3 Highlights at DFG's Youth Competition Award Ceremony'17

28th August marks a beautiful end to our annual DFG Youth Competition Award Ceremony. This year, we collaborated with Disabled People’s Association (DPA) to encourage young minds to design and speak up for persons with disabilities.

DPA's mission is to "be the voice of persons with disabilities, working with them to achieve full participation and equal status in the society through independent living."

We were heartened to have received entries that addressed a spectrum of different special needs from physical (eg. lift access for wheelchair-bound) to societal (eg. employing persons with disabilities) aspects.

Design For Good (DFG)'s heart has always been more about the journey. The student participant's journey of understanding and conceptualising the right message has always been our biggest takeaway. We believe this is where empathetic innovation sows its seeds, for youths can have the space to better understand other communities and individuals with challenges different from their own.

This is what kept us running for 3 years, and it fuels us on for more youth competitions to come.

Here are the 3 key highlights from the Ceremony on Monday!

1. Top 50 Finalists' Showcase

We held a mini showcase of works from our top 50 finalists. Displaying them in a shared space, participants were able to gain fresh perspectives of how others perceive and answer the design brief.

2. Presentation of Certs and Handmade Trophies

We took the chance to show our appreciation for the participating schools as well. We hope that this youth competition serves as a complementary platform to help nurture thinking minds of tomorrow.

Our trophies for the schools this year were lovingly made by @deaf_artscraftsy, a deaf social entrepreneur passionate to advocate deaf artists in Singapore.

3. A layer deeper with guest speaker Alfred Yeo

Lastly, our highlight has got to be the sharing session by Alfred. No stranger to Design For Good (DFG), Alfred has been invited to speak at the Design For Good Talk during Singapore Design Week earlier this year. His passion to bridge communities and share personal stories about being deaf have been incredibly inspiring and thought-provoking.