In Part 3 of this mini-series on adapting to COVID-19, we discussed ideas for a place-based approach, and how Operation Einstein can move towards a hybrid model of both DIY-Stein STEM boxes and physical sessions.
While we aim to keep costs as low as possible for these DIY boxes by using recycled and household materials, or using community facilities such as 3D printers in public libraries, creating quality projects will still require considerable financial investment.
And as we look forward to resuming physical sessions with new partners, and further developing our STEM camps, we may also need to secure one-off funding to invest in the necessary materials and equipment for these place-based sessions.
But given that RI has suspended volunteering initiatives until the end of 2021, and considering that we're not working with our previous partner organizations, how are we gonna get funding for this ground-up project?
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YOUNG CHANGEMAKER'S GRANT
One possible funding option that we're looking at is the Young Changemakers (YCM) Grant run by the National Youth Council. The infographic above shows the rough timeline for supporting a project using this grant.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Application for YCM is open throughout the year and must be submitted at least 8 weeks before project commencement date.
Project should be completed within six months from the date of grant award. All projects are required to adhere strictly to SDM if implemented physically
YCM only supports ground-up projects by individual youth or non-registered informal youth groups.
Should the Team Leader’s age be below 21 years old, the leader’s parent/teacher is required to sign the Endorsement Letter.
The leader must also provide info about team members, the proposed project, and the projected income/expenditure in the required format.
FUNDING & REIMBURSEMENT
Projects that demonstrate exceeding merits in terms of scale and impact will receive an in-principle grant approval up to $5,000 OR up to 80% of supported cost, whichever is lower.
The grant will be disbursed on a reimbursement basis approximately within eight weeks from the submission of the Project Closure Report and supporting documents.
Given the amount of funding available, Operation Einstein can afford to be more ambitious and yet judicious with the scale of our proposed programs. Beyond funding our DIY-stein boxes and our STEM camps, we can consider pumping in more resources into our next step of having place-based physical sessions.
In Part 3 of this mini-series, we identified ReadAble as a possible non-profit that we might like to work with in the future. ReadAble already has a community library with hundreds of books, so one possible option in partnering with ReadAble for Operation MakeAble will be to use part of the YCM funding for a community makerspace that complements its existing library.
This Makerspace will contain materials and resources that students can easily loan to create their own hands-on STEM projects, and we can even look into purchasing equipment such as 3D printers and Raspberry Pi 400 to aid them in their DIY pursuits. We'll cover this aspect of equipment in a future blog post, so stay tuned as always!
OPEN MIC SESSIONS
Project teams will be invited for the Open Mic two weeks before the session.
Teams will pitch their projects to NYC’s youth curators during the session and get on-the-spot feedback.
They’ll also get to know the outcome of grant applications.
CONDITIONS OF GRANT APPROVAL
Successful applicants will receive a Letter of Award via the OurSG Grants portal. They are required to accept the grant conditions within one week.
A mentor will be assigned and the applicant is to update the mentor periodically.
Teams are required to credit NYC & YCM in all media/publicity related materials.
PROJECT CLOSURE
The following documents need to be submitted via OurSG Grants portal:
YCM Project Closure Report
A copy/ screenshot of bank details .
Signed and Endorsed Statement of Accounts (SOA)
At least 10 high-resolution project photos with captions that show participants in action
[Statement of Accounts: SOA]
The SOA is prepared and signed by the Team Treasurer.
The Team Leader is to check & endorse the SOA
The SOA will also be endorsed and verified by the Non-Profit Organization (NPO) that applicants work with
[SOA for Einstein Camps]
Our SOP then for our Einstein Camps conducted jointly in NE CDC and CDAC also functioned on a similar model to the YCM grant. All the equipment, materials, and snacks that we purchased were listed clearly in an itemized statement of accounts, and the receipt number for each purchase was stated clearly in the SOA.
But based on our experience with the reimbursement process, it is important to take note that the YCM grant will only be redistributed within 8 weeks of the satisfactory submission of the necessary supporting documents. This means that our core team will need to be able to “tank” the costs of whatever plan we propose, which could go up to a couple of thousand dollars.
Our proposed organization structure of Operation Einstein moving into the 2nd half of 2021 is as follows:
1. President
2. Secretary-Treasurer(s)
3. Director (RI)
4. Director (HCI)
5. Director (BM)
6. Director (NUSHS)
7. App/Website/Instagram Managers
8. Curriculum Advisors
9. Publicity & Networking (liaising with schools/partners)
10. Outreach (reaching out to underprivileged beneficiaries)
Given this proposed structure, the secretary-treasurers, or STs, will not only be responsible for all admin, finance, and logistics matter, but they will likely also need to initially absorb the costs of our proposed initiatives before they get reimbursed at the end of our project.
