Overview of 6^th Sense

At 6th Sense, we recognise and seek to nurture each child’s sixth sense — the need to be loved, valued and affirmed in their being as who they are. 6^th Sense believes in journeying with each child to be the best version of themselves. In 2019, 6^th Sense started to introduce spaces of calm and creative refuge with an initial focus on children below 12 years living in the Public Rental Scheme (“rental”) blocks 244 and 245 in the Kebun Baru community. Currently, 6^th Sense provides a breadth of activities (e.g. arts, sports and nature-based play for the children) for children and youth of up to 18 years. This is possible through partnerships with various organisations such as Ground Up Initiative which broadens 6^th Sense’s ability to offer to provide valuable opportunities for them. Since 2019, 6^th Sense has served a total of 79 children and youth through our sessions. Currently, about 25 to 30 children/youth join the activities regularly. At the core of the work, are strong relationships built on trust with the community.

Project Summary:

Building upon its prior success in fostering children’s creative confidence and socio-emotional skills, 6th Sense is evolving its approach to focus on deepening support for existing participants and expanding its reach to serve more children and youth. Under the initiative “SkillScape,” 6th Sense will provide opportunities for children and youth to develop intermediate skills in areas of their interest, referred to as “verticals.” These verticals include sports-based activities, outdoor adventures, and digital art media, enabling participants to gain confidence and proficiency in their chosen pursuits. Additionally, the program will be scaled up to include children from another rental block, Blk 203 at Ang Mo Kio, with the support of community volunteers. Through a diverse range of activities, 6th Sense aims to enrich the lives of children and youth, foster community engagement, and promote family bonding.

Thrust Details:

1. Deepen the support for existing children through the establishment and development of their chosen “vertical” where the children/youth can develop intermediate skills or pursuits based on their interests in a craft (e.g., badminton). This is a strategic shift away from our current focus on providing broad exposure for our children/youth towards identifying and deepening their skills in their chosen craft. This will allow the children/youth to develop themselves further and gain confidence in their abilities.

6^th Sense plans include:

♦ Sports-based sessions such as cycling, rollerblading, badminton, wrestling, kayaking, etc. Children/youth will choose a sport of their liking and attend multiple sessions to deepen their capabilities.

♦ Outdoor adventure:

ο Children/youth will explore nature research, life sciences, and botany. They will be exposed to the various facets of nature (including plants and animals) and understand “how things work” better with the help of professionals.

ο Children/youth develop their “survival” skills by learning the basics of navigation, camping and survivability skills.

♦ Digital Art Media – This is part of our diversification from the basic arts & crafts we had exposed our children to in their earlier years. We want to develop a vertical, such as digital art media, preferably run at a favourable rate by a design studio, for children/youth who are keen. Ideally, the children can utilise these skill sets in tertiary education for a module as well.

Based on the children/youth’s interests, they will choose a vertical to develop intermediate skills. This can look like the children/youth attending 3 sessions minimally in any of the verticals.

Our KPIs under this thrust are at least 25 unique children and youth attending the vertical programs.

2. Scale up the existing programme to serve additional children/youth in the Kebun Baru and other rental blocks. We aim to achieve this by working closely with the community volunteers in those blocks, they can help us with the dissemination of messages and identifying suitable families for our various programs offered. Once they are in touch with us, we will build a one-to-one relationship with them. Ultimately our objective is for more children to benefit from the activities we are organising.

6^th Sense plans to offer its breadth of exposure activities to children/youth from another rental block. These children/youth can also join in any of the verticals being offered. 6^th Sense welcomes the children/youth’s guardians to also join in the activities to encourage family bonding.

The breadth of activities includes, and is not limited to:

♦ Sports-based sessions such as cycling, roller-blading, badminton, wrestling, kayaking, etc. Children will attend one or a few sessions to expose them.

♦ Outings to farms, zoo, bird-park, nature reserves and museums. These will help broaden the experiences of children and build their connections with different parts of Singapore, strengthening their sense of national identity.

♦ Music, drama, and art sessions are especially important for young children’s development.

Our KPIs under this thrust are at least 35 additional unique children and youth served with the breadth of activities.

Projected costs breakdown by expense type:

a. Development of session materials: $800

b. Transportation costs: $1000

c. Outsourced services such as engaging programme partners, Course Fees: $1300

d. Food & Beverage: $1000

The fundraising done will support up to 60 children for one year of activities. We have applied for grants to cover the project costs for 6th Sense’s activities. The grants will cover 50% to 80% of our project costs. While the fund raised through Ray of Hope will cover the remaining 20% to 50% of the project costs.

For more information, pls visit us at https://www.instagram.com/6thsense_kb/

About 6th Sense (Co-founders)

Manisha Suruchand is a co-founder of 6^th Sense. She brings together her passion for art and her role as an education officer to uplift the children in the Kebun Baru and surrounding community.

Jezamine Chua is a co-founder of 6th Sense. She is passionate about introducing spaces of calm and creative refuge in the lives of children and youths along the fringes, and journeying with them to uncover their gifts of intuition and inner wisdom. She designs and pilots nature and phenomenon-based pedagogy for Into the Wild, an inclusive forest school for neurodiverse children. Jezamine is an architect who is passionate about the intersections between people, place, and pedagogy.

Abhishek Bajaj is a co-founder of 6^th Sense, a volunteer-run Ground Up Initiative serving the Kebun Baru community since 2019. He also runs Homeforall Migrants, a migrant worker Ground Up Initiative, which as a member of Starlight Collective has served more than 10,000 migrant workers since 2020. Abhishek graduated from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in 2022, and in his day job he works as a Policy Officer.

The co-founders serve at 6^th Sense as volunteers, while having full-time jobs. 6^th Sense has a core group of 15 volunteers, including the co-founders, who befriend the children in the community. 6^th Sense also partners with tertiary institutions/corporates which strengthens the children’s social connections.

About Ray of Hope

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