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I have to admit that interning at Make The Change (MTC) was interesting because of the atmosphere and trust they give to the interns. If I have to describe how it felt to work there. The adjectives would be friendly and nerve-racking. Friendly because everyone is willing to help you when they’re not as busy and nerve-racking because regardless of what your task with. You would experience new things. Meaning having to brave your mistakes and learn from them. I also learned a useful amount of skills. Such as using iPad functions which include; screenshot, screen record, airdrop and procreate. Most of it was taught by Jade Other skills included lessons; Internet safety which teaches you to be kind, safe and smart. Filming which teaches you camera movements and composition. Social entrepreneurship and the different methods to a social problem and finally. Creative design and how to convey meaning through images. Lastly, these are my true thoughts on MTC as a whole. I think MTC is an amazing place to work, study or intern at. It’s definitely a place to grow as a person. If you’re flexible and open-minded to learn new skills and grow then you’ve come to the right place. Her biggest animation project on social entrepreneurship will be shown soon!

We need to make sure our students are prepared for the future. That happens when we begin to teach subjects essential in life: social and emotional skills. These are how we connect with people and most importantly, feel empathy for others. Make The Change has been looking at MOE’s set of ‘21st Century Competencies’, and it’s a goal that we have been on track in implementing in our own programmes. Children need to experience their own self-awareness, manage their emotions, develop responsible decision-making, have social awareness and develop positive relationship management. How then do we make an impact on students’ social-emotional development? At MTC, we will help students in the various competencies and that includes their communication and critical thinking. That’s why our projects are engaging, interactive and strongly believe in imparting the same desired outcomes. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that our programmes have the goal of creating content about social good and digital literacy. A couple include: Social Media For Good Photography For Good Videography For Good Storytelling For Good Design Thinking Digital Arts For All MTC is also producing more programmes, so look out for them here!

Dear Design For Good Youth Competition Participants, Thanks for joining our 2020 Youth Competition our judges had a very thought time selecting the best works, this year we received over 500 entries. All the winners will receive a certificate, a surprise gift and a $300 voucher to attend any one of the Make The Changes Workshops in 2021.  Some of the workshops we run are: • Design Thinking for Social Innovations • Digital Storytelling (Photography and Videography) • Social Entrepreneurship • Understanding the SGD Goals: Sustainable Development Goals We will not be announcing the overall winner of the competition yet, since we want to give the students the best experience and have an award ceremony in early 2021.  We will be opening the 2021 competition in January so our plan is to have the award ceremony for 2020 and 2021 together in April next year if the regulations allow us to meet. Thanks for your understanding and your support.  Here are is the list of winners:

What better way to work on yourself than to do it during the month dedicated to self improvement! Take this month as an excuse, a motivation, a target to grow and transform yourself. If you have no idea where to start, we have 4 things you easily do to start your journey of change! 1. Start a reading habit In today’s world, multitasking has become a really bad habit that many of us are guilty of – watching the TV while eating, responding to text messages while talking, attending to a Zoom call while working. This simultaneous action actually diverts your attention and it affects your productivity. Many scientific research have proved that multitasking does not help you to get work done faster, in fact it slows you down. So to those who are unaware that multitasking is not beneficial to you in any way, now you know! In order to break the bad habit, we have an antidote for you, which is to cultivate a reading habit. Reading helps you to concentrate better because it requires your attention and focus in order to understand what you are reading. It keeps you focussed on that one task, especially when you are engrossed in the book. Simply take 15 - 30minutes before you sleep to read, and when we say read, it means to put away any distractions (we are talking about your phone) and direct your focus onto reading. By cultivating this habit, you can improve your ability to concentrate on one task at a time, and ultimately increase your productivity. Furthermore, reading can help to increase your brain power. Similar to going on a jog to exercise your muscles, reading helps to train your memory and brain function. As we age, we are all susceptible to declining memory, but with regular reading, it keeps the brain active for longer. Studies have found that frequent brain exercise can lower mental decline by 32%. We recommend reading a variety of books as different genres stimulate different parts of your brain. Fictional stories touch on your imagination and creativity, while self help and personal development books help you to regulate your thinking and inspire you to make better choices. Here are a few book recommendations for you: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (Self Help) The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (Self