Hope in the World of Dominant Ideas: Using Letter Writing Practices

Hope in the World of Dominant Ideas: Using Letter Writing Practices By Pallavi Raikar & Trishala Kanakia, Narrative Therapist , Ummeed Mental Health Team What are dominant ideas?  We live and are born in a world full of ideas. These ideas may influence us, our ways of being, our mental health and physical health, our…

Unpacking the conventional ideas of one’s being in context of young people

by Prachi Mehta (Junior therapist & Narrative practitioner, Ummeed Child Development Center) Let’s talk about discourses; A system of statements, and practices that share common values. An informed medium that provides words and ideas to our typical ways of being. We come across discourses in ways that could be smaller and neglected or bigger and…

Creating Islands of Hope and Possibilities

Pop-up library at Ummeed “Books are a doorway into imaginary worlds which help keep boredom away.” said a young neurodivergent person who frequents the pop-up library at Ummeed.  This space was created with the hope to create an environment that deconstructs the ideas of a typical library and provides a space for young people to…

Introducing the Gender Journal

Sometimes stories are destroyed, and sometimes they are never uttered in the first place; either way something very large is irrevocably missing from our collective histories. – Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House  Some stories remain unspoken, shrouded in layers of silence. And the stories we do hear about gender are often limiting and…

Map for times when Hopelessness Visits – Zine Launch

On 31st March, 2021, the Mental Health team at Ummeed Child Development Center launched a zine called ‘Map for times when The Hopelessness Visits’. It’s an activity document you can engage with to have conversations about hope and hopelessness in your work with people and communities or for times in your life when hopelessness visits….

Classrooms that center Students’ Expertise: Team Apni Shala

In our conversations with children and young people, for many of them, school is a space they have constant access to, that can help establish notions of what safety or a sense of belongingness feels like. Schools and classrooms are striving to be more nurturing and safer spaces for children, and the team at Apni…

#Throwback to Weaving our Voices, 2020 Pre-Conference Workshops

In what seems like a lifetime away, this time last year the conference team at Ummeed Child Development Center was gearing up for our Second International Narrative Conference – Weaving our Voices, 2020. It was six days of witnessing narrative ideas shape in diverse contexts, meeting our narrative community from across the country and the…

Love, Pleasure and Friendship: A Panel with Young People

Love, Pleasure and Friendship: A Panel with Young People Topic: Panel discussion on what does love, pleasure and friendship mean for young people with disabilities? Language: Hindi Panelists: – Darshana Ramgiri – Economics student, fashion blogger and content creator– Kavya – Cat mom, loves movies and draws sometimes– Sanket Gala – Student of TYBA Psychology,…

Love, Pleasure and Friendship: For Children and Young People with Disabilities

Back in September, 2020, we did a week-long conversation, events, workshop with caregivers on ‘love, pleasure and friendship’ for children and young people with disabilities. In this video, professionals working with children and young people with disabilities, their families and communities around them discuss why is it important to talk about love, pleasure and friendship…