Blessings in a Bag

Previously based in Singapore and now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  In 2018, Facebook named me as one of the world's most inspiring community leaders alongside 110 global change makers.  I started a service project in my teens and it is now a globally recognised, award-winning community organisation which holds a vision of a world where every young person is valued and celebrated for who they are and who they are becoming; resilient, compassionate and loving agents of change who uplift their own communities.  I currently remote lead this.  We are currently in conversation to expand our work beyond Singapore's shores. 

In addition to this, I journey with community leaders and mission-led entrepreneurs to start where they are, cheerlead them to own their superpowers and change the world.

We are committed to solving the inequality gap in holistic education for many children and youth across Asia.  This is through a blended and alternative learning experience that aims to equip, empower and co-create with children and youth to nurture 21st century skills and future ready leaders who are kind and compassionate.  

We need a generation of better learners, in the broadest and most profound sense of that word, than ever before. We need an inspired generation that can provide the bold, sophisticated leadership that the 21st century demands. We need citizens ready to take personal responsibility both for themselves and for the world around them: citizens who have, and seize, the opportunity to learn and relearn throughout their lives. We need citizens who are ready and able to take their learnings and apply it to the problems of their communities and countries, to shape a kind present and future. 

We believe that education in Asia is not preparing our students to become future-ready youth who will help to shape a better world upon graduation.  We also know that many children and youth in Asia (for example, an estimated 11.3 million children of primary school age, and 20.6 million children of lower-secondary school age in South Asia) do not have access to basic education.  

The Philippines has a total population of 109.5Million people with the youth population (15 - 29 years) consisting of 28 per cent of the total population of The Philippines.

Insufficient family income and poverty has always been the major reason for absence in school and eventual dropping out. While some areas of the Philippines benefit from excellent education facilities and teaching, most areas– particularly rural areas – do not have access to this quality of education.

In Singapore, in the Covid-19 pandemic, it was found that 300,000 households were considered 'low-income' and without ability to provide for their families basic needs. 

We currently journey with youth by increasing their social capital, access to meaningful opportunities and experiences and surround them with an intentional circle of support through a committed community of volunteers (cheerleaders).  We reimagine what education can look like within the Asian cultural context as we start with the child and ask: What do you want to learn? What are your talents, interests, and ambitions? What energises you?  We believe that we can use everything in the world around us as a starting point for curiosity and learning. We are hands-on, project-based experiential learning and meet youth where they are in a flexible, mixed-age environment that breaks the walls down in ‘school’ and creates the community as a classroom.    

We nurture kind minds to power kind actions and shape a kinder world.  We do this by developing the ability in kids to find wonder, curiosity and fun in areas they’re passionate or interested about; working together to turn ideas into reality, communicating what they are working on and doing so surrounded by a diverse community of learning leads, volunteers, families and partners. 

We currently serve under-resourced children and youth from the age of 6 to 18 years old.  They are referred to us through other social service organisations and social workers. We plan to go beyond this demographic and create a re-imagined school within Asia's cultural context focusing on both early childhood and the tertiary education levels.  

We currently offer programming every week of the year (a mix of online and offline) with youths who have been part of this journey for at least 3 years and counting - we seek their ideas, feedback and create safe spaces for them to share their personal experiences in the issues and challenges they navigate through.  Many youth that we work alongside share their needs directly to us or through their parents.

In the Philippines, we serve youth and young adults through a Philippine University's Hub for Inclusion and Social Innovation.

For young adults, we know what challenges them and their sentiments based on annual youth research statistics and reports put out by the government each year.  

The East Asia and Pacific region is home to one-third of the world’s population and more than one-quarter of the world’s children – around 580 million children in total.  However many children are still out of school or do not have access to quality education because of their socioeconomic status, geographical location, disability, ethnicity, language and gender persist. 

Education in Asia is not catalysing learners enough to shape the world that they are part of. Instead we are deterministic about educating for academic scores, rankings, honours, and employability. These do not directly translate to the shaping of a kinder world.

I started a service project in my teens, always dedicated to rallying youth to support youth and in 2014, it evolved into reimagining what education and 'future ready youth' could look like and encouraging youths to dream big.  In 2017, I met with my team mate in San Francisco where we were part of a cohort of systems change fellows and learning about global sustainability practices.  We kept in touch along the way and in 2020 we wondered what it could look like if we teamed up to work on something we're both passionate about:  re-imagining education and preparing future-ready and kind youth.  

We believe there is a great need throughout Asia and not just in our own countries to not only provide education for all, but quality learning environments that will see each child's superpowers unleashed - for good!

We are both born and raised in Asia and having a combined 30+ years of experience and working within various sectors (social impact, youth development, social services, non-profit), we know there's so much that could be done and needs to be done.  It's important to us because we know that traditional schooling systems are not adequate for what the future world requires of our youth and the next generation of (hopefully kind and compassionate!) leaders and changes can't be implemented fast enough.  We also know that quality and experiential education exists to only a small percentage of those who can afford the fees.  We both are super excited to work towards bringing a blended and alternative learning experience that truly believes that kind kids lead to kinder leaders, co-workers, neighbours, friends, etc. that they become.  It’s a ripple effect and we believe that starting young offers the best opportunity at re-shaping a future world filled with a generation that lives out ‘be the change’ they want to see in the world.  

Emily - 13 years of community-building and youth development work, award-winning and globally recognised non-profit focusing on journeying with youth from under-served communities aged 6-17 years old.   Skills:  facilitation, community building, resilience and grit, third culture kid (being raised in Indonesia, Australia and Singapore.  Has deep relationships in the youth development and social impact space.  

Abi - 20+ years experience, set up and currently leads the Hub of Innovation and Inclusion in the Philippines and designs experiences that drive impact.

Both of us are relentless and eternal optimists, an important key to keep driving us forward amidst challenges, roadblocks, uncertainty. 

In Singapore, physical space is limited and rental rates are high. From the outset of my work, I knew that this would be an uphill challenge.  I never gave up even though many around me said it was easier doing something else that didn’t require meeting in person (it’s one of the values of our programming, a high touch model). Instead, over the years, I’ve worked out of abandoned apartment units, people’s garages, industrial warehouses and whatever shared space people were willing to support with.  In 2014, I was able to secure and land our own physical space in a building located centrally in Singapore (a dream!) and we’ve been there ever since.  

I have also never taken a pay-check out of the work that we do but hope to work towards this.  This meant that I have had to take up many side hustles and jobs to have just enough to survive in one of the most expensive cities to live in the world.   I am respected by the community for my resilience, perseverance and optimism even when all seems lost and the proof is in my 10+ year journey of never giving up.  

Starting where you are and leading with the ethos of:  Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  What highlights my leadership potential is the ability to bring others along the journey and that I'm always playing cheer-leader to whoever it is in our community - not just our children and youth but our partners, volunteers, etc.    

My ability to inspire people to take action and to do it from a place of love is what people tend to talk about the most.  While I do suffer from impostor syndrome and I do not believe I hold the answers to everything - I will celebrate the win today of having started something in my teens that is now an award-winning organisation.  Not a small feat in Singapore where most people tend to tap out once funding dries up or opportunities are scarce.  It is my 'staying' grit that demonstrates my leadership.  

While I selected non-profit organisation, we would love to work towards a hybrid model of for-profit and nonprofit or a B-corp model.

Singapore:

Amazon - material needs, in-kind support

Facebook - one-time grant in 2018, continued communications

Local Small Businesses - material needs, micro-fundraising support.

Google x National University of Singapore - tech/development support for a volunteer portal

Philipines:

De La Salle College - https://www.benilde.edu.ph/