The Impact GRIP Connect Is Making on Youth and Families Across Asia

In Singapore and much of Asia, mental health support still carries a certain stiffness. It can feel clinical, distant, or simply not built for the way young people actually communicate. At GRIP Connect, we've spent the past years trying to close that gap, using the stories, games, anime, and cultures that youth already care about as a way in.

This has taken many forms: manga journalling workshops, gaming competitions, anti-scam education for families and seniors, and AI literacy sessions and discussions with partners like Empire AI, Singapore Educators’ Network and Bamboo Builders. Below is a look at what we've done, what participants told us, and what we're building next.

Isekai'ed but Daijoubu Desu: Mental Resilience through Anime & Manga Arts Connections

Our workshop series "Isekai'ed but Daijoubu Desu" used the isekai genre, where characters wake up in a completely new world, as a way to get young people thinking about their own lives. If you were suddenly dropped into a new world, who would you choose to be? What would you want, and what's stopping you from having it now? These aren't abstract questions when you frame them through a story format teens already love.

The feedback from participants has been genuinely encouraging.

One participant said the workshop helped them realise something simple about themselves, that they're a laidback person by nature, and that this self-awareness made it easier to visualise their goals and see how far they still had to go.

Another described how personalised the session felt. It helped them understand their own goal more clearly, and it opened their eyes to how differently everyone around them dreams and wants things.

A third participant left with an actual and workable plan. They said writing their goals down made them easier to picture for the future, paired with a simple reminder: just try your best.

Others talked about learning how to pace themselves and stay flexible when goals shift, and about finding a space that felt safe enough to ask bigger questions like "how do I live my best life" and "how do I actually understand myself better."

We've carried this same energy into other formats too, including a Roblox competition paired with manga-style chat journalling, and one-on-one coaching for youth that blends ACG (anime, comics, games) with solution-focused coaching. Our focus has always been simple: We never ask young people to leave their world to get support. Rather, we bring the support into their world and guide them to better understand their goals and what they can do to achieve them.

Anti-Scam Workshops: Protecting Youth, Employees and Seniors alike

Scams don't only cost money. They leave people anxious, ashamed, and slower to trust again, whether it's a teenager scammed through a game marketplace or an elderly parent tricked over the phone. Our anti-scam workshops were built to address both the practical and emotional sides of this.

We've run these sessions with St Andrew's Family Services, supporting mothers and children, ISCA and Maybank for the white-collared, and with active ageing centres through our Bamboo Builders curriculum for seniors. These aren't just "spot the red flags" talks. We talk openly about the embarrassment and fear that often follow a scam, and we connect people to mental health support helplines when they need more than information.

This matters especially in our region, where scammers frequently target seniors precisely because they're assumed to be less digitally confident, and where younger users are targeted through gaming and social platforms they use daily. By running these workshops across generations, from students to grandparents, we're helping build a wider circle of protection, not just for individuals but for entire families. And we have successfully done so over the last few months.

AI Literacy with Empire AI: The Singapore Education Lounge, Workshops, and Roblox Coding

Generative AI and deepfakes are moving fast, and most educators and families haven't had a real chance to catch up. GRIP Connect co-hosted June's Singapore Education Lounge, a monthly in-person gathering with Empire AI and organised by the Singapore Education Network (SEN) for education professionals and youths to connect and exchange ideas. Founder of GRIP Connect, Ms Ivy, was one of the speakers at the June 2026 session, which brought together a panel to discuss "Human Before Technology: Ethical Guardrails for AI and Bullying in Schools," touching on student wellbeing, the pressures teachers face as everyday guardrails, and how schools can build ethical safeguards around AI use.

In a broader partnership with Empire AI, we have also focused on helping youth and educators build genuine AI literacy, not just awareness of the risks, but the confidence to use these tools cautiously. Last year, we also partnered with Empire AI on a Roblox coding initiative which was co-hosted by Bamboo Builders, giving young people a hands-on way to understand the systems behind the games they already play, along with the safety measures they need to take against digital scams, paired with a coding competition that let participants apply what they'd learned, including educating others and advocating safe gameplays. GRIP Connect’s students managed to win several of the awards such as Best Gameplay. Beyond the learning experience, the competition also gave participants a standout portfolio piece for STEM-focused school admissions and a channel to share their challenges and resolutions thoughtfully.

Across all of these formats, the goal isn't to scare people away from technology. It's to help them ask better questions when something online looks off, and to use these tools with a level head. For young people growing up surrounded by AI-generated content, this kind of literacy is becoming as basic as reading a timetable.

The method behind the work: Community-First x Solution-Focused Coaching

Manga wellness workshops with IHLs, parent coaching through RWA community, workplace programmes for institutional clients, goal-setting x sustainable crafts sessions, all of it runs on the same coaching approach: Solution-Focused coaching.

Instead of dwelling on what's wrong, this method helps people notice what's already working for them, get clear on what they actually want, and figure out small, doable steps toward it. It respects the person in front of us. We're not there to diagnose or lecture. We're there to ask the right questions and let people find their own answers, whether that person is a 15-year-old anime fan, a tired parent, or an office employee juggling work and relationship stress.

This is why the same underlying approach works across such different groups. The skill of helping someone define a goal and move toward it doesn't change much between a classroom and a boardroom.

An App for the quiet struggles and ACG arts community

Our coaching methodology is now shaping our next project, an app currently in pilot stage that helps people understand and track their own emotions, as well as be a part of a wider community of like-minded people.

At the centre of the app is GC Sensei, an AI chatbot built on solution-focused coaching evidence based models. To be clear about what this is and isn't: GC Sensei is not a replacement for a coach or therapist. It's a starting point, a way for someone to put words to what they're feeling before they're ready to talk to a person, and a signal to our coaches for when human support is needed.

We designed this app with anime and gaming communities in mind, but it's built for anyone. Across Asia, many people still hold back from seeking counselling, even where it's available. Social withdrawal, sometimes described as hikikomori in Japan, and quiet self-harm, which carries heavy stigma in places like Japan and Korea, both point to the same problem: people suffering in silence because reaching out still feels too exposed.

That's why the app includes a feature called Secret Realm, an anonymous space where users can share what they're going through. Usernames reset every 48 hours, so no one has to worry about being recognised. It's a place to be heard without being known, often the first real step toward accepting help.

Safety is built in from the start. A low mood indicator can prompt a human check-in before things escalate, whether the struggle is about relationships, unmet goals, or something harder to name. SOS numbers and support resources sit directly in the app too, so help is never more than a tap away.

As it's an art x wellness x community app, supporting mental health also means supporting the creative spaces where people express themselves in the first place by allowing them to upload arts, photos and even song covers.

The app is open for pilot partners now. Schools, community groups, family service centres, youth patients and counselling centres, and mentorship programmes are all welcome to reach out and test it with us.

Why does the work of GRIP Connect matter?

From a manga wellness workshop to a scam awareness talk for seniors to an AI literacy session, GRIP Connect keeps coming back to one idea: people deserve a safe space to understand themselves and work toward what they actually want, in a way that fits their culture and their world, not a generic one.

We've seen it show up in small but real moments. A teenager who finally had a clear plan for their goals. A mother who felt supported after a distressing scam. A senior who recognised a scam call before it caused harm. This is what impact looks like in practice. It’s a steady progress across a growing community.

If your organisation, school, or community group wants to bring mental health support or coaching, to the people you serve, or if you're interested in piloting our app, we'd love to hear from you. You can also fill up the form to be a part of our pilot test group. 

Follow GRIP Connect on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay updated on our programmes, workshops, partnerships, and the upcoming app launch.