Help) Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven (Self Help) Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Fiction) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Fiction) 2. Regulate your sleep schedule We are no stranger to the phrase “Sleep is for the weak”, but guess what? Having quality sleep is important!! The average adult needs around 8 hours of sleep in order to function and perform properly. I know, there are just too many things to be done at night! Finishing up last minute work, catching up on your latest shows, bonding with family and friends and more. However, the lack of sleep can cause mood shifts, weight gain, attention lapses, and medical conditions. Based on a Harvard University study, it shows that getting 5 hours of sleep can also “adversely affect your brain’s ability to remember important information”. You tend to forget dinner dates or where you last placed your phone. While you brushed these behaviours off as carelessness, the constant lack of sleep puts you in a risk of cognitive decline. You will start to feel less motivated, less focussed, and more stressed out and these factors bring negative effects on your mental health as well. Hence, if you are working on improving yourself this month, your sleep cycle is the best place to start. Keep track of your sleeping hour - are you having at least 7 - 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep? If you are not, adjust your sleep routine and set realistic bedtime. Stay away from electronic devices before your sleep, you do not need to watch a corgi video before you sleep (guilty as charged). We suggest incorporating the reading habit mentioned above into your night routine, you will find yourself falling asleep more easily. It is definitely not easy to have a “screen time” ban before your sleep, or going to sleep at a fixed timing, but stick to that routine for a month and you are able to feel the difference. The first step to improving yourself is having the commitment and discipline to make positive change to your life. 3. Set priorities As a working adult or busy student, we have to juggle with multiple responsibilities and choices - meeting deadlines, making time for families and friends, enjoying your personal time and more. Are you struggling to meet all of the tasks and events you have in a day because you find everything important? Are you having difficulties making decisions or saying no to distractions? If the answer is ‘Yes’, you need to learn how to plan your priorities. Without a clear set of priorities, it is going to be difficult to manage your time properly. You will find yourself overwhelmed with too many responsibilities or tasks waiting to be completed. It is important to identify what your life priorities are, so that you are able to plan your day to day tasks and activities to cater to those priorities. If you are unsure what should be included into your priorities, set aside some time, take a seat and ask yourself: What is most important to you? What makes you feel achieved, happy, and satisfied? Here are a list of priorities you might have: Family Money Happiness Religion Health Once you have identified what your priorities are, work on your daily tasks and schedule so that your focus is aligned with your priorities. If one of your priorities is to be financially stable, you should be making financially conscious choices, planning your finances, or saving. With that in mind, you are able to break free from the endless cycle of overwhelming responsibilities and decisions to handle. You are able to take charge of your life better, move closer towards your goals, and most importantly, feel more motivated to take on each day. 4. Learn to understand your emotions You might be thinking, “PSH, what do you mean by understanding my emotions? I definitely know what and how I feel”. That’s the thing! You know that you are angry, but being angry is a ‘bad’ emotion and you should not be displaying such emotion out for everyone to see, therefore you resort to suppressing it. According to Jenna Mamorsky, a psychotherapist, this leaves you “clueless about how to regulate and understand your own emotional experience”. To constantly ignore such emotional cues, it can eventually lead to negative consequences such as emotional buildup, unhealthy behaviours, and physical and mental health problems. Based on a study done by Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester, it shows that bottling up of emotions increases the chance of premature death by more than 30%. It also can lead to an increased risk of diabetes and heart diseases. Not only do you feel physical pain when you repress your feelings, you are bringing psychological distress to your brain because you are forcing it to disrupt the flow of emotions and this action puts stress on the mind, which can cause depression, anxiety and more mental health conditions. One important step to personal growth and self improvement is to build a better mental state. Dr. Glen Xiong from Doctor On Demand mentioned that being healthy emotionally promotes productivity and effectiveness in the things you do and it also plays an important role in achieving healthy relationships. Therefore, rather than suppressing your emotions, learn to understand and regulate them instead. Acknowledge what you are feeling at the moment like “I am feeling angry now” BUT do not talk yourself out of this emotion. Give yourself time alone, take a deep breath, feel that emotion, and allow that anger to tide away like a wave. Learning to embrace these emotions, especially negative ones, allows you to feel comfortable with what you are feeling and this helps with your mental well being over time. Self improvement takes time but taking that first step to make the change will bring you closer to the best version of yourself.

