How we fostered a safe and collaborative environment for youth mental health innovation

Before running the fellowship sessions in either cohort, we conducted an envisioning kick-off workshop with the youth fellows to actively involve them in the design of the programme. This allowed us to tailor sessions around their insights, while equipping them with the facilitation skills they would later need to run sessions of their own. Across two cohorts, the approach has evolved from four flagship speaker sessions in 2023 into a structured 16-week experiential fellowship in 2024 — but the north star has remained consistent: co-design with youth, learn by doing and innovate responsibly.

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2023: Four flagship sessions with Singapore’s leading voices in mental wellbeing

In 2023, we organised four flagship youth fellowship sessions bringing together speakers and organisations from the mental wellbeing and youth sectors to share their insights and connect with fellows.

Session 1 — The Mindful Revolution: Exploring mental health opportunities in the digital world

Prof Daniel Fung is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Mental Health and a Senior Consultant with the Department of Developmental Psychiatry. He is also Programme Director of the Ministry of Health’s Community Mental Health Team for children and adolescents (REACH).

Theodoric Chew is the CEO of Intellect — a modern-day mental health company with a mission to make mental healthcare and wellbeing support accessible for everyone in the Asia Pacific.

Janice Weng is the Deputy Director of the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation — an agile unit with the mandate to take an experimental and evidence-based approach to redesigning healthcare in Singapore.

Vrinda Khanna is a business strategist and co-founder of MAGES Studio — a Singapore-based company that leverages emerging technologies such as AR, VR and gamification to build meaningful solutions backed by learning pedagogies and driven by measurable impact.

Session 2 — The Mental Health Market: Creating offline products people actually want

Sherman Ho is a co-founder of The Happiness Initiative, with the goal of making wellbeing accessible to everyone.

Samantha Quek is the co-founder of Cupplets Creative and an experienced art therapist with a passion for integrating sensorial experiences into therapy.

Tiziana Tan is the CEO and founder of Brain Juice Collective, a purpose-driven ecosystem spanning impact consulting, marketing, education and innovation. She is passionate about helping brands lead conversations that connect deeply with their audience, empowering them with the ideas, tools and strategies to create meaningful impact that is integrated and profitable.

Session 3 — The Art of Digital Storytelling: How to capture hearts and minds

Adeline Tay is a content creator at Our Grandfather Story — a digital publisher dedicated to uncovering timeless and overlooked stories across Southeast Asia.

Nicholas Lee is the Executive Director of Resilience Collective, a mental health charity that drives meaningful dialogue based on equal partnerships between peers and society, building inclusivity and removing the damaging mentality of “us and them.”

Eugene Soh is the founder of Dude Studios, a creative Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) studio, as well as Mind Palace, a social enterprise focused on uplifting the lives of elderly patients with dementia.

Ron Yap is a mental health content creator, writer, advocate and psychoeducator. He founded @mentalhealthceo on Instagram, a mental health advocacy and destigmatisation page with over 260,000 followers as of December 2023.

Session 4 — From Me to Us: Building and motivating a team of advocates

Tricia Tan is the founder of mindline.sg, a national digital mental health programme that provides tools, tips and resources to help users understand and manage their health and wellbeing.

Rahayu Mahzam is Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Law. She is a lawyer by profession, specialising in civil litigation and family law.

David Chua is the CEO of the National Youth Council and Chairman of the Board of *SCAPE, an organisation that aims to create additional opportunities for young Singaporeans to dream it, live it — discovering new pathways, acquiring fresh perspectives and connecting to communities that can deepen their growth.

Phua Chun Yat is the Chief Operating Officer of Samaritans of Singapore, a non-profit dedicated to providing confidential emotional support to those in crisis and the bereaved.

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2024: Scaling into a 16-week experiential fellowship with prototyping, FGDs, mentorship and flagship activations

In 2024, we scaled the fellowship into a structured 16-week experiential programme running across eight months. The engagement kicked off at Young AMP’s co-working space — sponsored by AMP Singapore — and culminated in a Graduation and Demo Day attended by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua. Fellows moved through the full arc of youth-led innovation: from team formation and ideation to Focus Group Discussions, prototyping, industry mentorship and live activation at public events.

A 16-week learning journey, designed around the fellows

Weeks 1–2: Kick-off and team formation

Thirteen youth fellows gathered for the first kick-off at Young AMP’s co-working space — the first connection between AMP Singapore, Young AMP and MOHT, sparking a new partnership. Fellows learned about AMP Singapore’s mission (counselling for incarcerated families, Malay-Muslim advocacy) and were introduced to design thinking and our RADAr framework for responsible innovation. Across the kick-off Idea Sprint, fellows generated 7 distinct ideas pressure-tested through the RADAr lens.

