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Resources, grants for volunteers with youth corps

SINGAPORE — The new volunteer youth corps hopes to attract young people who want to take a break from their studies to do community work, as well as those without any experience in volunteering.

Pertapis was a partner VWO for a 2008 project for the Computing for Voluntary Welfare Organisations (CVWO). Photo: CVWO website

Pertapis was a partner VWO for a 2008 project for the Computing for Voluntary Welfare Organisations (CVWO). Photo: CVWO website

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SINGAPORE — The new volunteer youth corps hopes to attract young people who want to take a break from their studies to do community work, as well as those without any experience in volunteering.

The volunteers will be provided with resources and grants to implement local and overseas projects, the National Youth Council (NYC) said yesterday as it announced more details of the corps.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the programme is expected to be implemented early next year and aims to support 6,000 volunteers annually. Funding for the youth corps will come from the National Youth Fund.

The setting up of the corps — aimed at giving young people more opportunities to be involved in community projects — was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his National Day Rally on Sunday

The programme will be open to students from the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics, universities and adults between 15 and 35 years old.

Upon completion of a project with the corps, a “pay-it-forward” grant will be provided to encourage youths to continue with community work and share their experiences with junior volunteers.

The programme will have two key components, one of which involves overseas community projects that are built on the existing Youth Expedition Project (YEP). The latter promotes volunteerism among youths by encouraging them to embark on community service-learning projects.

Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong said yesterday: “So over time, your existing YEP will be subsumed within the youth corps, it will be restructured, it will be more focused.”

The other component involves local community projects. “We will match youths to critical local community needs and enable them to make sustained and meaningful contributions,” the NYC said.

An initiative by the National University of Singapore’s computing students, Computing for Voluntary Welfare Organisations (CVWO), is an example of a local community project that the youth corps might be looking at.

The CVWO, which is supported by the youth fund this year, involves the development of an IT system to better manage the administrative tasks of voluntary welfare organisations.

Fresh graduate Jonathan Low, 26, the CVWO’s current President, said: “We face uncertainty every year when it comes to raising funds”. The club would be able to obtain a “source of sustained funding” if it were to join the youth corps, he added.

Mr Wong, who is also the NYC Chairman, said when it comes to contributing to the community, the feedback gathered from youths is that they “don’t always know how to go about doing so”. Hence, the NYC will work with several youth organisations to develop training and mentoring programmes for the youth corps members.

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