MID-YEAR REPORT 2017-18CHANGING THE SCRIPT OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN INDIA
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around”
- Leo F. Buscaglia
It has been over a year and a half since we unveiled our new 5-year strategic plan, outlining our vision for 2016-21. The key aspects of the new strategic plan was to invest in Research & Advocacy - to build a movement to equip young people from vulnerable backgrounds with life-skills - while creating deep-er impact in our programmes. The journey so far has been very exciting and we believe we are on the right path. With this report we would like to share some of the key highlights of the first half of 2017-18 as we move closer to our 2021 vision.
HIGHLIGHTS - APRIL TO SEPTEMBER 2017
RESEARCH & ADVOCACY• Dream a Dream was represented by Vishal Talreja (Cofounder & CEO) at “Educating Students for a Diverse and Rapidly Changing World” - A Confer-ence of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at Harvard Graduate School of Education held from 8th to 11th May 2017. Vishal presented insights from our work at a panel focused on “Inno-vations in Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century”. Over 250 educators, academicians, researchers, social entre-preneurs and global agencies were pres-ent at the conference. His talk can be seen at https://youtu.be/23EPD1YSDNM
• Dream a Dream was represented by Vishal Talreja (Cofounder & CEO) at Harvard Advanced Lead-ership Initiative – Education Deep Dive on 27th – 28th April 2017. Vishal presented our work at a panel focused on “Empowering those in Poverty” to over 100 senior Industry professionals who were part of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.
• Oxford Symposium for Comparative and International Education – on re-imagining the mission of education and the meaning of learning in an uncertain world on June 8-9, 2017. Every year, OXSCIE invites 150 global delegates to consider the features of uncertainty and debate the nature of the ed-ucational response to some of the most pressing concerns facing children today. Invited by The Aga Khan Foundation and Global Centre for Pluralism, Dream a Dream presented a paper on “The mean-ing of teaching and learning in the context of educational uncertainties” drawn from our insights of over 18 years.
• Dream a Dream was represented by Vishal Talreja (Cofounder & CEO) at the Future of Work Conference hosted by Eisenhower Fellowships at Malaga, Spain between 14-17 Sep-tember 2017. Over 320 delegates from 49 countries were present from all sectors to analyse the key drivers shaping the future of work. Dream a Dream got an opportunity to present our innovative approach to preparing youth from vulnerable backgrounds in India to thrive in the 21st century. You can see Vishal’s presentation at https://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=KvGOW7_ut3I (7:15 minutes onwards). One of our young graduates, Vishnu Reji was also selected as one of 32 young people from across the world to be a part of the first cohort of the Global Youth Fellowship of Eisenhower Fellowships.
• As part of our research initiative this year, we have launched a study to understand the impact on Learning Outcomes on young people who are part of our programme, in partnership with Gray Mat-ters India and supported by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The baseline data collection for the control and study group has been completed and the endline data collection is scheduled for February 2018.
• Dream a Dream participated in the Southern Region Workshop on Innovations and Best Practices in School Education in India, hosted by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
• We are currently exploring a partnership with STIR Education* to support STIR to co-create the design of Life Skills Facilitation Workshops for the Fellows associated with STIR. STIR Fellows are teachers from Affordable Private Schools, who have attended STIR programmes. As per the feedback from STIR after the first workshop, “Fellows are understanding the need for self-introspection first and then understanding others. So, whenever they are doing any activity they apply it on themselves first and then take it to the classroom. “
*STIR Education is a fast-growing international education NGO, headquartered in London and currently operating in India and Uganda. STIR’s core mission is to partner with governments to ignite and sustain teacher intrinsic motivation (TIM).
http://stireducation.org/
• We have a partnership with Learning Curve Life Skills Foundation* and have engaged with 61 teachers of the Islamic School, Grace Model School and Pioneer High School, Hyderabad through our Teacher Development Programme.
* Learning Curve Life Skills Foundation (http://learning-curve-foundation.org/) is an NGO based out of Hyderabad. They
strive to bring social-emotional learning into classrooms through teacher transformation.
• The programme currently has a presence in 12 districts of Karnataka through partnerships with 19 Low Cost Private Schools located in these dis-tricts.
• We organized an exposure visits for the Mentor Teachers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, for them to understand the Dream a Dream meth-odology. 31 Mentor Teachers participated in the Dream a Dream Outdoor Experiential Camp to learn more about the Dream a Dream Life skills Ap-proach.
• We conducted 6 Outdoor Experiential Camps for 200 young people. A total of 84 boys and 116 girls participated in the programme. The model uses experiential techniques to un-derstand the self, unlock the creative potential, and build supportive learning communities by learning through fun.