We bid farewell to our colleague of 7 years as he moves on to greater heights and begins his new adventure beyond Make The Change. When Airic first joined us, he was a young boy with big ambitions. He started his journey in Make The Change as a customer satisfaction specialist, but slowly moved to become a photographer/videographer as he expressed interest in photography and videography. Through these 7 years, we watched him grow from a boy to a married man with an adorable child, but his personality still remained the same ‒ playful, quirky and loves free food. We have created many amazing and lasting memories with Airic, but here are our top 5 best memories with him. 1. Company Retreat - Bali Our team had a blast during the Bali Trip! Even though Airic was down with a fever, it did not stop him from having fun and fooling around during the entire trip. While he had his fair share of fun, the downside was that he missed out on many good foods because his fever suppressed his appetite. 2. Marina One Filming It was a tiring but eventful 2 day shoot at Marina One! It was our first time filming with a Go-Pro but Airic was able to lead and direct the team to complete the shoot smoothly. Fun fact: He had to leave the shoot halfway as his wife was going into labour! 3. I’m Soul Inc Event It was a hectic day for Airic as he had to push and shove his way through the crowds in order to snap amazing pictures for I’m Soul Inc. We even met the then transport minister Khaw Boon Wan! 4. Workshops Other than videography and photography, Airic also taught students. His goofiness brought more fun and liveliness to the workshops that we conduct! 5. Yearly birthday celebration Airic loves free food so his favourite occasions are probably birthday celebrations, anniversaries and holidays! Special mention His favourite Crayon Shin Chan T-Shirt that he got on Shoppee for $7. He wears this shirt every week without fail. He even coincidentally matched with our intern, Jeremin, who had the same shirt. Airic even brags that he got the shirt for cheaper We had witnessed his growth since he joined us 7 years ago and we are proud of his achievements. We wish him all the best for his future endeavours and he will always hold a place in our heart! All the best Airic!

Covid-19 caught us by surprise with its level of uncertainty and it is a situation well beyond what most businesses can handle. According to the Global Crisis Survey, 69% of leaders have experienced at least 1 corporate crisis in the last 5 years, with the average number of crises experienced in these firms being more than 3. The pandemic is definitely one of the drivers that will test the company’s preparedness. While it might be too late for some businesses to protect themselves from the impact of the crisis, this gap is the perfect opportunity to get your business ready for the changes after Covid-19. Here are 3 steps you can consider to reshape your business for post circuit breaker: 1. Maintain flexibility Due to the pandemic, it is known that non essential businesses that are still running are made to convert to working from home. We are fortunate to be surrounded with advanced and latest technology that ensures meetings still can go on and programmes still can continue. Such flexibility should not be overlooked even after the circuit breaker period has ended. The option of working from home should not be dismissed if employees remain productive and efficient when working at home. Research has found that working from home improves work/life balance, foster better mental health and increase productivity levels among employees. Working from home has been now deemed as a viable option and it may even be counted as the future of work. Many large tech companies like Google are also starting to let employees work from home until the end of 2020. Even after the circuit breaker, by allowing that flexibility to your employees, it can potentially reduce the stress and monetary expenses some of your employees face, especially for single parents or adults living with seniors. 2. Review your marketing efforts As most non essential businesses went into hibernation due to the circuit breaker, it is the best time to thoroughly review your business website. What are some content and pictures that need to be renewed and updated, how can you improve your website’s user experience so that it is optimised for the surge in customers after circuit breaker has ended, what are some elements that can be improved. For businesses who do not have a website, it is time to consider investing in a website and adopting alternative online sales channels as it has become a norm to shop online ever since the Covid outbreak. There are many Content Management Systems available online for you to try out such as Wix and Wordpress. However, if you are not confident in your designing skills, you can always engage a creative agency to build your website. According to studies, it has shown that 70-80% of consumers research businesses online before making a decision to purchase their goods or services. Therefore, having a well developed website is key to maintaining and attracting customers after circuit breaker as they will be restarting their purchasing habits and may end up on your website. Not only that, you should also step up your game and become active on social media. While your business remains stagnant during the circuit breaker, it does not mean you stop attracting potential leads. You should be focused in getting your brand known on social media so that it can entice customers to visit your website. Studies have shown that 60% of Instagram users mentioned that they have come across new products on the platform and could possibly become customers. So, take this time to improve your digital marketing strategy by generating better content for your social media platforms; explore new and upcoming trends, build your following and engage existing customers. Not sure how to grow your social media platforms? Engage a professional to help you! 