Bright Future

Equal Employment Opportunities to All

To address the challenges of youth career development in Maharashtra, Bright Future was established in 2008. As a response to the problem, Bright Future works with children and young adolescents in the age group of 13 – 25 through the programs run in low-income private schools and communities in the cities of Mumbai and Thane.

Bright Future aims to provide a learning environment for children and youth from marginalised communities to transform their ‘Passion’ into ‘Gainful Employment’ through Career Development, Life Skills Development, Mentoring, Internships and Placement Opportunities. Bright Future also builds capacities of key stakeholders like parents and schools who play an instrumental role in creating a conducive environment at homes, schools and community, for enabling youth to take informed decisions independently pertaining to their career and life.

Objectives:

• To facilitate children and youth to choose a suitable career and develop their interests and enhance their employability skills by connecting them to role models and specialized internship opportunities.
• To educate parents and teachers for creating an encouraging educational environment at home and school.
• To sustain conducive environments in schools, homes and communities for change leaders to emerge.

To achieve the outcomes and empower youth and adolescents, Bright Future runs the following programs:

1. Step to Livelihood (For 13-18 year old Adolescents):

Most of the adolescents with whom we work in this age group are:

• School Dropouts;
• Are at the risk of dropping out from mainstream education and need motivation to continue their further education;
• Need guidance to pursue their further education and develop a career in a field of their interest.

These adolescents often do not have an environment in which they can develop essential life skills and guidance for further education and career path. Some of them lack the basic documentation that is required at the time of securing admissions in Colleges or Universities post 18 years of age and when they apply for jobs and start earning. Bright Future works with the adolescents through ITS interventions (programs) in Schools and Communities:

I. School Program: The School Program focuses on creating a conducive environment in schools by building capacities of students in grades VIII – X and key stakeholders like parents and teachers for enabling students to make informed decisions pertaining to their further education, career and life. The inputs to the students are through life skills development sessions, career awareness sessions and mentoring sessions to emphasize on the need of identifying their interests and developing the skills to transform their passion into a gainful employment.

Bright Future aims to work closely with stakeholders in schools, especially teachers, to facilitate and prepare them to deal with the children in more efficient ways and with the principals to build leadership capabilities to ensure that they create platforms in schools where children have the opportunities to learn about careers from activities like career exhibitions, career clubs and presentations from experts from different sectors. Bright Future also aims to engage with the parents to build their capacity in positive parenting skills, exposure to different educational and career options, and the ways to improve the communication with their children. These initiatives lead the way to creating a conducive environment at homes, schools and in the communities. Bright Future ‘Facilitators’ with expertise in facilitating life skills and career awareness sessions visit schools and implement the programs.

II. Drama For Development (D4D): Drama for Development is a one-year program run in the communities that uses drama as a platform to develop skills that are essential for life and career in the adolescents who are in the age group of 13-18 years. It uses the methodology of Awareness, Action and Policy through which children develop awareness about self and issues in the society, plan actions to bring awareness and address these issues. Using the platform of drama, children take initiative and become involved in their community issues. They also conduct rallies and street plays to spread awareness about these issues within the community that helps in developing their communication, problem solving, leadership, teamwork and social skills. By the time they graduate, they already have certain foundations for any further step they need to take towards higher education, livelihood and most importantly growing up as confident socially conscious young citizens.

The program is led by ‘Change Leaders’ who are essentially ex-Aspirants or Alumni of Bright Future’s Livelihood Program who facilitate sessions with the adolescents to equip them with the required knowledge and skills to engage with the community.

2. Livelihood (For 18-25 year old Youth):

Most of the youths with whom Bright Future work with in this age group are:

• School or College dropouts or
• The ones who need to develop skills for taking up jobs and start earning immediately to extend financial support to their families or
• The ones who need guidance for career development and direction in life

These youth often do not have an environment in which they can develop essential life skills, workplace readiness skills and guidance for choosing a career in the field of their interest. They also lack the exposure to the industry where they will be working in future and a result of which are often low on confidence.

Bright Future works with Youths in the communities through an intervention called Livelihood Training program that is run in Youth Development & Training Center (YDTC). YDTC is an accessible center in the community where a 3-month Livelihood program is run for youth, who are known as aspirants, between the age of 18–25 years. The training helps them to develop themselves through Life Skills training, English and IT skills training, Career Development, Mentoring Support and Placement opportunities that will help them convert their passion into gainful employment.

Post the training program, the youths are supported through the interview and placement processes and are monitored for the first 6 months into their jobs. Parent meetings, exposure visits, extra-curricular activities and mentoring by volunteers from the corporate provide students with the environment to focus on developing their skills and transforming their passion into gainful employment.

‘Facilitators’ who are equipped with the required knowledge and skills to facilitate sessions with the aspirants conduct the training sessions. The team at the center also comprises of a ‘Social Worker’ who mobilizes and reaches out to the aspirants and their parents in the community by spreading awareness through organizing events and home visits.

Outcomes:

• Youth have developed life skills essential for coping with day to day challenges in life;
• Youth have developed a positive attitude towards education & employment;
• Youth engaged in actions/initiatives for addressing issues pertaining to community, school and their life;
• Youth lead and engage others in social initiatives in their community;
• Youth have chosen a career in a field they are passionate about and find it rewarding;
• Youth as positive role models in their own community;
• Primary Stakeholders like parents and teachers related to adolescents and youth have developed positive parenting skills;
• Selected Primary Stakeholders like parents and teachers related to adolescents and youth as Change Leaders are promoting positive parenting skills with other stakeholders;
• Primary Stakeholders like parents and teachers are supportive of the decisions taken by youth;
• Conducive environments were established that enables a youth to realize his/her full potential and take informed decisions for themselves.

Bright Future not only work with the youth but also involve parents as they are a major influencer in the decision making process. Apart from good parenting, Bright Future’s objective of the sessions is also to raise awareness and discuss about the important issues that directly influence the youth.

The youths from Bright Future are built as Change Leaders and they continue to carry forward the message to more youth and strengthen the career development model. Through engaging with parents, Bright Future have created parent support groups, where those who have interacted with Bright Future and understood the key messages, start and engage those discussions with other parents in the community

Bright Future uses online systems to collect data from the ground that has helped them to take data driven decisions. It also evaluates results by clearly displaying the impact Bright Future has created. Bright Future have created standalone community centers which are a learning hub in the community where youth are enrolled in the livelihood programme and even after the programme, the space is a safe space for them to come if they want to study, or be counselled by the facilitators.