CAREER CONNECT PROGRAMME
In the recent years, the increased number of young people coming to the center triggered us to move to a bigger and brighter space so that young people can develop the life skills to thrive in the 21st Century. We moved our cen-ter in Koramangala to Bommanahalli and inau-gurated the new center in June. We express our deepest gratitude to Dell International Services for their continued support and part-nership due to which we could aesthetically and beautifully fit out the new Career Connect Centre in Bommanahalli, Bangalore.
Also,• 215 young people are moving out of the Career Connect tracking base, as all of them have made a
meaningful career choice and have remained employed for a continuous of 6 months.• 3 of our Career Connect Graduates have become freelance trainers and have facilitated our skill
development programmes with great passion and dedication. • 7771 young people’s life journey is now being tracked every quarter through support calls.• We kick started the Mentoring program journey with Dell employees; who in turn have committed
to be ambassadors of the programme.
AFTER SCHOOL LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMME
• Harshitha, Navanitha and Navya, graduates from the Dream Life Skills through Sports pro-gramme, have set up their own girl’s football team in their school.
• Harshitha, Ranjitha and Lekhashri, graduates from the Dream Life Skills through Sports pro-gramme, were selected for the Karnataka Girls Football team. Harshitha travelled to Punjab and Odisha while Ranjitha and Lekhashri travelled to Odisha to represent the Karnataka State team.
• A 9 member team that include graduates from our After School Life Skills Programme participating in ‘Our Bodies, Our Rights, Our Game’ - a women’s football and cultural festi-val in Goa hosted by DISCOVER FOOTBALL. Over 80 women from across India trained with international coaches, participated in a football tournament, and shared their experience of us-ing football as a tool for empowerment.
• In order to map the long-term impact of our programmes, we have started tracking the graduates of the programme. Currently we are in touch with over 1007 graduates of our programme starting from as early as 2006.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• Dream a Dream’s Platinum Certification from Guidestar In-dia has been extended to March 2018. This is the highest level of certification and has been awarded to Dream a Dream for our transparency and accountability practices.
• We engaged over 550 volunteers clocking over 6639 hours in partnership with DELL International Services, Axis Cades, North-ern Trust, Oracle, San Disk, NetApp, Ritz Carlton and other cor-porate partners and individuals.
• We are currently an 84 member Dream Team
KEY PROGRAMME METRICS
AFTER SCHOOL LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMME
5382Total Participants
Partners
23
Programme Metrics Impact MetricsLife Skills through Sports
Life Skills through Arts
2188
3194Female Participation
49.55%
Showed positive improvement in Life Skills
Improved in all 5 Life Skills
95.50%
63%CAREER CONNECT PROGRAMME
2968Total Participants
Scholarships Awarded
50
Programme Metrics Impact MetricsCareer Awareness
SkillDevelopment
1760
777 Showed positive improvement in Life Skills
Improved in all 5 Life Skills
99.68%
88%Last MileSupport 43
93% Rentention91% Attendance
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
798New teachers/NGO workers enrolled
Completed all 4 modules of traning
298
Programme Metrics Impact MetricsNew Partners
Districts covered in Karnataka
23
12 Said the training helped them explore their own creativity
Said the training helped them gain an increased sense of empathy towards the child
98.21%
96%Batches Conducted
43FINANCIALSDream a Dream received an INCOME OF INR 33, 055,549/- FROM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER 2017.
Particulars
Core Programme
Operation
Fundraising and Communications
Capital Assets
Total
INR USD
21,895,811
3,410,312
1,620,333
708,288
27,634,745
336,859
52,466
24,928
10,897
425,150
EXPENDITURE: APRIL TO SEPTEMBER 2017
79%
12%
6% 3%
CORE PROGRAMME
OPERATION
FUNDRAISING AND COMMUNICATIONS
CAPITAL ASSETS
STORIES OF CHANGEShanti(name changed) learns to take responsibility for her family while pursu-ing her dreams
Shanti is an 18-year-old pursuing her Bachelors in Engineering at Oxford Engineering College. Her fa-ther is a tailor in a garment factory and she has a sister who has dropped out of education and working at Pizza Corner. Shanti has been a part of the Career Connect Programme for the past 4 years and has attended Basic Computer, Spoken English and Animation workshops. Shanti is the first-generation learner in her family and has always been academically strong, but lacked confidence when it came to approaching people and solving problems.
“I joined Career Connect when I was pursuing my pre-university. I come from a family where it is rare for a girl to be educated. Both my parents have only completed their schooling.