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand when they have a positive encounter with it on social media. Having a trained and professional team to manage your business social media platforms ensures that contents are well made and customers are satisfied. 3. Stay future orientated The Covid-19 situation has definitely caught many businesses off guard, especially those who are not prepared for such scenarios. Scenario planning is critical to ensure that businesses continue to run smoothly, even in times of adversity. Ask yourself what are some of the best and/or worst scenarios you should be ready for. What are some short and long term impacts? Is your business equipped to cope with such situations? Do you have a contingency plan in case manpower or stocks run low? Businesses that are not prepared are most vulnerable when dealing with a crisis as most of their attention will be spent resolving it. With the pandemic comes recession; stocks prices fall, sales drop and we enter an economic slump. Is your business ready for it? Do you have enough cash flow to tide through this financial crisis? Are your sales channels diversified? You should always be future orientated and plan your business for unforeseen circumstances. According to Rosen, a writer on Entrepreneur, she mentioned that by “developing a future oriented mindset, (it) can transcend traditional entrepreneurship and business creation.”. Future oriented people become innovators and achievers and it positively impacts decision making. Keep yourself informed, consult experts, manage your finances and people well so that your business can be quick to respond when the next storm comes. The crisis came so suddenly that no one could predict it. However, it also served as a very important lesson for businesses where they can learn and analyse their response towards the situation. It is also the time for companies to start planning for their recovery, especially when things are slowly starting to get better. Businesses fail because of poor management and there have been many cases to prove you likewise. Use this crisis to re-look into your business strategy, organisations that are forward looking and flexible will still be able to push on under unexpected circumstances.

As we have come to the end of circuit breaker and are moving on to Phase 1 of reopening our economy, many businesses are also preparing to open their doors again. You might be one of them, anticipating to kickstart your company, rebuild your brand and recover losses. Here are 3 things you can do when reopening your business for post circuit breaker. 1. Adhere to safety regulations As employees slowly began to head back to work, here are a few safety and health guidelines all should follow according to the Ministry of Manpower. Stagger work and break hours Break employees up into different working and break hours so that it reduces congregation and minimises socialising. Staggered work hours also allows employees to avoid peak hours during commuting. Spilt teams Deploy your teams into separate working spaces and strictly adhere to it so that the different teams would have no interactions with each other. It minimises the risk of cross infection and ensures that companies remain running in situations where one team needs to be quarantined. Even though there would be lesser employees in the office due to staggering hours and splitting of teams, one should always maintain a 1m distance between persons at all times and it includes work spaces, meetings and interactions between outside vendors. Practice good hygiene Inform employees to keep their masks on at all times and provide other necessary personal protective equipment when needed. Keep hand sanitisers accessible by placing it at the front of the office, in the pantry, and other areas with more physical touchpoints. Put up posters promoting frequent and thorough hand washing, including other personal hygiene practices. With constant reminders, it ensures that staff are practicing good personal hygiene and keeping themselves safe. Go the extra mile to encourage them to play their part in keeping a clean working environment by engaging in regular housekeeping practices such as disinfecting their work desks and devices at the end of the day. It is also vital to actively monitor unwell staff in order to protect all employees from the risk of getting transmitted. SafeEntry Ensure that all employees and visitors use SafeEntry before entering and leaving the workplace. If they do not have a QR code scanner, keep a record of their particulars together with the date and time they enter and leave the place. Carefully screen every personnel entering the working space by taking their temperature and ensuring that they have declared the following: a. Currently not under a quarantine order, stay home notice b. Did not have any close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days c. No fever or flu-like symptoms Employees are the pillar to the success of a business so it is important to keep them safe and healthy. There is nothing wrong in being more stringent in rules and regulations in order to protect them from the virus. Always remember to practice good personal hygiene and safe distancing as everyone slowly starts going back to work. For more information about the requirements workplaces should follow, visit MOM’s website to learn more. 2. Actively communicate your plans to staff and customers Once you have all the health and safety regulations in place to prepare for your business reopening, go beyond just strictly adhering to it. Keep your employees and customers in the loop on what your company is doing to keep them safe and what they can do to mitigate