiences for other youths.
4. Youths were invited to join WYT-YE through an open call and nominations by the Institutes of Higher Learning. Through online engagement sessions, 51 youths identified issues that they wanted to work on, and worked in seven small groups to develop solutions to address the issues. In August 2020, four groups were shortlisted by a judging panel2 to prototype their projects, with support and mentorship from MOE. The participants of the shortlisted projects can be found in the Annex.
5. In subsequent months, MOE will follow up with the individual groups, or link them up with relevant community organisations, to further develop their prototypes for implementation.
Footnotes
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The network is jointly supported by MOE, MOH and MSF.
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The judging panel comprised three representatives from MOE’s senior management, as well as Ms Andrea Chan, Head of TOUCH Youth Intervention from TOUCH Community Services, WYT-YE’s partner organisation.