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Youths invited to carry out year-long community projects to address municipal issues like noise, clutter

SINGAPORE — Young people aged 15 to 35 are invited to submit ideas to solve municipal issues such as corridor clutter, neighbourhood noise and irresponsible pet ownership, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) and National Youth Council (NYC) said on Friday (May 26).

A mural done by the team from ITE College West for the successful Commeownity public education campaign in the Love Our 'Hood Youth Challenge 2021.

A mural done by the team from ITE College West for the successful Commeownity public education campaign in the Love Our 'Hood Youth Challenge 2021.

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  • Young people aged 15 to 35 are invited to submit ideas to solve municipal issues such as corridor clutter, neighbourhood noise and irresponsible pet ownership
  • Youths will be mentored and provided with up to S$10,000 per project to pilot their ideas
  • Successful participants have a year to implement their projects
  • Participants will get to attend three "design thinking" workshops to understand the needs of the community and develop solutions to address municipal concerns

SINGAPORE — Young people aged 15 to 35 are invited to submit ideas to solve municipal issues such as corridor clutter, neighbourhood noise and irresponsible pet ownership, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) and National Youth Council (NYC) said on Friday (May 26).

In a joint statement, the agencies said youths will be mentored and provided with up to S$10,000 per project to pilot their ideas, which can include "public education campaigns, community outreach, production of collaterals, and behavioural insights interventions".

Successful participants have a year to implement their projects.

"They are also encouraged to consider scaling up or replicating successful projects that were deployed in previous challenges and have proven to be effective," said the agencies.

Launched in 2018, the challenge is co-organised by MSO and NYC and aims to encourage ground-up efforts by youths to build "a pleasant living environment and to promote positive social norms".

Since its launch, a total of S$275,000 has been awarded to 30 project teams for ideas that improve the community.

One example is the "Commeownity" public education campaign launched by a team from ITE College West to promote the responsible care of community cats.

The project featured a wall mural done by the team, as well as the installation of pillar wraps with educational messages in an area in Keat Hong where community cats were cared for.

The Commeownity public education campaign saw a team from ITE College West install pillar wraps with educational messages in an area in Keat Hong where community cats are cared for.

CHALLENGE FORMAT

Under a new challenge format, participants will get to attend three "design thinking" workshops to understand the needs of the community and develop solutions to address municipal concerns on the ground.

Past editions of the challenge held only one of such ideation workshops, which allowed participants to gain insight on the topic.

Following these workshops, teams will then pitch their projects to a panel of judges from MSO, NYC, the National Parks Board, as well as selected industry experts to obtain funding support for implementation, the statement said.

The challenge this year will address four key community issues:

  • Community noise: Participants are tasked to think of ways to encourage residents to be considerate towards one another and keep their noise levels down.
  • Responsible pet ownership: In this challenge, participants must consider how to raise awareness and knowledge of current and future pet owners to be considerate to others when taking their pets to shared public spaces.

  • Clutter-free corridors: Teams will be tasked with the challenge of how they might discourage residents from placing belongings such as plants or clothes drying racks in common areas and corridors, and encourage residents to keep these areas free of clutter.

  • Promoting awareness of municipal reporting tools: OneService (OS) channels such as OS Chatbot and OneService@LifeSG offer a one-stop platform for residents to report and track their feedback on municipal issues. Participants will have to think of ideas to raise awareness about the app among residents and encourage them to use these channels.

Registration for the challenge closes on July 2, 2023. Interested participants are encouraged to form teams with like-minded youths, but solo registrations are allowed as well, said the agencies.

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