The life skills sessions at the center has had a deep impact on me. It has helped me change the way I think about myself and people around me. “Beautiful You” helped me understand the strengths I had but wasn’t aware of; I realized that other than my ability to score good marks, I am a good listener, I am creative and I am strong in handling my feelings. “Portraiture” helped me understand how others look at me and I realized that most of them felt that I am a good speaker and leader. This increased my confidence.
Another way the Life skills sessions at Dream a Dream has help me is when my mother was sick and admitted in different hospitals. At this time my father was unable to talk to any of the doctors and I had to step in and talk to the doctors. I had to make decisions on behalf of my father and I had to stay strong through the whole process. This is when most of the things I learnt during my sessions helped me and I was able to approach the doctors without fear. I was able to make decisions on time and I was able to reach out to other people for help”
Shanti’s father shared with us the transformation he has seen in Shanti after attending Career Con-nect programmes. “My daughter has changed a lot after the classes at Dream a Dream. She has started taking up more responsibilities; she has given me strength to handle situations when I was not able to make decisions. Dream a Dream has helped her to become a responsible adult which has reduced my worries of bringing up my children without a mother; I am proud of her”.
Shanti has received scholarship from Dream a Dream from the past 3 years from the time she was in her 2nd year pre-university to present i.e. 2nd semester of Bachelor of Engineering. Shanti adds, “In the past few months my family has been through a lot. I lost my mother due to liver failure a few months back and my father is under a lot of debt because we had borrowed a lot of money for her treatment. There was a time where I thought of dropping out of education like my sister and supporting my father in the house; but a lot of people including Dream a Dream has invested a lot in me and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so I persisted. I am happy I did not discontinue my studies.”
Rachapa, Teacher at Vidyavahani School makes the journey from a Teacher to a Facilitator
“I am a teacher at Vidyavahani Residential School at Sirwara, Raichur, Karnataka for the past 7 years. Earlier I used to plan my sessions solely based on my understanding of the syllabus. I simply focused on the delivery and completion of the syllabus and giving and correcting the homework in each class. I believed in controlling the students by punishing them.
I attended all four modules of the Dream a Dream’s Life Skill Facilitation workshop and got to know that there is something more beyond teaching – and that is to know about the child. During each ses-sion, I started to unfurl within myself the meaning of being a ‘Teacher’. There were many activities which gave me this experience, especially during LSF#3 – “the mirroring activity” I got to know that children not just listen to us, they observe and follow us as well.
I decided to apply my learnings with my 2nd grade children. One day I told them that I won’t be using the stick henceforth in the class. All the children in the class shouted in joy and disbelief. ‘Sir, are you telling us you won’t use stick in the class!?!”, “No Sir…, you just can’t do that and we are sure that you will use your hands instead to beat us”. On hearing these words, I felt ashamed of myself for having cre-ated such an image in their mind. I am thankful for the training I underwent at Dream a Dream which helped me understand myself and the children.
Since then I always try to understand the children’s emotions and respond and not to react instantly. I am trying to be a good listener and I try to validate their feelings. After I stopped punishing the chil-dren, I could see that the children became very close to me and the relationship has become more cor-dial than before. They opened up and started to share their thoughts, ideas and suggestions fearlessly.
I learnt that, before the training, my style of working, thinking pattern and perception was not in sync, but now, after the training, all these are aligned with each other. My perception towards my profession has changed and is enhanced.
Now I feel that I am a ‘Facilitator’ rather than a ‘Teacher’.”*translated from Kannada.
TESTIMONIALS“Our partnership with Dream a Dream on the Teacher Development Programme has indeed been en-riching and has brought in significant insights and learning for us in our work with children and teach-ers. We believe that this is a great example of a true collaboration, and we intend to nurture this into a strategic relationship in the years to come”
- Subbu Parameswaran, Co-Founder & CEO, Learning Curve Life Skills Foundation
“It is a motivational and good training for teachers and it is very useful for them to interact with stu-dents. Both the students and teachers abilities and communication skills have improved a lot. Thank you Dream a Dream and hats off to your team for doing good towards the field of education and for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this service.”
-Srinivas NG, Secretary, Vasavi Vidyanikethan School
MEDIA OUTREACHhttps://thelogicalindian.com/my-social-responsibility/dream-a-dream/https://thelogicalindian.com/my-social-responsibility/kids-teacher-development/
As we move forward towards the second half of 2017-18 and in the direction of the 5-year strategic vision, we shall continue to build a movement to equip millions of young people from vulnerable back-grounds with life-skills to overcome adversity and flourish in the 21st century.
THANK YOU!
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