Design Challenge
How might we encourage and empower “youths in need” such that they can achieve their goals, build meaningful connections, and thrive as individuals?Our goal is to empower these youths to reach their full potential through three key areas.
- Achieve Enabling youths to excel in their tasks, be it academics, personal projects, or career goals.
- Connect Fostering meaningful connections with peers, mentors, and the community.
- Thrive Supporting their overall well-being and personal growth to become resilient and well-rounded individuals.
Introduction
Youths form a vital part of our social fabric and are the future of the nation. They possess a wealth of opportunities and strengths, contributing to the vibrancy of our society. However, some face challenging circumstances, such as socioeconomic disadvantages, family instability, school disengagement or mental health conditions.
The challenges faced by our youths today are unique and multifaceted. While there are programmes and initiatives that have nurtured and benefited many youths, some may not have been able to access such opportunities. These youths often may require support across multiple areas to effectively navigate their circumstances, overcome their challenges and realise their potential.
"I am not difficult; I am in a difficult situation."We are seeking innovative and empowering solutions that not only address current gaps but proactively mitigate future challenges.
Target Audience
Youths in Need
"Youths in need" refer to young people, aged 15 to 35, facing various challenging circumstances, such as socioeconomic disadvantages, family instability, school disengagement or mental health conditions.
Youth with Mental Health and Wellbeing Conditions
Younger adults aged 18 to 29 years (25.3%) had the highest proportion with poor mental health
(Source: MOH National Population Health Survey 2022)Key Trends/Insights
Stigma surrounding mental health issues often deters individuals from seeking help
- 1 in 5 aged 18 to 24 years old had experienced a mental health disorder in their lifetime. The treatment delay in Singapore was up to 11 years
(Source: Singapore Mental Health Study 2016) - 4 in 5 felt persons with mental health conditions were stigmatised
(Source: NCSS Study on Public Attitudes towards
Persons with Mental Health Conditions 2021)
Fragmented landscape and lack of accessibility to service
- Singapore offers over 200 mental health touchpoints, including hotlines, digital resources, and in-person services, but navigating them can be overwhelming and time-consuming.
- Children and youths below 21 years old require parental consent to seek professional mental health services/interventions e.g. therapy, counselling (Source: National Mental Health and Well Being Strategy 2023)
High prevalence of mental health conditions in young people
- Suicide is the leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 29 years, constituting 29.2% of all deaths within this group
Youth At-Risk
An at-risk youth is a young person who is exposed to circumstances or displayed behavioural, or social misconduct that increase his/her likelihood of encountering negative outcomes, such as criminal behaviour, substance abuse, and academic failure.
Key Trends/Insights
Adverse childhood experiences
- Recent studies suggest that neglect in childhood has the greatest impact on youth offending; impairing the development of secure attachments, leading to cognitive issues and potentially behavioural problems and delinquency.
- Physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect increased the likelihood of youth offending and predicted chronic youth offending.
- Youth offenders with a history of adverse childhood experiences were 1.38 times as likely as those without to reoffend within 7.4 years, after controlling for other familial and parental issues.
Family, social support and sense of belonging contribute to prevention of youth delinquency
- Positive family functioning and psychological well-being are most important factors for quality of life for children and youth without health or developmental conditions. (Source: NCSS Quality of Life study on Children and Youth)
- Youth probationers with high family supervision were 4.47 times as likely to complete probation as compared to those with low family supervision.
Examples of “Youths in Need”
NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training)
This refers to youths aged 15 to 24 who are unemployed or outside the labour force for reasons other than education or training. The percentage of NEET youths in Singapore increased from 3.7% in 2013 to 4.1% in 2023. This group faces higher risks of social exclusion, low income, and skill deficits that impact their economic prospects.
(Sources: MOM Labour Market Statistics March 2024; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
Hidden Youths also known as Hikkikomori
They are individuals who withdraw from social interactions and daily activities, often staying confined to their rooms or homes for over six months. This phenomenon, widespread in Japan, is increasingly common in other developed countries, including Singapore. Hidden youths are at higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders like social anxiety and depression and also face stigma for not meeting societal expectations.
