In Singapore, most teens with autism graduate from special school at 18 years old and stay home for the rest of their lives. YoungstarSG is a ground-up initiative which aims to give teens and adults with autism meaningful work to do in their own homes.

How we started

In 2018, a special school teacher asked our founder, WP, what her son can make, to sell at a school fair. After much thought, WP said that her son will sit out of this round’s fair because he does not have the ability to make something suitable for sale. Another mom in school got to know about this and approached WP, offering to teach her and her son, Yang, card making. She said that her son was a slow crafter and if Yang could craft together, they could produce enough pieces for sale.

How it works

After learning the basic craft techniques, WP gathered a group of like-minded caregivers (caregivers who wanted to continuously engage their adult autistic children and who were willing to supervise their own children’s work at home). And the caregivers were trained to train their adult autistic children at home.

Working from their own homes, meant giving the autistic adults a familiar space where they would work at their own pace and time, without creating anxiety. As an unfunded initiative, working from home also meant zero overhead costs and that 100% of sales proceeds could be channelled back to the respective makers.

Our Journey

In the initial stage, WP was unsure where this initiative (YoungstarSG) would lead them. The idea was simple… if the cards produced were nice enough that people wanted to buy them on social media, we would sell them. And if nobody wanted to buy them, we would craft cards as a hobby to gift to our own family and friends during special occasions.

6 caregivers came together to pool $300 to purchase 1 set of equipment. The equipment was rotated amongst the 6 families, each taking it for 2 weeks, then passing on to the next family. And with that, YoungstarSG was founded (in 2018). Thanks to the support of our card buyers, within a year, we sold enough pieces to recoup the initial investment of $300. And by then, the families enjoyed card crafting so much that they each bought their own set of equipment and are still crafting today!

Introducing Orange Enzyme Cleaners

In 2022, by chance, we were introduced to our Orange Enzyme Cleaner mentor, Shu Yi of enzjoyment.com. Again, interested caregivers were gathered and trained to train their own children to make and do quality control at home. Card sales were seasonal, while the Orange Enzyme Cleaners were a functional and practical product that could be used by anyone, every day. The aim was to make and sell the Cleaners, so that the makers could earn a steady stream of income.

What this has meant for our makers

The autistic crafters all had different ability levels, and the beginning was challenging to them to learn the making process of both cards and Cleaners. With much practice opportunities, it was heart warming to see their gradual improvements in fine motor skills, strength, attention to task, the making sequence, problem solving etc. We also witnessed less breakage of paper for cards, less spills for the Cleaners, a sense of achievement and improvements in many other aspects.

What this has meant for caregivers

Unintendedly, caregivers also reaped benefits by being more empowered to help their adult children, seeing hope for their children and also building beautiful comradery with other YoungstarSG caregivers.