the risk of transmission. Have a clear and direct communication strategy and platform to reach out to them. According to Tracy Hansen, president (North America) and global CMO of ProGlove, she told CO— (US chamber of commerce), “Communication is critical”, especially when there is so much uncertainty and with many unanswered questions from employees, they have been communicating even more to make sure everyone is updated. Prepare a unified message for all your employees and reach out to them via a shared portal, be it through emails, Zoom calls or other form of communication platforms. Ensure that your staff are well informed of your company’s efforts in keeping them safe. Many employees choose not to go back to work because they are worried about their health and safety, but if your company has been playing its part to actively communicate with them and give them assurance about strict protocols, they will start returning to their workplaces. Don’t forget about your customers and clients as well, they are the foundation of your business. Give them an overview of what your company is doing to ensure one’s safety. Share your reopening plans on social media, EDMs, and other touch points, including physical ones like in store messages at cash registers or entrances. Lastly, provide them with regular updates, be open to feedback and stay adaptable. Visuals and copywriting are very important factors when communicating your health and safety plans to your customers. Engage a creative agency to help showcase your plans to ease their worries, be it through social media posts, physical posters, or videos. Use this to build connection and trust among your customers so that when you reopen, they feel safe to patronise your business. 3. Get the word out After implementing the above 2, the last thing you should do to get your business ready for reopening is to boost your marketing efforts and create awareness. Reopening quietly means that you are unable to generate traffic and potential customers to your business on the first day. Use various communication platforms to spread the news, create buzz and anticipation so that customers look forward to patronising on the day of your reopening. Social media is a very useful channel to create awareness for your business and with the right marketing strategy, your business will slowly start to pick up. Unsure on how to utilise social media to your advantage? Engage a company that offers digital marketing services to help you promote your reopening. They are equipped with the knowledge and skills to build brand awareness and reach out to targeted groups of customers. Additionally, your business might be competing with other similar businesses that are reopening together with you, so in order to attract customers, you can consider running promotions. It gives that extra push to convince them to purchase your products or services. It is also a good chance to clear surplus stock and make way for new inventory. It is never too early to prepare for a reopening as we slowly move into phase one of readjusting back into society. Keep your company and customers constantly updated with the latest information to build relationships and bond so that your business can remain at the top of the game even during reopening. Make The Change is a social enterprise that offers creative services including digital marketing, graphic designs, photography and videography. Reopening and creating awareness for your brand can be done easier and smoother with us. Click here to learn more about our services.

Our Make The Change team attended the Art Lab: Playful Portraits session from Today at Apple. During the session, we were taught how to turn a portrait into amazing fun GIFs using the Apple Creative tool Keynote. As frequent users of Keynote, it came as a surprise for us when we realised there was much more to Keynote than just creating a presentation. Within the 1-hour session, the Apple Creative specialists were able to succinctly cover many useful functions such as instant alpha, drawing tool, and more! Who would have known that we can remove the background of a photo with just a simple touch of our fingers or the Apple Pencil! We had a lot of fun experimenting with different shapes, colours, and designs while creating our ‘playful portraits’. The possibilities are endless while using the iPad. You can attend the upcoming sessions that are hosted on alternative Thursdays from 3 - 4 pm. The upcoming sessions will be on: 16 July 30 July 13 August 27 August You can register on our iPad For Learning website (https://www.ipadforlearning.sg/post/plc-for-teachers) iPadforLearning is our latest community programme that is an online Professional Learning Community designed for educators in Singapore to get lesson ideas that meaningfully integrate the use of SLS with powerful learning tools on iPad, share their own best practices, and positive impact of teaching and learning in an iPad learning environment. In Make The Change, we believe that learning is a lifelong endeavour and a two-way street. Being able to attend this workshop has truly humbled our perspectives as learners and as educators. This gratuitous opportunity has taught us that as educators, we can still strive to improve and progress. There are always new workshops at iPad For Learning so feel free to subscribe and join the community (https://www.ipadforlearning.sg/subscription) to be updated on upcoming sessions. We are motivated to continue seeking for self-growth and self-improvement. With this new set of skills, we believe learning can be made much more fun, interactive, and engaging. We run similar workshops in schools so if you want your students to learn how to create GIFs, we have a programme called Digital Arts For All where we teach students about media and digital literacy through an interactive medium: digital arts.