Weeks 3–6: Ideation, prototyping and re-alignment

Fellows re-engaged with the core concepts, explored ideation techniques for creative problem-solving (Idea Jam: If I Was…, Brainwriting, Thinking Hats, Lotus Blossom, Worst Idea), and applied Design Thinking principles alongside Responsible Innovation prompts. Across these sessions, fellows developed 33 distinct ideas through the structured techniques. A mindline.sg Deep Dive re-aligned teams with the platform’s core functionalities: safe-space discussion threads, expert guidance from professional counsellors, peer-to-peer support, and self-advocacy for long-term wellbeing.

Week 7: Focus Group Discussions with underserved youth

Fellows engaged 25 youth participants from diverse backgrounds across two Focus Group Discussions — including underprivileged youths and those navigating significant life changes. Partner organisations mobilised for these FGDs included MILK Fund, Nanyang Polytechnic, Young AMP & AMP Singapore, Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities, New Life Youth, MAGES Institute and MILE3. Most FGD participants were introduced to mindline.sg and the fellowship for the first time during these sessions, with 10 participants identified as in need of direct support.

Weeks 8–10: Refinement and mentorship with industry experts

Each fellow team was matched with a one-on-one mentor for strategic consultations: Tham Jun Han (Co-Founder & COO, Friendzone SG), Adriana Rasip (Deputy Director, South Central Community FSC; Co-Founder, Empowered Families Initiative) and Nicole Yeo (freelance art therapist). Mentors were selected for proven track record and relevant expertise, and guided fellows through the project shortlisting and refinement phase.

Weeks 11–15: Advocacy skills and real-world activations

Fellows participated in advocacy skills-building sessions — including the power of storytelling with Shahril Hassan (Air Amber) on engaging the five senses and building lasting impressions, and an improv workshop with Kashmira Chawak (Storyboard Strategic Communications) to build confidence, spontaneity and relatability. Teams then took their projects live at two flagship youth events:

• Youth Got It Symposium 2024 (YMCA) — Team Real Talk: Let’s Talk ran a physical simulation workshop three times for diverse groups of youths, improving delivery of the MOHT and mindline.sg message.
• Mental Health Film Festival 2024 — Team B.E.A.M. (Building Empowerment and Awareness with mindline.sg) executed a dynamic physical activation featuring user journey mapping, while Team Good Grief? convened a fellow-led workshop on loss and resilience with personalised grief kits, introduction by fellow Mithra and insights from guest speaker Ms Athel (NUS College of Alice and Peter Tan).

Week 16: Graduation and Demo Day

The cohort graduated with 55 youths and 9 organisations in the room, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua joining as VIP — closing out the fellowship with project pitches, a Demo Day ideas board, and reflection on the journey.

Hands-on workshops across both cohorts

Across both cohorts, we built multiple hands-on workshops into the fellowship to ensure the learning was experiential. In 2023, fellows took part in a Metaverse workshop, edible cookie painting with an art therapist, mental health card games with creators, and a social media masterclass with local influencer @thementalhealthCEO. In 2024, the experiential learning deepened through pop-up Focus Group Discussions, improv acting workshops, physical simulation activations at the Youth Got It Symposium and B.E.A.M. at the Mental Health Film Festival.

A community-driven approach

By actively involving youth in the design and running of the sessions across both years, we built a deeper connection and stronger memorability. Beyond the kick-off workshops, we conducted structured polls asking fellows to rank their preferred speakers and workshop topics, which served as the foundation for each cohort’s programme shape. Following each session, we also collected comprehensive feedback from fellows to be applied in subsequent sessions — enabling the fellowship to evolve measurably from 2023 into 2024.

The collaborative programme meaningfully engaged partners and individuals across the ecosystem in both years — including MAGES Institute, The Happiness Initiative and Cupplets Creative from 2023, and AMP Singapore, Young AMP, Nanyang Polytechnic, MILK Fund, Thye Hua Kwan, New Life Youth, Friendzone SG, Air Amber, Empowered Families Initiative, The Red Pencil SG, Tzu-Chi Foundation, *SCAPE, Metropolitan YMCA, Mental Health Film Fest SG and others in 2024 — ultimately culminating in a Mental Health Showcase run by our fellows and youth leaders.