Paving Pathways: Narish

We previously shared the story of Narish, our very first youth who received our services in 2017. Having completed his traineeship with Subaru at ITE and developed his craft as an amateur boxer, we welcomed him back to Impart as a Mental Health Care intern last September. And we’re elated to share that he has now been converted as an Impart Youth Mental Health Advocate as part of our new pilot traineeship program.

Youths with his lived experiences need viable avenues to receive professional training and expertise. The honest reality is that existing pathways for youths like Narish will require a minimum of 3-6 more years of formal education, which can be a prohibitive barrier for many youths with lived experiences who only realise their desire for sectoral contribution in their 20s. Our traineeship program will span 1.5 years, where Narish will receive a mixture of supervised ground-work and professional development opportunities, to prepare him for concurrent work-study qualifications.

Part of his traineeship involves engagement sessions with youths in different capacities. While Narish spends most of his time with youths in the community, he also had the opportunity to share his continued story of growth with students at Tampines Secondary School. Additionally, he also had the opportunity to partner Calvin, one of Impart’s staff members, to conduct a mental health care workshop for students from Queenstown Secondary School. This Queenstown Secondary School engagement was part of a collaboration we share with The Astronauts Collective, a local charity that helps youths discover meaningful careers.

While these different engagement activities might seem disjointed at a glance, they are an important part of a cohesive narrative at work: Ecosystems of care are being formed, as youths with Narish’s experience find themselves engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders in differing circumstances, so that he can advocate for youths across multiple fronts.

We’re proud of you Narish, and it’s going to be an exciting journey, building on this momentum together.