Due to Covid-19, online learning has become the norm and it is here to stay for long. Teaching online can be very different as compared to teaching in a classroom setting as trainers are unable to physically see if they are keeping their students or participants engaged, therefore it is important to stay updated with online teaching trends and change one’s teaching style to suit online lessons. These days, many youth projects also involve teaching online workshops and lessons, so in order to help these youths conduct a smooth lesson, the team at Make The Change has passed down their knowledge on online learning to the youths from the National Youth Council through a 4-hour online class. An ice breaker session is a must to get started and comfortable with each other. With 27 participants, we started off with a short introduction on Padlet to understand their names, interests and what they would like to learn during the session. Right off the bat, the youths are active participants, even though they are shy to speak up, they responded with much enthusiasm on the Zoom chat function. Many of them even turned on their cameras to show their faces, which made the session even more engaging! As some youths are still quite new to online teaching, we began the lesson by sharing with them the different types of learning as well as a guide to teaching online, including what are some tips they should take note of when creating their lesson slides. One important tip that we shared was creating content based on relevancy. Different groups of audience have different interests and values, therefore, it is important to design lesson plans based on what they would like to see. This increases the likelihood of them paying attention during an online lesson. In order to get the youths familiarised with presenting, there were a series of mini activities planned out for them during the session. One of it was to create an individual presentation on how to have a great summer holiday, the key objective was to have an engaging introduction to a presentation so that it keeps participants looking forward to the lesson. It was interesting to see how the youths interpreted the activity differently; some shared how one can still have great fun during the Covid-19 situation, some shared which countries one can visit, others gave tips on how to have a great holiday. Soon, the session became much more engaging as they cheered for one another during the presentation. Before we conducted the final activity to put what the youths have learnt into practice, we had a short Kahoot game. To get them fired up for a friendly competition, we mentioned that the winner of the game can walk away with a $10 Starbucks card. As cheers filled the Zoom chat, we could see that every one of them were putting in their best to actively participant in Kahoot. Despite it being a morning session, the energy level among the youths remained high and we continued on to the final activity. Each team had to craft out an online lesson teaching different groups of people what is media literacy. As Make The Change runs a media literacy workshop called Digital Arts For All, we could share with them our experiences of teaching people from different walks of lives, from seniors to young adults to children. Being well versed in this workshop, we could give youths advice on what type of content is suitable for different target groups. We are thankful that they were open to receiving new knowledge and were not afraid to ask questions. The session ended off with each group presenting the skeleton of their lesson plan in regards to teaching media literacy and we were impressed with the different research and case studies that were presented! Many started off with interesting hooks to grasp the audience's attention; some shared scenario based stories, while others started with humorous myths that were debunked. All of them have done a great job putting what they have learnt into practice and they are definitely qualified to conduct their own online workshops and lessons! We hope that the youths from the National Youth Council enjoyed the session and were able to take away valuable insights and information! We had a lot of fun interacting with them and we look forward to future opportunities with NYC again. Make The Change conducts learning programmes for youths from primary to tertiary level, some of our programmes include Social Entrepreneurship, Social Media for Good, as well as this workshop: How to conduct online learning! If you wish to know more about our learning programmes, you can contact us or visit our website for more information.

Bored at home with nothing to do because of circuit breaker? Why not use this time to upgrade yourself and learn new things! Build your portfolio and discover new interest during this period. We got you covered with 10 free online courses/workshops you can take and *flex* your new skills on LinkedIn or social media. 1. Universities courses Image adapted from: Harvard University Many renowned universities have launched many free online courses for the public. Harvard University, for example, has a wide variety of subjects available for you to choose from. Simply filter out the free classes on their website and browse through the different options. Programming and humanities are one of the more popular courses offered by them. 2. Coursera Coursera offers over more than 100 free certificate online courses. Their courses also include universities such as Duke, Stanford, and Imperial College London. Some of their popular free courses are Machine Learning by Stanford University, Seeing through Photographs by The Museum of Modern Art and, COVID-19 Contact Tracing by Johns Hopkins University. Simply sign up and search for the free courses available on their website. 