Youth Volunteerism: Play for All @ APSN
Zoe Ang Jia Wei, 1 April 2023
For the most part, being a youth is both an exciting and equally terrifying time of one’s life. Armed with boundless energy and an infallible desire to make their mark in the world, youths are a bundle of untapped potential. Yet, the most arduous task of being a youth is often to figure out one’s identity, values and connections to others around them. On a Friday afternoon, I tagged along for a Play for ALL @ APSN volunteering session with a group of NUS Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre’s students from CLC2204 Community Development with Youth. This volunteering session is a collaboration between Youth Corps Singapore and APSN. During the session, I had the privilege of witnessing the positive impact that youths can make, and the beauty of connections, no matter how brief they may be.
As a social service agency, some of APSN’s core services involve providing special education, vocational training and employment support services for individuals with mild intellectual disability. The Play for All @ APSN programme is a bite-sized volunteering opportunity for youths to engage APSN’s trainees through an afternoon of fun, giving them a short respite from their vocational training.
When queried about the motivations behind signing up for the opportunity, most youths attributed their decision to a few different factors – the convenience of the location, the ‘play’ element of the session, having an interest and desire to serve the special needs population and some of them mentioned that the timing of the activity happened to fit their schedule.
“To be honest, I choose this session purely due to my availability and I was not expecting anything for the session.”
– Andrea Lim, CLC2204 student
“I think out of all the other volunteering choices, APSN's clientele group is the closest to the community group that I have a heart for.”
– Darren Goh, CLC2204 student
“I chose this volunteering activity as it offered me an opportunity to interact with persons with special needs. I had never volunteered with or had much experience with this sector before, so I wanted to try and understand in person how they communicate with each other and volunteers, how volunteers can communicate with them, as well as how it would feel to spend time bonding with them. In addition, the agenda of the volunteering activity which was playing games, sounded like a fun way to spend the afternoon.”
– Nicole Ng, CLC2204 student
“I've chosen this activity partly out of convenience (I live in the East) and partly because there was a 'play' element to it.”
– Lee Yi Zhang, CLC2204 student
Still, regardless of the different reasons that eventually brought them to APSN’s doorstep, it was clear as day that every single volunteer had put in the utmost effort to make the session enjoyable for everyone involved. The session consisted of 4 game stations manned by youth volunteers – bowling, tic-tac-toe, ping pong throw and mini golf – where trainees and youth volunteers were free to play games, have conversations and enjoy each other’s time and company.
The trainees’ excitement at the prospect of playing games together, and the volunteers’ enthusiasm to learn more about the trainees created a space of unconditional positive regard, support and encouragement for one another.
I poignantly remember seeing a trainee score a strike in the bowling station, and cheerily hi-fived everyone around him as his peers and volunteers cheered him on. It was not unusual for the room to burst out in applause and laughter every few minutes for the entire duration of the session. Being in such an uplifting environment, it is only natural for genuine connections to start forming – with trainees and volunteers quickly breaking out of their shells and asking around for each other’s names, asking about each other’s day, hi-fiving one another and shouting words of encouragement like “You can do it!”
Watching on, it reminded me of how infectious and simple pure joy can be – a sentiment shared by the other youth volunteers as well, with many pinpointing their favourite memory of the session to be about their interactions with the trainees. Across the stations, the youth volunteers took the initiative to modify the games along the way to make it more fun for the trainees.
“One of my favourite memories will probably be when one of the individuals [declared] with pride that he had played our station - also called Ping Pong Throw - eight times. I was glad that the people enjoyed the games that we have planned for them, and pleased to see them being immersed in the fun.”
– Lee Yi Zhang, CLC2204 student
“I found joy in seeing the joy in the beneficiaries when they manage to do well in each activity. It was nice to see how simple things can make one so happy... and how much a short word of encouragement can be so empowering.”
– Roxanne Foo, CLC2204 student
“My favourite memory from the activity is the reactions of the participants when they won the game. Some produced small smiles, others grinned widely and cheered. One would always give me a thumbs-up when he won, and another always held up both hands to high-five his friends around him. These small moments made me feel that we should look beyond their disabilities, and appreciate that they are all unique individuals just like anyone else. Moreover, seeing their pride at succeeding at even small tasks such as winning the game led me to realize the meaningfulness of education and training offered by institutions such as APSN as they help to build confidence in these individuals regarding their own capabilities.”
– Nicole Ng, CLC2204 student
“I think seeing the amazing amount of joy that the simple games could bring to the people group served by APSN was really memorable. The games and venue were really makeshift and perhaps would not bring the same amount of joy to others. But yet, our simple effort could make such a difference to how they feel for that hour.”
– Darren Goh, CLC2204 student
“My favourite memory would be seeing the smiles of the participants. No matter whether the participants are expressive or not, I can see that they genuinely enjoyed and felt happy when they succeed in the games. Especially when they high five us, it really warmed my heart.”
– Andrea Lim, CLC2204 student
What truly warmed my heart that day was seeing how attuned to the trainees and volunteers were to one another. The trainees were immediately warm and welcoming to the volunteers despite it being the first time meeting them. Similarly, the volunteers demonstrated care for the trainees by constantly modifying the games to make it fun for the trainees. Ultimately, no matter the content of the activity, the session was what it was because of the willingness of both trainees and volunteers to connect with each other.
At the end of the day, volunteering is really just about building connections and believing that regardless of how brief it may be, it can go a long way. Youth is a challenging period of self-discovery, but we don’t have to go through it alone. If we open ourselves up to genuine connections, we will eventually realise that we all have hopes, ambitions and motivations that make us more similar than we initially thought.