RLA Foundation Singapore held a 2-day Design Thinking & Project Management Bootcamp in collaboration with Majulah Community on 7 and 8 April 2018.
In line with RLAF’s effort to empower many more youth to be passionate and competent changemakers through humanitarian and community development projects, 25 participants, mainly made up of young volunteers from mosque youth wings, full-time Madrasah and tertiary student associations, were exposed to challenging design thinking concepts that can make their intended social efforts more impactful.
The Human Library segment saw insightful sharing by social service experts such as Mdm Juliana Yusop from Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society (THK) and Mr Brian Montiero from Catholic Welfare Services. They gave a lowdown of the realities and challenges of youths-at-risk, eldercare and homelessness. Volunteers must uphold the importance of being conscious of the reasons and values behind every project. The Project Management segment was also key in bringing the different segments of design thinking together. An idea is only as good as the implementation and impact.
Ms Nur Raihana Abdul Wahab, a volunteer from Masjid Al-Ansar : “One thing that impacted me is that it enables us to go out of the our comfort zone and expose us to the realities of Singapore. There are still homeless people and we need to find innovative ways to engage them’’. Mr Muhd Yusuf Jamaludin, an exco committee from Republic Polytechnic Muslim Society further added : “The workshop gave me various tools that can help in designing impactful programmes such as the ARCI (Accountable, Review, Contribute, Inform). The method reminds us that roles have to be delegated within a project team’’.
93% of the participants felt that they have a strong support network in community development work and empowered to do more after the training. Volunteering opportunities will be provided by both RLAF and Majulah Community in the near future. RLAF upholds the importance of such training for full-time Madrasah and mosque youth wings and we will continue to build capable young leaders who can help shape a caring and compassionate community. Positive change starts from the young.