3. FutureLearn Similar to Coursera, FutureLearn offers a huge variety of free courses. While most of their short courses are free, you will have to pay a fee to receive your certificate. However, due to the Covid-19 situation, FutureLearn is now offering free upgrades to many of these courses so that you are still able to receive your certificates. Do take note that your chosen courses offer ‘Free digital upgrades’ in order to get a PDF Certificate of Achievement after you have completed it. 4. edX Image adapted from: edX edX offers 2000 free online courses from 140 leading institutions worldwide, including Harvard, Berkeley, and Boston. However, you would have to pay for your certificates in order to receive it after completing the course. The certificates range from $50 – $300 typically, but there is no harm to just pick up a new skill! 5. Udemy Udemy is also a platform that offers online courses, similar to the above 3 websites. In response to Covid-19, they are currently offering more than 650 free online courses, some of which include courses in Tech, Leadership, Business and more. Simply sign up with your email and search for free courses on their website search bar. Some of their highly rated courses are Natural Light Fashion / Beauty Photography, Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners, and How to Improve Your Video Quality: Official Udemy Course. 6. LinkedIn LinkedIn Learning is a subsidiary of LinkedIn that offers video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. Their video duration ranges from minutes if you need a sweet and short booster, to hours if you are interested in learning in depth. Just sign up for a LinkedIn account and you have access to over 16,000 free and paid courses! 7. Lynda via National Library Board Image adapted from: Lynda Have free access to a wide variety of e-resources from Lynda by signing up with the National Library Board. Applicable for citizens with a Singpass account, all you have to do is create an mylibrary ID on the NLB website and browse for e-resources. Lynda will then be available for you to use! 8. NTUC Learning Hub NTUC Learning Hub adjusted their delivery of training in support to the Circuit breaker measures by encouraging citizens to continue learning even when at home. In light of Covid-19, they are offering over more than 100 free online courses on GO1. As a leading e-learning platform, they have handpicked different courses like Data Analytics, Python Coding, Photohop, Photography and more to tide citizens through the circuit breaker period. 9. Skillsfuture Even though most of the courses offered by Skillsfuture are not free, citizens aged 25 and above are entitled to a one time $500 Skillsfuture credit which allows them to be used on courses. Furthermore, they will also be receiving another $500 Skillsfuture credit top up, so Singaporeans will get a total of $1000 worth of credit. There are many relevant courses available based on industry and area of training, so why not take advantage of the credits and upskill yourself. 10. iPad for Learning Image adapted from: iPadforLearning Here is a specific workshop for those who have an iPad or are interested in getting an iPad! If you are not into committing to a full course, why not attend a free 2 hour workshop and learn how to proficiently use the different functions on your iPad and create amazing content with it. iPad for Learning is designed for teachers to gain lesson inspiration and share their own ideas and create a community among educators. However, the workshop is open for all who are interested and you can gain many valuable insights not found online! Learning never stops! With the right tools and platform, you can continue to pick up new skills and hobbies even during a stagnant period. At the end of it, the person that benefits from the hard work is you. Make The Change also offers a variety of workshops for people interested in becoming changemakers. Some of programmes include Digital Drawing, Social Media For Good, and E-Entrepreneurship. If you are passionate in making a difference in the community, these programmes are for you! MTC has worked with students from Hwa Chong, Anglo Chinese School and more, you can be next! For more information, you can enquire us or find out more about our programmes.

What are the chances of you taking your passion and transforming it into a movement to raise awareness for a social issue? How about when you are a working adult with various responsibilities on your shoulders? While most of us do have something we are passionate about, be it a hobby, an interest or more, not many of us think that we can actually turn our passion into something more, like advocating for a social issue prevalent in Singapore. On 20 May, Make The Change hosted its second episode of Conversation of Change where we invite speakers to discuss how individuals can bring about change to the community, no matter how big or small it is. This time, we partnered up with YOLO2020 and had 3 gentlemen, Uantchern, Sutat and Jared, join us in our live talk on Facebook. While the 3 of them come from different backgrounds, they all shared a common mission of raising awareness about mental wellness. Alongside with Uantchern’s passion for trekking, the idea of hiking to Everest Base Camp as a tribute to those with mental health conditions and their caregivers was created. The lunchtime talk that Uantchern and Sutat had did not not stop there, they went ahead to pursue that idea, get people on board, and engage partners. As busy working adults, it may have been difficult to balance their time, but as Uantchern said “if you believe enough, you will get there”. The 3 gentlemen's passion, be it trekking or to raise awareness about mental health, they believed and carried on the journey which birthed out YOLO2020. Their passion to make a difference to the community is truly admirable and something we should all learn from. As a quote goes “the beginning is the half of every action”, if you have something you are passionate about and want to make a difference, pursue it! Passion leads to great things and for Uantchern, Sutat and Jared, it led them to YOLO2020. While the talk focuses on introducing the movement and the 3 gentlemen’s efforts of advocating for mental wellness, it has also shined some light about caregiving as well. The journey of people with mental health conditions and their caregivers could feel like a difficult hike up a mountain. As