This week on our blog, we wanted to share with you a highlight from our EAP Big Boys Club, as well as feature a social enterprise for youths with special needs called ‘Tender Hearts’!

Highlights From EAP Big Boys Club

Recently, one of the teenagers from our EAP Big Boys Club started his vocation skills training at Tender Hearts. Some of his roles and responsibilities included tasks such as preparation of baked goods (e.g. rolling cookie dough, weighing each rolled dough for consistency) and waiting on tables (e.g. clearing tables after customers are finished with their meal, wiping tables, arranging furniture).

During one of the scheduled observations by his EAP Supervisor, his employee reported that he has been able to take instructions well, focus on his task, and is also well-mannered and sociable with the other people around him. Upon hearing this positive feedback, we at EAP could not be more proud of this teenager’s achievement and small steps towards becoming more skilled and independent!

In the lead up to this, this teenager had been involved with the EAP Big Boys Club for the past few years, receiving coaching and support in the areas of socialisation, vocation training, independence, community skills, as well as keeping them up to speed on current affairs and general knowledge. Some of their previous projects included baking Golden Cornflake Cookies for Chinese New Year, making candygrams for Valentine’s Day, making gift boxes for Christmas (which included handmade body balm, body scrub and chocolate marshmallow sticks), and so many more!

In case you haven’t heard, our EAP Big Boys Club also has their own Instagram page where you can stay updated on their latest projects!

Featuring Tender Hearts: A Social Enterprise For Youths With Special Needs

In support of our Big Boy starting his vocation training with an external organisation, we wanted to feature Tender Hearts on our blog and briefly share with you a little bit about them!

Tender Hearts is a social enterprise for youths with special needs that was founded in December 2016, by a lady named Sharon. The heart behind Tender Hearts is to provide youths with special needs (from 17 years and above) with skills training for future employment and independent living in order for these youths to lead a fulfilling and meaningful life. At Tender Hearts, the youths receive skills training under adult supervision in the areas of daily living skills, baking, simple cooking, customer service, money management, and so on. They provide catering of meals and baked goods (e.g. cookies, cakes) for families and corporate functions.

The lady who founded this social enterprise is a lady named Sharon, who is also a mother of a youth with special needs. Tender Hearts had its humble beginnings in a cosy home in Subang Jaya. As people started to get word about this social enterprise, they have expanded and moved their operations into a shop lot within a mall in the Subang Jaya neighbourhood.

From their cafe, they now not only cater to corporate functions, but also provide home cooked meals in their cafe to patrons of the mall or the general public who may have caught wind of this budding social enterprise. The opening of this cafe has also provided the youths at Tender Hearts with the opportunity to have social interactions with the community and up-skill themselves in the areas of socialisation, customer service, hospitality and money management.

If you would like to find out more about Tender Hearts, you can also check out their Facebook page!

We are extremely proud of our Big Boys’ achievements and are cheering him on as he continues to progress in this areas of vocational skills training and independence!