(Source: Programme to help Singapore youth overcome self-isolation shows promise | The Straits Times)
Youths of Incarcerated Parents and/or with Incarcerated Household Member
Children exposed to parental criminality are three times more likely to engage in criminal behaviour compared to those without such exposure, with maternal criminality having a greater impact. Youth offenders from criminally involved or poorly managed families tend to offend younger and reoffend more quickly. Those with a household member who has been incarcerated are 1.5 times more likely to join gangs, while those with a history of substance abuse are 2.2 times more likely to join gangs and 1.7 times more likely to abuse drugs themselves.
(Sources: MSF Report on Youth Delinquency 2021; MSF Factsheet on Youth Delinquency 2023)The categories of youths are not mutually exclusive or exhaustive.
Are you a designer or a design agency based in Singapore?
How can we strengthen the social-emotional resilience of our youth, so that they are better equipped and ready to face the challenges of a dynamic future?
How should we tap on the potential of remote means of engagement to reach out to at‑risk youth profiles that might be traditionally harder to engage, such as out‑of‑school youth and hidden youth?
How should we redesign interventions for children whose parents were not available to send them to programmes, such as incarcerated parents?
How can we harness the increased use of online learning platforms among our children and youth, to forge positive virtual communities and friendships that could reduce negative influences in the lives of youth-at-risk and youth offenders?
How should we encourage public‑private‑people collaboration to continue, such that the community as a whole takes ownership of societal issues, including youth presenting at risk or offending behaviours?
Seed Money
The award quantum takes into account the time and effort put in by participants; it serves as a guide for participants to define and specify their deliverables.
The buffer between the 2 levels of prize money is to distinguish the merits for every solution in terms of their intensity/complexity and completeness to the solution.
Important Dates
Terms & Conditions
Eligibility
- All entries submitted must be completed or realisable within the 6 to 12 months timeline, with a minimum viable product (MVP) following proof of concept.
- Joint-project submissions from more than one design firm or practice are eligible for entry.
- Conceptual works and projects developed by students who are still undergoing professional design studies are eligible.
- Any projects submitted which have not conformed to the Terms & Conditions are not deemed ineligible.
- The executive committee in consultation with the international judges reserves the right to reject entries on the grounds of ineligibility if they affect the standards of the awards, potentially mar the reputation of the organisation and its jury, cause any concern on the issue of interests, etc.
- The award quantum considers the participants' time and effort and guides the definition of deliverables. If participants are found to be funded by other grants, the award amount may be adjusted or withheld accordingly.
Intellectual Property, Rights & Terms of Use
- All rights related to the name and trademark of Singapore Design Awards are managed and owned exclusively by Design Business Chamber Singapore.
- Any candidate seeking to use the related name and trademark must obtain written consent from the DBCS Executive Committee.
- Awardees are permitted to use the relevant Singapore Design Awards logos.
- Design companies or designers submitting works for any category must be responsible for their own intellectual property (IP) and patent issues. The organisers take no responsibility for any infringement of IP rights.
- All design firms and institutions submitting an entry to the Singapore Design Awards agree to allow the organisers to use and reproduce their submissions for publicity purposes.
- If any press, publications or media networks agree to publicise the awardees, the entrants agree to absorb any talent or other residual charges incurred by inclusion, if required.
- All finalists of Singapore Design Awards agree to grant the sponsor, NCSS, and its affiliates, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty free, and fully-paid up licence. This licence allows NCSS and its affiliates to use, copy, modify, reproduce, create derivative works, sublicense, and distribute the Awardee’s intellectual property rights (IPR) for non-commercial and educational purposes only, even after commercialisation. The complete seed funding agreement is available for viewing here.
Judging
- The judges reserve the right not to confer awards in any category if the entries were found to be below par in terms of reaching the top bandwidth of a category’s score board.
- The judges’ decisions are made with their own discretion and are considered final.
- All submissions will be evaluated by the same panel of judges from each discipline.
- Should the judge be involved in any of the entries submitted, he/she will not be allowed to evaluate the project.