a caregiver himself, Jared described the journey to be “long and tiring”, even when they reach a summit, they have to scale another one. Many are unaware about the difficulties caregivers go through, especially those that have to take care of their loved ones while juggling a full time job. The mental exhaustion and stress that they face are sometimes brushed aside as we tend to direct our care and concern to people with mental health conditions instead. Caregivers are people who can be prone to mental health problems as well, especially with the daily struggles they face trying to care for their loved ones and YOLO2020 has done a great part in advocating for that. I personally feel that by getting participants to join in the journey of preparing to scale to Everest Base Camp, it put into perspective on how caregivers and people with mental health conditions feel, especially when training gets difficult, when you feel like giving up, when your legs burn from each step you take, when your shoulders ache from the weight of your bag. These exhausting feelings symbolise what YOLO2020 beneficiaries feel and it allows participants to develop empathy for them. To understand what they are going through, to change the public’s mindset, and to remove the stigma of mental illnesses. The talk with these 3 changemakers has been a very insightful and valuable one. I have learnt so much more about the perspective of a caregiver and how I can fuel my passion into making a difference. For anyone who wants to bring about change, I will leave you with what Sutat said, “if you try to put your best foot forward, you can be potentially overcoming mountains big or small”. You can also play your part in making a difference by supporting YOLO2020! You can either donate to their giving.sg page or purchase their products from our Design For Good Website. Do visit our Facebook page @ MakeTheChange or view it on our Youtube page if you are interested in listening to our Conversation of Change! It is also available on iTunes podcast under the name Conversation of Change.

There is a quote by Linda Lambert that says “one good conversation can shift the direction of change forever”. In Make The Change, we believe that conversations can ignite one’s passion to serve the community and create changemakers. By conducting workshops, sharing experiences, and providing advice, we spark conversations among enthusiasts and inspire them to make an impact to the community. This is how 2 youth initiated projects, Xscape and Sondering Slate, started under Design For Good. A social enterprise arm under Make The Change that celebrates collaboration among artists, designers and communities-in-need. Xscape began when we were conducting a social entrepreneurship workshop at Pioneer Junior College. A group of passionate boys wanted to raise awareness for the visually handicap and that aim initiated conversations and an idea was born. They create awareness for their targeted beneficiaries by designing escape rooms in complete darkness. Participants who enter the escape rooms have to navigate their way out with a walking stick to stimulate how the blind get about their daily lives. The experience allows participants to empathise with the beneficiaries and hopefully change their perspective on the visually impaired people. In order to provide more support to the blind community, these ambitious boys started designing T-Shirts to sell. A percentage of their profits will go to support organisations serving the visually handicapped. Till this date, they have sold more than 150 T-Shirts to give back to the community. With this simple yet impactful idea, they went ahead to clinch 1st place in their school’s Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. They also set up booths to share their stories and sell their T-Shirts at Lot 1, Hillion Mall, and Festival For Good 2017 and 2018. What started off as a conversation has sparked a series of changes from these young changemakers and they are continuing their efforts in making the change to the visually impaired community. The other youth initiated project Sondering Slate started when 2 interns held a conversation between the word ‘Sonder’, a word made up by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Based on the website, sonder meant “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”. Inspired by the meaning, the 2 changemakers wanted to share moments of life with everyone, and this birthed the project Sondering Slate. By sharing moments, it allows the community to realise that every individual is living their own lives, not only them. With that realisation, Sondering Slate aims to encourage the public to enrich their lives further, or at the very least, remind themselves that there’s more going around them. Using photography as a medium to capture moments, these youths then placed the captured pictures onto T-shirts to sell so that the profit can be ploughed back to the underserved communities to help them create their own moments. Thus far, they have sold more than 80 shirts and held booths at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Gardens By The Bay. The profits earned were then used to conduct a digital drawing class for the children in lower income families. To some, a word may kindle interest and create conversations, however these youths took up the initiative to impact a community with their conversation of change. Don’t underestimate the power of conversations as it can inspire others to take the first step and make the change in their community. Are you interested in becoming a changemaker too? We have a podcast called Conversation of Change! We went live on our Facebook as we chatted with SG Assist, a social enterprise in Singapore, where the founders shared their experiences and stories of starting out. Our live video is still available on our Facebook page so do visit it to catch up on the conversation we had with them! Additionally, we conduct social entrepreneurship workshops where we will introduce and expound on the notions and definitions of a social enterprise. For more information, click here to learn more!