HPB Voices Reloaded
Jan - Feb 2008
CCIP Charity Lunch Time Fair| Youth Health Symposium|
By Ms Tricia Tan / Youth Community Outreach
ImPULSE. The Beat of Health: A Youth Health Symposium
ImPULSE. The Beat of Health: A Youth Health Symposium kicked off at 9.30 on 12 January 2008 at the Singapore Management University. It was the inaugural youth health symposium organised by youth for youth and supported by the Health Promotion Board. As the beat of the rap music reverberated through the conference hall, the hip hoppers popped, locked and jigged their way to the up-tempo DJ mix.
The Guest-of-Honour, Mr. Teo Ser Luck, Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports made his way into the conference hall amidst the resounding applause from the 380-strong audience. After his opening address, Kamal, the emcee invited Mr. Teo to launch the symposium. At the press of a button, Mr. Teo set off a confetti shower and the curtain fell to reveal the electrified backdrop. At the end of the break dance routine, Mr. Teo gamely posed for a photo with the dancers.
Mr. Teo with break dancers
Youth Advolution for Health (YAH) Executive Committee received appreciation plaques for their contributions to YAH and other youth health programmes during the year 2007. Celeste, the President of YAH, presented a handmade token of appreciation to Mr. Teo.
Celeste gave a dynamic keynote presentation on The Revolution of Youth Health. The audience were enthralled as she spoke passionately of her pet subject – YAH.
Among the highlights of the symposium were the ImPULSE Video Competition finals where the shortlisted top 5 video entries were screened and the audience voted for their favourite videos. The ingenious creativity and originality of the video producers were apparent as the audience cackled at the humour of the health messages that were conveyed through the videos.
At brunch, symposium attendees partook in the fringe activities that comprised of booths set up by YAH, Audible Hearts, Youth Infinity, REVEAL, YAH project poster exhibitions and the ImPULSE interactive board where attendees could pen their thoughts and messages on.
At the booths
Poster exhibitions
ImPULSE interactive board
The main attractions of the symposium were the 5 workshops on youth-centric topics such as gaming, sexuality, emotional health, self image and media. The workshops speakers were experts in their own fields and engaged the attendees with interactive sessions which the latter were full of praise for.
| No. | Title | Speakers |
| 1. | Pl@y Station – YOUTH & Gaming | Dr. Angeline Khoo - Associate Professor, NIE |
| 2. | Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby! – YOUTH & Sex | Farid Jaaffar & Teo Yan Wen - Social Worker & Youth Worker |
| 3. | i 1 2 break free! – YOUTH & Emotions | Tan Yock Theng - Rosie Swanton - |
| 4. | HEY! Gorgeous – YOUTH & Self Image | Audrey Quek - |
| 5. | Infinite Eyeballz – YOUTH & Media | Dr. John K.E. Tan - Executive Director |
Interactive workshops
In the afternoon, Ms. Rosie Swanton, an Australian youth ambassador from Reach Out! shared her experience as a youth health advocate and many youths among the audience were inspired by her energy and passion to reach out to their peers in improving their mental and physical well-being.
The overwhelming turnout at this inaugural Youth Health Symposium is a good starting point for promoting youth health advocacy in Singapore and we hope to organize more of such events in future.
See YAH!
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