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Community Innovation Incubation – Dreamcrafter @ Tuen Mun

what we do
Empower Changemakers

Dreamcrafter @ Tuen Mun

Duration: April 2017 – Present

Project Partner: Yan Oi Tong Youth Space

 

Challenge

An important driving force for social progress, young people’s creativity and passion are catalysts for positive changes in the community. Often, however, the lack of experience is what hinders they put great ideas to action. This is where we believe guidance from experienced mentors could come in to help young changemakers embark on a smoother social innovation journey. By providing innovation training and start-up coaching to the participating youth teams of Dreamcrafter, Good Lab hopes to nurture a new generation of change agents who will reveal the possibilities of addressing social issues through unlikely solutions.

 

Our Approach

In partnership with Yan Oi Tong Youth Space, we curated Dreamcrafter—a Social Innovation Incubation Scheme to empower young, aspiring changemakers in Tuen Mun—to make a difference in their neighbourhoods. As innovation partner, we equip the youth teams with a variety of practical skills such as the application of Design Thinking, Lean Start-Up, community engagement and marketing techniques—which we believe would lay a solid foundation for their journey of innovation.


We also walk the journey together with the teams. To ensure the youth practise what they have learnt in growing their ideas, we also bring in mentors to offer coaching sessions throughout each cohort tailored to the individual needs of the teams. These sessions would help the youth expand their professional network by connecting them with fellow social innovators. Meanwhile, our mentoring focuses on strengthening the alignment between youth teams’ ideas and the community needs they are trying to address. At the core of our programme, evaluation and refinement of their ideas based largely on testing is key as it is one of our main objectives to cultivate their trial-and-error spirit.

 

Impact to Date

  • Groomed more than 30 youth teams with most of their ideas up and running in the community; incubated ideas target a broad range of social issues from elderly care to conservation of local culture

Storm Sports Association, a group that focuses on promoting “Sports for All” and teaching elderly how to exercise

Barrier-free Cycling, a programme that aims at improving the cycling experience of the disabled

Gatherly, a social enterprise that gathers retirees and organises diverse activities to bring them a fruitful retirement

  • Provided an accessible platform for young people to play a more active role in the community and empowered them to help tackle social problems as changemakers