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IMPACT 0535: INSPIRING SENIORS TO PURSUE THEIR DREAMS

Youth Action Challenge (YAC) is a platform for youth to provide solutions that tackle the issues we are concerned about. Since October 2021, over 80 teams and more than 310 youths have undertaken the YAC Season 3 journey.

Eugene Law, 32, is an aspiring social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of ARAS (Academy of Relationship & Sex), where they help individuals and couples forge deeper connections and strengthen their relationships. He handles the technology side of ARAS where they explore how love, intimacy and connection can be deepened with tech.

He recently participated in Season 3 of the Youth Action challenge where his YAC project, The Dream Artisans, where they intend to inspire and spark conversations about pursuing one’s dream. They would like to create a space where they can partner seniors and come alongside them in their pursuit of their dreams.Through documenting the stories and journeys of these seniors and putting them out for the greater community, they wish to inspire more people (seniors included) to start pursuing theirs too.

Today he shares more about his experience and the project!

What was your role within your YAC project?

I was in charge of two areas: user research and product development.

What motivated you to join YAC?

I felt that YAC was the right platform for me to join as it blends hackathons with social causes.

Can you share with us your experience with your YAC project?

It was a very visceral experience. Speaking to various seniors and their journeys gave me a newfound perspective to the whole meaning of pursuing one’s dream. The process got me thinking about my own dreams. I drew wisdom and strength through my conversations with these seniors during our user research.

What are some challenges you faced while working on your YAC project?

The main challenge I personally faced was the process of simplifying our ideas. The more we uncovered, the more features we wanted to add. So, we needed to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. It was easy to get absorbed in a particular issue and make that a priority.

Another challenge was identifying our target audience accurately. We realised we weren’t entirely clear about who our target audience was — and the more we had to work to gain clarity. That took us a significant amount of time, and we are still going through the process of project refinement.

The main struggle I had internally was whether to throw the towel in and give up on the idea. It was somewhat ironic: on one hand, we wanted to support and inspire seniors to pursue their dreams, yet we also wanted to work towards how we wanted our project to be as envisioned!

Could you share more on how your project has a positive impact?

Imagine a Singapore with many more like Belinda and Linus — Two individuals who help seniors improve their daily lives, from helping them declutter houses to volunteering. What would such a society look like, what kind of conversations will we have? How would we impact the younger generations?

The Dream Artisans intend to inspire seniors to pursue their dreams through creating opportunities of immersion for them, to propel them forward in their pursuits. Through such a journey, we intend to document and showcase these stories to inspire more seniors.

Were there any key takeaways or learning points from your time with YAC?

I believe that we should always come from the perspective of the end users and understand what it is that they are looking for. It is also important for us to verify our assumptions and not leave it as it is. Last but not least, our dreams are worth pursuing.