MORE INFO
If you're interested in working with Einstein in applying for the YCM grant in future, or if you want to check out YCM for your own service projects, you can find more info in the factsheet below!
Summary of COVID-19 Blog Series
As this is the last part of this mini-series on how Operation Einstein plans to adapt to COVID-19, I thought it'll be useful to summarize the flow of this series.
In part 1 which we titled "Resources", we shared how the Chinese word for crisis is 危机, which means both 'danger' as well as 'opportunity'. With this phrase as an inspiration, we decided to view COVID-19 as a timely reminder that we should look for a new approach to Einstein.
While we highlighted three amazing online resources that were made free to facilitate home-based learning during the pandemic, we realized that not all families have an equal ability to access and utilize these resources. And that, at its heart, is inequality in education.
So we titled part 2 of this series "Inequality", and reflected on looking beyond direct service to contemplate the nature of inequality in Singapore. We realized that the lack of opportunity is often concentrated in specific neighborhoods and specifically rental estates, but this spatial notion of place is often missing from discussion of inequality.
So in part 3 which we titled "Collaborations", we highlighted place-based organizations in the US and in Singapore, and how they can inform Operation Einstein in moving towards a hybrid model with both DIY-Stein kits and physical, place-based sessions.
And in this post, which is the fourth and final part of this series, we highlight how the Young Changemakers Grant, or YCM can serve to fund Einstein's hybrid model.
Join Our OT
Essentially, with face to face sessions currently suspended due to safe management measures, we are working towards trying something different and exciting in a new format of Operation Einstein! If you've found this mini-series meaningful and are inspired by what you've read so far, we are proud to announce that Operation Einstein is currently looking to recruit successors for our project in 2021!
You might have stumbled across our Instagram page (@operationeinstein) or seen our previous announcement on our Idea Bank, but in case you missed it, we are a student-initiated project that aims to foster a love for learning in underprivileged children through unique science enrichment programs that are centered on experiential learning!
As part of the organizing team, or OT, you will be in charge of one of the following areas: Admin/Logs, Publicity/Networking, Outreach, and Programs. Within our OT, we liaise with partner organizations to arrange sessions, plan future programs, and publicize our cause to our peers in school as well as beyond RI.
Being part of the OT will give you a greater hand of influence in Operation Einstein, equipping you with the ability to constantly improve our CE01 project with the rest of your passionate team members.
The commitment level is generally decided by the consensus of your OT, but we sincerely hope that you understand that your OT is also part of the larger Einstein family. To ensure that Einstein can continue to grow and meaningfully impact the lives of our beneficiaries, we expect a certain level of standards, initiative, and results.
Do note that this invitation to join the Einstein OT is only open for RI students who are Y5 in 2021! Students from other batches who are interested can still sign up to be part of our volunteers in Einstein sessions or join Operation Einstein when they become Y5s.
If you are interested or have any other questions to clarify, do feel free to WhatsApp Phebe at 83676616 (preferred mode of contact). Alternatively, you can contact us at operationeinstein.ri@gmail.com, or simply message us through this website. You can also check out our FAQ page to see if your questions have already been answered, or find out more about our team here.
If doing meaningful service that combines your passion for science with your hunger for some intellectual fun and childlike wonder sounds like your cup of tea, sign up now at tinyurl.com/operationeinstein2021 by 1 March.
Thank you for your interest in Operation Einstein, and we hope to hear from you soon!
THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS
I'd thought it'll be meaningful to conclude this series of blog posts with a short story that powerfully reflects the nature of inequality in many of our societies. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is written by Ursula K. Le Guin, and describes an ideal society full of happiness that depends on the misery and suffering of a child hidden in the basement.
“They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery."
Most accept this unwritten social contract that guarantees their happiness. But not everyone is happy with this state of affairs. Some cannot stand this injustice and leave the city.
"They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back... But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."
The full story is about four pages long and can be downloaded below, but I believe these short excerpts already serve us a lot of food for thought.
5 years ago, ST Editor Han Fook Kwang wrote about Omelas in a January 2016 column titled "What Dark Secret is in the Singapore Basement". In his column, he suggested that the income divide and low-wage workers could qualify as one of these so-called dark secrets.
But sadly, little has changed about the state of inequality in the five years since. Many of these low-wage workers and their families are still suck in public rental flats, and have little way out of these geographically concentrated hotbeds of intergenerational poverty.
And like many of the adolescents who came across the suffering child in Omelas, and went home in tears, or in a tearless rage, many of us have had similar experiences after coming to terms with the socio-economic and familial conditions that underprivileged kids in Singapore grow up in.
But is it really true that our collective happiness and prosperity would disappear if we addressed such inequality? We may never truly know, but something that isn't a fact shouldn't stop us from trying ...
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